S. Divya, a B.com graduate and a resident of Naduvankarai Slum, spends every evening (from Monday to Friday) teaching over 40 school children from the slum located between Shanthi Colony and P. H. Road.
She is one of the four volunteers at the Anbin Oli Social Outreach Service Tuition Centre run by the Jerusalem Mar Thoma Church at Anna Nagar.
Although the church adopted the slum in June, the floods were the reason for them to take up the initiative more aggressively.
The tuition centre is the flagship programme of the church. Children are given lessons in various subjects for two hours with the church members serving as teacher-volunteers. An attendance register is also maintained.
“Though the children of class I to V went to Corporation Primary School, Naduvankarai, they didn’t know Tamil and English alphabets,” said Divya, who is looking for a job.
The volunteers help the students with their homework.
A. Rajamma Abraham, a volunteer at the Centre, said, “We also teach the students aspects of hygiene and moral values. Also, we distributed sanitation kits. The volunteers will continue to work with the community till they help children overcome the trauma caused by the floods.”
Ipe Job, convenor, Anbin Oli, said, “Post-floods, the children went through a lot of trauma. We conduct counselling, story-telling sessions and games for them.”
“We wanted to create a conducive environment for studying. After two months of attending these classes, the children have shown tremendous improvement,” Job and Divya, pointed out. The volunteers thanked Gracy Cherian, a member of the church, who has given a portion of her house to run the tuition centre. She does not charge anything for this.
For details, contact Ipe Job at 9566116031.
