Join as a Volunteer
We Are In It Together - DoorStep School Volunteering
DoorStep School is a grassroots NGO which provides education to construction workers’ children throughout Pune & Mumbai. DLRC has been affiliated with them ever since DLRC’s inception.
Springing out of a conversation between DLRC Co-Founder Mona Dalmia and DSS Founder Rajani Paranjape in June 2020, DLRC commenced a volunteer program to teach the DSS teachers basic English communication skills as part of a 6 month orientation program. Many DLRC students and parents volunteered for this and some students of DLRC became a part of the core coordination team as well. The success of the program is shown in the fact that an Alumni of the program and staff member of DSS, Sangita Patil, is the DSS coordinator for the DLRC-DSS program.
As the first lockdown was imposed, access to learning was severely impacted in schools catering to low income groups. i.e. the government schools. Having built a momentum and drive for volunteering in the DLRC Community, we rose to the occasion and continued the program online ensuring continued learning for govt. school students across Pune. Since then, our program has grown to include:
Science: Monday 5-6pm
Clay Work: Tuesday 5-6pm
Art: Wednesday 5:30-6:30
Mathematics: Thursday 5:30-6:30pm
Conversational English: Saturday 2:30-3:30pm
As a volunteer, the role is to assist students in successfully introducing themselves, teaching them grammar rules, and enabling fluent conversation skills. As a coordinator, the role is to enable the smooth running of the program by answering volunteer and other team members queries. Volunteers do step up sometimes to fill a peer’s shoes when they are sick or unable to attend.
This volunteer experience is quite enriching as it takes one back to their basic skills and not only refines them, but also allows one to teach it in the most basic way. We all enjoy working with the DSS teachers and students as they are extremely jolly and light hearted and determined to learn. In the words of a conversational English volunteer “We can only hope that one day our English will parallel their excellent Marathi skills (which we learn in turn by teaching them English).”
This is an excellent learning opportunity for the DLRC Community and DSS Community. We are all in it together & grateful for this two way learning curve of The DLRC-DSS Initiative.
If you are a government school teacher / student / volunteer wanting to join this initiative please call Kunal Ghodke at +91 82755 20274.
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DLRC Foundation Funded Sessions
Till November 2021 we ran Origami sessions for the students of Grade 5-8 from government schools - funded by DLRC Foundation and Facilitated by DLRC Tinkering Lab lead Shivaji Mane.