March 3, 2008 – Tamil Nadu, India

The George Foundation – Shanti Bhavan

This past week has been my favourite so far. It’s been excessively hectic, but I suppose that’s my preferred work environment for the most part anyway.

I was given permission to start a little film class with the grade 8’s who were interested – all 14 were – as soon as they’d finished with Sports Day (last Saturday). Saturday evening we met up and began what will hopefully become ‘A Day in the Life at Shanti Bhavan’. It seemed like a good idea because we wouldn’t have a lot of time and it’s a subject they know a lot about, so we wouldn’t need to get into major research or anything. A good start for the basics, or so I thought.

I had no idea how much I’ve learned over the years until I tried to teach it to 14 kids in a week. There’s a lot to know and now there’s a lot of wobbly, maniacally in & out zooming and non-level footage. I suppose that’s how one learns, and that said, they were actually pretty good and really fast learners. A couple even had a good eye for composition, which I was particularly impressed with given that they’ve barely ever so much as touched a stills camera, let alone a video camera.

I divided them into pairs and each group took on a couple of topics from the general list of ideas we’d come up with. With 7 groups and 2-4 topics per group, not to mention the rigid daily schedule for each child to begin with, it meant that every spare moment of my time was spent filming. It was fabulous. And while I may have 16 tapes of footage to go through now, I’m really pleased I had the chance to work with them in an area I love. It makes a huge difference. Geography and Environmental Education and all that was interesting, but this proved to be a way to really get to know a bit more about the kids, and about Shanti Bhavan in general.

The more I learn about this place, the more I want to come back and be more involved with it in some way or other. It’s goals are simple, but impressive - the highest level of education possible in India, and for below-poverty-line children. The theory being, according to Dr. George’s book (the founder of ‘The George Foundation’, of which Shanti Bhavan is a part of), that ‘literacy as a goal is a meaningless concept if these people are destined to live and die in abject poverty.’ (p.42, Abraham George - India Untouched). From my understanding, the idea is that by providing children with a well-rounded, balanced education and general lifestyle, Shanti Bhavan is hoping to help them help themselves, their families, and their villages out of the destitution they’ve been constricted with since birth.

On our last day we went to visit one of the other projects The George Foundation has undertaken, Dr. George having taken on a number of projects in order to further his idea that ‘The real solutions lie in establishing good public governance, building strong human foundations through education and health care, creating economic opportunity, and ensuring social justice for all.’ (Pg 34-35, Abraham George – India Untouched). The project we visited was the Baldev Medical Centre, a medical institution which uses a computer programme who’s creation was instigated by Dr. George. Again, from my understanding, the programme was created to bridge the immense gap between available doctors and patients needing care. The programme is designed to be used by a trained operator, who with a series of questions and answers can narrow down with a relatively high degree of accuracy what and how serious the patient’s complaints are. This way, the few hours that the available doctor spends at the clinic are spent fruitfully, with the basics already gathered and only specialized attention needed. The system, titled EDPS, also stores the information permanently so that the patient’s medical history is always available on file.

We had an amazing impromptu tour of the medical centre, with a detailed explanation of all the work they do. I wish we’d asked to see it earlier because it then turned out that there’s a school of journalism and new media also run by The George Foundation, which we hadn’t realized we’d be allowed to visit. Maybe next time. Evy and I are already hoping to come back, and maybe bring Al or anyone else who’s interested along! We highly recommend it.