Khan Zahida Shanawaz – Pratham Maharasthra
Zahida has learnt a lot from Pratham. Now she has an identity of her own.  She is happy that she can do things on her own capability. Earlier she was scared of even stepping out of her home to do something by herself.

When she joined Pratham, she was as nervous as the children, she was supposed to teach. With a good guidance and support from the Trainer and Monitor, she could become a good teacher. She feels proud of herself, when the children call her their teacher. Even the  parents respect her.

She is happy that she is a part of the Pratham and is able to teach children with Pratham’s continuous training and guidance.

LAJO SHARMA
Applying knowledge to life
When Lajos parents forbade her to go to school, even confiscated her shoes, this "jiddi" (adamant) eleven-year old did not settle for drudgery by the Chulha like other girls her age in her village in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. Instead, Lajo borrowed a pair of shoes, ran all the way to the Panchayat School, and studied right up to class Tenth.

It is this very spirit and determination that has helped Lajo battle with the odds and survive. Married into a family where her hard-earned matriculation degree was not "good enough" for its Doha-bound members, the 15-year old bride was asked to fetch between 10-20 ghadas of water from a far-off well, pick up gobar, and wash, cook and clean for the entire family every day. A year later, her first son was born, and a daughter the next. She was only 17. She then decided not to become, as she says, a "muft ki naukarani" (free servant) in her sasuraal (in-laws place), and was unwilling to allow her children to grow up within such conditions. It was a tough decision, given that support from her husband who worked in Delhi and visited as and when government holidays permitted, was negligible.

Very ill after the delivery of her third child, Lajo was sent to Delhi for treatment in 1984. Within months of her arrival in Delhi, her husband lost his job and the family was faced with eviction from their Karol Bagh flat. Never a quitter, Lajo took out her knitting needles and helped pay for both the rent and food with the sweaters, frocks, and the crochet-covers she made in her bed-ridden condition. And the times when she did not earn enough for a meal and help from family was not forthcoming, her neighbours chipped in with daal/roti (simple food), and lots of goodwill. Three years of stress, hard-work and poor diet took their toll and Lajo found herself being treated for depression and a near nervous breakdown in Dr. R.K. Guptas clinic in Rishikesh.

Once she recuperated, she returned to Delhi, taught herself Hindi, revised what she had learnt in school, and began tuitions at home. By this time, her husband had got a job with M.T.N.L. and they had bought their own "pucca" (permanent) house in Trilokpuri with the money they got after having sold Lajos jewellery. Nothing stopped her from pursuing her dreams and she never thought of returning to Himachal despite all the difficulties.

In 1991 she joined Nehru Bal Samiti as volunteer, and worked with them till 1999 in the adult and non-formal education project in the Kichdipur area in Trilokpuri. She also worked with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi sponsored India Population Project as "Basti Sewika" (community worker) for two years between 1997 to 1999. Lajo believes these eight years made her aware of the need to make education more relevant, school less tyrannical, and learning more fun.

When Lajos friends told her about the Pratham Education Initiative beginning a Delhi chapter, she was initially reluctant to join, as she was happy working with the Nehru Bal Samiti. After speaking to Saurabh and Vishal, she decided to come after work and spend some time in the Balwadi training programme. A month and half later she joined the Pratham team on September 1st, 1999, taking head on, what she terms, "challenge waala kaam" (challenging work). As Balwadi teacher she managed to recruit 30 girls for the teacher-training programme within six days.

As a Bridge Class Area Head, Lajo studied the feasibility of a Bridge Course programme for out-of-school children in Trilokpuri, and took on the additional responsibility of recruiting Balsakhis when Pratham Delhi decided to begin a Balsakhi programme. She took the initiative to meet headmistresses of the 19 M.C.D. schools in Trilokpuri, and one in Kanti Nagar and sent her girls to implement what they had learnt.

Past experience with D.I.E.T. and with Nehru Bal Samiti, came handy when between August and November 2000, Lajo, single-handedly devised a curriculum for the Balsakhi programme in Rani Garden, Trilokpuri, Kalyanpuri, and Mustafabad. She used Rajma (red beans), Matchsticks, even stones, to teach basic concepts in Math. As Bridge Class and Balsakhi programme head, she trained approximately 400 teachers that year and the next, and worked towards expanding her "friends circle". Today, she is a well-known face in each of the 200 schools in South Shahadra; the respect she has earned and the goodwill she has generated stands Pratham Delhi in good stead till date! She is now the Balsakhi School Approach Zonal Head, and is handling the School Approach programme begun in June this year in Seemapuri and Nandnagri.

What she likes most about working with Pratham is the freedom to conceptualise curriculum, independently work upon her ideas, and of course, the "khattey-meethe anubhav" (sweet and sour experiences).

Lajo believes "discipline with pyaar (love)" must replace "anushasan" (discipline) within the four walls of school. She believes winning childrens trust is the first step towards getting their attention. The next step is encouraging their love of learning, asking them to constantly question and analyse, and to apply knowledge to life. To make school less boring and alien, she has come up with innovative methods to teach. Math is taught through rotis (bread) and matchsticks, History through songs and poems, Science through experiments, English through conversation…the idea is to make the essential connection between the childs personal life and academia. She believes in simplifying teaching methods, and always encourages teachers during training to discard the idea that there is only one correct way, and to always explore the ten other possible methods of teaching, be it with flash cards or storytelling or painting or songs.
Every day she brings back to the fold, "bhatke bacche" (truants/delinquents) and teaches them to share her faith in education as the means to a better future. She adds however, that despite her hard-won independence and self-reliance, she can never forget the claustrophobia of "purdah" the "atyachar" (exploitation) in her in-laws house. Today Hamirpur District sends all its children to school, and girls, who were in Lajos time married off while only in class 5, now take their XIIth boards. Her elder son, a Pusa Institute graduate in Hotel Management is a chef in T.G.I.F; her daughter has joined college this year and is doing an N.I.I.T course; her younger son will be taking the XIIth Boards this year; and Lajo is looking forward to training more teachers because she believes that money is not half as important as nurturing children with ones inner capabilities. "Apni kshamta se bacchon ke madat karo" (applying ability to help children), is the message she hopes to popularise.

Sarita and Sandhya, Pratham AP
Both Sarita and Sandhya have been with Pratham Hyderabad for 2 years now, though both of them started from being "Learning to Read" components volunteers and subsequently due to their hard work were promoted to handling a greater responsibility of being Team Monitors and Resource Persons for the DIRECT programme. Remembering their volunteer days, they highlight the aspects of the training they went through which included multi-grade teaching tips, suggestions about using teaching aids like story books, tables, charts etc and also how they were advised to employ friendly play way methods of teaching and serious teaching methodology alternately in their classrooms. Now being at leadership roles in the organization, they highlight that the position has enabled them to interact with different people on face to face basis, have removed their fright of talking on stage in front of a large audience, given them the communicative skills to interact with government school teachers and also given them self-assurance about talking confidently to members of the opposite sex. They exclaim that even though they are not highly educated, the processes within Pratham have given them the capacity to learn not just from a bookish source but also from the stark realities of society. Both Sarita and Sandhya are happy about the fact that their families while seeing other peer group girls in their community working have given them the permission and support to work as well. They both have a dream of getting higher promotions within Pratham in order to enhance the happiness that they get from small gestures of children like the celebration that the children indulge in by saying, "Teacher aa gayi, Teacher aa gayi!" (Teacher has come, Teacher has come!) on seeing them even from a huge distance when they go for field visits in a communities.

Vaishnavi Chikale
From Cricket to Computer Aided Learning, Vaishanvi Chikhale has undergone a big transformation. And guess what, she has no regrets! Vaishanvi 35, maiden name Suchita Khedekar, was a passionate cricketer since childhood. Throughout school and college, she devoted all her time and energy to it – be it early morning net practice at Sporting Union Club or friendly matches with both the sexes. She was a part of Bombay Women’s Cricket Team.

Vaishali however could not pursue her cricketing dreams – she had to shoulder the financial responsibilities of her family. She took up a fulltime a job the company she worked in closed down.

Vaishanvi was recruited by Pratham as a Sancharak (computer trainer for children) following a one-month training. It was a whole new world for her, but she coped so well that in one year she was the favorite Sancharak of all the students as well as looked upon with affection and respect by the entire school staff. In such a short span, she was also offered promotion to become Team Leader. But Vaishanvi decided that she wanted to spend some more time with the school and the children for whom, she had become irreplaceable. When promoted as Team Leader, she coordinated with 8 schools of Mumbai with a total of 8000 children. From Team Leader, she was made the All – India Training Team Member where she was responsible for training all the new Sancharaks recruited in the program who in turn would be responsible for training more than 1 lakh children across different states.

Vaishanvi feels very passionate today about reaching out to the children of India – in rural and urban areas – with IT education. She herself strives to continuously update her computer knowledge. She thanks Pratham InfoTech and all her colleagues for their support and cooperation without which she feels that she wouldn’t have been able to achieve what she has today. Vaishanvi is loved by everyone wherever she goes and sets a good example of how to take life with what it offers and make the most of it!