India calling

Tags: blog | India

India conjures up images of mystery and intrigue that have enticed explorers of all kinds to its shores over the years.  Our intrepid blogger Frank Fallon is one of the current generation of explorers.  Working as a Platform2 volunteer teaching English and Maths to children in Palampur, he has had to contend with poisonous snakes, India's infamous traffic chaos and getting chased by monkeys while out jogging.  Frank is working on the Kandi Drognu project in the remote Himachal Pradesh region of North India where 80% of people in the region exist on less than a $1 a day.

Aside from his teaching role Frank is also helping to work on a development project in the afternoons, involving planting, construction and helping to empower local women.  Children and young people in rural India have a very different experience from those in England.  In a dusty garage cum schoolroom perched atop a rock-face children wait their turn to be taught as there is only one teacher for every five classes.  Despite these set-backs most children are able to speak English by the age of 10; that is before most people in the UK even start learning a second language!

The 46 platform2 volunteers come from many backgrounds and all have had problems of one kind or another in their lives.  Frank has found it to be a tough but rewarding experience:

‘I myself am enjoying all the new people and enjoy the groups that are starting to appear so I can jump from one to another and enjoy different jokes, experiences, stories and so on. I am finding it hard to be out here and missing the normal things and still trying to help others when they are down. I'm sure it will make me that little bit stronger etc!'

The positive impact from volunteering and from seeing young people growing up in another culture is clear from Frank's blog articles.

‘Around the house all the young local children invite us everywhere they go, to swim, to play football, they invite us back to their house for water and biscuits and call us their friends and learn our names. It's really good!'

You can catch up with Frank's adventures through his myplace blog on the support website. Link here

Find out more about Platform2 here: http://www.myplatform2.com/home