A volunteering initiative by the Essar Foundation enabled seven young MBA students
to work with a group of tribal teachers in the interiors of Wadi at Dahanu,
Maharashtra. The students were from the Indian Education Society (IES) Institute
of Management in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and are participating in several volunteering
initiatives organized by the Essar Foundation as a part of their curriculum
of social inclusion and corporate citizenship. This initiative was one of Essar
Foundation's consistent attempts at imparting skill training and capacity
building to teachers in rural schools to help build a a "learning India."
On August 25, the seven students spent the day at a tribal school called the Tamarind Tree at Sogvepatil Pada Wadi, to work with the teachers there. The school has about 130 tribal children from the Warli community and is perhaps the only one in the area to provide early childhood education. The school itself is unique, with open classrooms amidst thick chikoo (sapodilla) shrubs, and the teachers are young boys and girls from the community.
The workshop was aimed at helping the teachers get rid of inhibitions and making teaching fun through stories and other interactive tools such as puppetry, story-telling and the use of toys.
Tamarind Tree believes in preserving the community's tribal identity and at the same time providing quality education. Bearing this in mind, the management students used Warli folklore as educational tools by depicting them in a puppet show.
