Child's World Participant Profiles

Ms Dilbur Parakh

Ms Dilbur Parakh was practising law in the field of human rights when she heard about Sri Atmananda Memorial School and the KPM Approach to Children. While she had no teaching experience, her human rights work often involved children, and she was interested in shifting her focus entirely to children and children's issues. She had helped found Aseema, a non-governmental organization whose mandate is to protect and promote human rights, especially those of women and children. Ms. Parakh spent a month at the KPM model school, immersed in the children's activities. Within a year of her experience, Aseema, under Ms Parakh's leadership, opened the Centre for Street Children in Mumbai, dedicated to the educational rights of marginalized children. Thirty-five children, whose families live in a pavement community on the streets of a Mumbai suburb, are enrolled at the Centre. The teaching approach used at the Centre is based upon Ms. Parakh's experience with the KPM Approach to Children. A brochure for the Centre states that, “At the Centre, where the children interact on a daily basis with teachers who are dedicated to their well-being, who show concern for their thoughts and feelings, who care about them, the children learn an important lesson. They learn that they matter. The knowledge that they are valued is one of the most empowering gifts that we can give the children.” Ms. Parakh noted in a letter to the charitable foundation that supports the KPM model school that “it is really that special relationship with the students that makes all the difference and I can't tell you how much doing the training at your school has helped me in our Centre.”

Ms Sneha Suchde

Ms Sneha Suchde was a student of architecture in Mumbai when she attended Child's World. She was searching for a topic for her final year project when she saw a videotape about Sri Atmananda Memorial School, which she said inspired her to choose primary education for her project. She visited the school for a week as part of the research component of her project, the second part of which would be to propose an architectural manifestation for the research. Through Child's World, she experienced a school in which establishing a secure and open environment is central to the child's education. “I think the most significant thing I learned,” she said, “is that it's possible to have a happy environment all around us, and that such an atmosphere works wonders…. The children gave me so much love, and I guess that's a result of the education they receive.”