Malahide cricketer returns from India

As some of you know I was away with an Irish charity organisation called Suas as part of their Volunteer Programme. Founded in 2002, Suas Educational Development is a movement dedicated to supporting quality education in targeted under-resourced communities, with programmes in India, Ireland and Kenya. They are committed to helping individuals fulfil their potential and play meaningful roles in shaping our world. Suas is secular and is a registered charity (CHY 14931). Normally, Suas sends volunteers to both India and Kenya.

However because of the recent trouble in Kenya at the beginning of this year it was not possible to send volunteers over this year. As result, eighty volunteers were sent to India working with six different partners, three in Kolkata and three in Delhi. The partners in Delhi were Prayas Lal, Neta and Prayas Hara. The partners in Kolkata were Sabuj Sangha, DAS and Shika. I was working with Sabuj Sangha. Sabuj Sangha is a community-based development agency, which specialises in rural development, women’s empowerment and education.

Currently working with a community of over 100,000; its activities range from agricultural training for rural farmers to child protection services in suburban Kolkata. Suas’ support for Sabuj Sangha has focused on their railway education project – where they provide pre-primary schools to children based around suburban railway stations. These projects aim to mainstream local children, aged between 4 and 7, into the mainstream system. They also provide a number of coaching centres for their mainstreamed students. Overall the whole summer was an amazing experience. I enjoyed every minute I spent both in school and in the city of Kolkata.

The people are incredibly friendly and appreciative of the work we were doing. A typical day for me was getting up at 8am for a shower and breakfast and then a ten minute walk to the train station. The school I was working in was the furthest away and took an hour and a half on the train. The train was one of the most challenging aspects of the summer as they are overcrowded and dirty. However after a few weeks we got used to it and it was difficult to tell us apart from the locals. School started at 11am and was over at 3pm.

During this time the children are taught Bengali for an hour, English for an hour and the about twenty minutes of rhymes. At 1.30 they take their lunch break which generally consisted of us playing with and entertaining the children. The children are so well mannered and affectionate that it hard not to enjoy every minute you spend with them. At 2 o ‘clock it was back to work with English maths for 30 minutes and Bengali maths for 30 minutes.

Once a week after school we would go on home visits. The purpose of home visits is to check up on any children who have been absent from school and also just to make sure there are no problems in the community. Home visits were one of my favourite things. People were so welcoming into their homes and it gave an incredible insight into their lives. Whenever we didn’t go on home visits I would generally head straight to Champahati after school whenever possible. This was another 30 minute train journey followed by an always eventful 40 minute tuc-tuc journey. From 4.30 we would play either football or cricket for an hour.

As I said this is the only opportunity for the children to get out during the day so they were always very happy to be out playing. I would head home after this and would generally get home around 7pm. The evenings were usually spent making Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) for the next day in school. Although the days were sometimes long and tiring, they were always extremely enjoyable and I loved every minute I spent in school. The Leinster Cricket Union kindly donated two cricket sets for my trip.

 Ideally I would have liked to donate one of the sets to the school I was working but unfortunately the children were quite young and there weren’t really the facilities to play cricket. Instead I gave one of the sets to a Shika school in Taratala which had amble room to play. Fortunately I had the opportunity to visit this school twice and from my visits it was obvious the joy the children get from playing cricket or any sport for that matter. The children played every day possible depending on the weather. I was recently told that when asked whether she liked the volunteers, one of the girls from this school replied; “I love the volunteers, before they came I had never held a cricket bat and now I play almost every day.”

I gave the other set to one of the Sabuj Sangha centres. Allor Disha is the urban unit of Sabuj Sangha and their office is based in Champahati. Above the office there is a school for child labourers and also a residential unit. The children in the residential unit are there either because they are orphans or the families couldn’t support them. The children sleep, eat and attend school in this building so unfortunately the only opportunity they get to go outside is during play time which is an hour each day. The children in this centre are truly incredible.

They are so well mannered and have such amazing energy that it’s hard not to enjoy every minute you spend with them. Whenever it was possible I brought them out and did various drills and played matches with them. Unfortunately due to it being monsoon season it wasn’t possible to bring them out as often as I would have liked but I am sure that the set with get full use when the weather improves.

 I’m aware Leinster are arranging a coaching trip in December to Mumbai for 8 young cricketers as part of their ongoing development plans. I’m sure they will find the trip very beneficial and will act as an eye-opener for the different lifestyles that exist in India.

Cathal Elder Malahide Cricket Club