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Contact One!

112 Garland Cresent
Sherwood Park, Alberta
Canada T8A 2R2

Phone: (780) 467-6254
Email: OneMumbai1@aol.com

Sangeeta's Story

Sangeeta’s story is a sad one, but at the same time inspirational. She is a seven year old girl born to a garlic seller and his wife, Manju. She is the oldest of five Children.

Being the oldest, Sangeeta is given many responsibilities...TOO many. More often than not, her parents are gone working all day, trying to make enough money to feed the children, thus leaving Sangeeta behind to take care of her brothers. She feeds them, bathes them, entertains them, and stops them from crying. She cooks meals, washes dishes, and washes clothes. Don’t forget, she is only seven!

When One! First started working with Sangeeta at the beginning of this month, she was always present in class. We were a little worried about her learning speed, but that turned out to be unwarranted concern. Right now (only three and a half weeks after the first class), Sangeeta is showing the other children what hard work can do and giving them a challenge. She is proficient with all of the Devangari script and has shown major improvements in her writing skills.

Sangeeta clearly has a thirst for learning, and One! Hopes to cultivate this as much as possible. If anything gets in her way, it will be her undo responsibilities. Hopefully we can find a way to help the family and allow Sangeeta to reach her potential!

Sangeeta never stops smiling - something we all can learn from!!

This is Sangeeta being ‘mom’. The clothes are piled up for washing as she finishes cleaning the dishes. She is also keeping a watchful eye on her brothers in the background.

Teaching and Making Smiles!
This is such a perfect title for this article, because as it turned out, it is all we did: make a whole lot of smiles through teaching, and make a whole lot more smiles on the side! One! classes began on May 7th. We weren’t sure what to teach at first but quickly decided on the Devangari script, the alphabet for the national language Hindi. We decided on this because it will work toward literacy and it is something that none of the children have had a chance to learn before, thus putting all of the children at the same level despite their age differences. The children were very enthusiastic. They have never really had the chance to learn and definitely not seen how fun it can be. We played games with flashcards and competitions as to who remembered the most. Day by day, the attendance in class increased and became more and more consistent.		Our first ‘fieldtrip’ was on May 19th, two weeks after the beginning of classes. There was a little bit more incentive for the students to come to class now that they knew that they were going to get to go to Juhu Beach, but a little bribery never hurt anyone! The fieldtrip was absolutely incredible. Pallavi, Smita and I couldn’t have been happier, spending time with the kids and watching their smiles grow bigger and bigger! We went on rides, played in the waves and in the sand, had ‘pav bhaji’ (a Mumbai speciality) for dinner, and of course had to finish the day off with ice cream cones! This marked the beginning of the tradition of fieldtrips every Saturday - be it just down the street or halfway across the city.		The second fieldtrip was even more special. We just went two minutes down the road to play games. The whole day cost less than $3, but made the children just as happy. We realized that they needed our love and our time more than anything! The children have learned quickly (mastering the majority of the script), and even more importantly have developed a desire for education and growth, and gained pride in themselves and their abilities!

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