We began working on project matters today. After an unfortunate delay in transit to India, Victor (Vik) made it to Hyderabad, and we received Hugo and Nadine from the railway station. Immediately following their arrival, we headed to the Press Club venue, where we hosted a Press Conference. Approximately 30 individuals were in attendance from various news media outlets, including prominent newspapers such as Times of India, and television stations such as ETV. The slew of videocameras in our faces and flashing camera lights were overwhelming, but once we began discussing the Sanjeevani Project and its progression, the anxiety quickly subsided. Reporters seemed extremely interested in our presentation, and came forward to ask multiple questions. We believe the media attention will be quite helpful in establishing a connection between the project in the US and in Andhra Pradesh, and will raise awareness of our purpose for these next six weeks.
After a long day, we finally ended our night in a cafe, where we brainstormed various important aspects of the tasks we must accomplish while in India. Beginning tomorrow, we are planning to travel to many secondary schools with a common background as our initiative. We gathered a comprehensive list of issues to address while visiting each school, and hope this will raise our personal awareness of certain project aspects which we have yet to completely comprehend. We also believe the best method to assessing needs of our future school is to obtain a private school experience (to some extent) while in India. We will not only interview school administration, but also shadow elementary and secondary school students in different schools. We hope this will give us insight into the most effective teaching methods, valuable added courses to the set state curriculum, and a chance to improve our sustainability model.
More updates soon! We will try to update every few days.
Abhita
