Young children in Bengaluru and Chennai look forward to Friday afternoons because it’s time to listen to a story told animatedly by someone from Turkey, the U.K. or U.S.A. Many of the kids come from broken and impoverished homes and the stories offer a window to a very different world. Harnessing simple technology and the universal appeal of listening to stories, Bengaluru-based CaNTrust has created a “storytelling cloud”.
Over the last 12 months that the project has been running in the two cities, over 21 storytelling volunteers have come on board from the U.K., U.S.A., Dubai, Turkey, Czech Republic, Romania and of course, India, to spare their time and share their stories over Skype.
Manoj Kabre, who started the trust three years ago, did so with the simple thought of giving back to society.
“We are a trust of 11 like-minded people from the corporate world. We were clear that we wanted to focus on children because they are our future. While initially we tied up with another organisation to set up playground equipment in government schools, we were keen on taking on a project that will enrich their minds,” says Kabre, who is a sales and marketing VP in an MNC in his other life. Ten years ago he had seen Sugata Mitra’s “Granny Cloud” venture where grandmothers in the U.K. gave one hour of their time to tell stories to children in remote areas of Tamil Nadu.
“And I always kept wondering why this hadn’t caught on, considering it’s a wonderful and unusual medium of education, through which value can be driven into children. Every one loves stories.”
An extensive traveller, he pitches for his cause on the go. “People abroad are always willing to give time for children in India, specially for a cause like this.”
In Bengaluru, the Trust has tied up with a school in K.R. Puram, Shishu Mandir, which provides free education to children from impoverished families, specially kids from broken homes. Anand .C, director of Shishu Mandir, says he’s seen a sea of change among his students after storytelling was incorporated into the children’s curriculum. “To begin with, their vocabulary has grown; their pronunciation and intonation has improved. The children are more alert, and it as broadened their minds. Not just their language and listening skills, their interactive and communication skills have improved. Today’s jobs require all these so our children are getting prepared in a way.”
He says that children are also reading more and telling each other stories, ever since this programme started. In Chennai they work with Sevalaya.
Kabre says the only criteria that they insist on is that children should learn something from the stories, or they should be moral or value-based. “We started off with sessions once a week and now we organise them thrice a week. We hope to soon spread out to 50 schools and are looking for volunteers to tell stories too. The whole set up is offered free to the school; we can even donate dongles for connectivity. We are trying to tie up to provide solar-power-run projectors.”
Homemaker Shanthi Krishnan, 52, always loved working with children and had earlier taken Bhagvadgita classes. When her neighbour Jagadeesh Patil, one of the trustees at CaNTrust proposed the storytelling idea, she was apprehensive because she was not confident about telling stories across a computer, she says.
“But Jagdish and my son helped set up everything on my laptop and I became familiar with the idea. First I thought that this was just a pleasant distraction for the kids. But now I see them so absorbed and involved in the story I’m telling. They get bored if you tell them moral stories all the time, so I tell them fairytales, stories from the Panchatantra…It’s a great way to expose them to different cultures. Now they each have their own opinions and answers when I ask them questions about the stories. They want to take part!”
To volunteer, check www.cantrust.org.in or mail manojkabre@gmail.com
