Volunteering

E-Vidyaloka

I volunteer a few hours per week to eVidyaloka, a non-profit connecting with volunteers to teach rural Indian kids. This year, I am mentoring two kids. One is an urban kid from a private and well-equipped school in Bangalore, Karnataka. The other is a rural kid from a government school in Chachgura village in Ranchi, Jharkhand. My role is to embrace their contrasting backgrounds and mentor them to select one of the following global challenges defined by the United Nations and develop a solution.

🌟 National Student Innovation Challenge (2020 - 2021) results

Our team is selected in top 12 finalists. Finalist NSIC 2021 Declared The United Nations global challenges 1. No Poverty 2. No Hunger 3. Good Health 4. Quality Education 5. Gender Equality 6. Clean Water and Sanitization 7. Renewable Energy 8. Good Jobs and Economic Growth 9. Innovation and Infrastructure 10. Reduced Inequalities 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities 12. Consumption 13. Climate Action 14. Life Below Water 15. Life on Land 16. Peace and Justice 17. Partnerships for the Goals 18. The Global Goals for Sustainable Development 19. Technology 20. Preserve Local Occupation, Art and Culture

Both of them chose to work on Quality Education and Technology.

Every week there are two online sessions via Google Meet. The urban kid already has access to the internet. The rural kid is assigned an eVidyaloka coordinator who provides him a laptop with internet access for a few hours every week to attend these sessions. The urban kid is fluent in English and his native language Kannada while the rural kid is fluent in Hindi and his own native language Bhojpuri. I am bilingual and can speak, read, and write Hindi and English; I employ this skill to remove the communication barrier and teach in their chosen languages. In each session, three of us meet and discuss topics of interest in technology. They ask many good questions, and I explain to them using either videos, illustrations, slides, and text notes. After every session, the tasks are split fairly among both. The rural kid does not have a computer or internet; he takes the responsibility of sketching the concepts or a topic (he is really good at drawing) and writes the details in Hindi. The urban kid takes up the computational tasks because he is fast and efficient in the tools. The urban kid also takes the responsibility to integrate the work to be utilized in the project.

• Since the urban kid is far ahead in his knowledge and resources than the rural kid, my initial challenge was to figure out how do we build a project where the urban kid feels intellectually challenged. The rural kid gets the motivation to learn something he never learned before. • The internet in the rural areas is not great, so the videos are not very clear. • I learned how to initiate a talk about things other than the project, which helped them open up and build a relationship. Initially, they were scared.

They are working to develop an app that contains computer fundamentals and concepts from computer science. It serves the children from communities with minimal mobile internet at their home in the villages. They can access the app using their browser with zero installation and learn the core concepts not taught at their schools. Usually, Indian village households have one mobile at home with a slow 3G cellular network, which this app can leverage. It is free to use and is free from ads. I explain every concept in English and Hindi with hand-sketched illustrations from these kids. The reason for choosing Hindi is because it is an official language and has a broader audience. Here is the quick demo of the application developed

You can visit E-Vidyaloka website and find multiple volunteer opportunities to teach the rural kids in small Indian villages and help them thrive. The goal is to have an equal learning opportunity for all kids.