Making English Easy for Underprivileged Indian Kids by ‘Wordsworth’ Varsha Varghese

varsha_varghese_1

Varsha Varghese a young Indian woman saw that kids from low income homes in India struggle with learning English language lass and the kids from middle class and high class excel in the same. So Varsha thought of bridging this gap. With the aim of  empowering poor children, she started The WordsWorth Project.

varsha_varghese_

PC: facebook.com

Must Read Proving that a Brush is Mightier than Arms Anjali Chandrashekar

Boosting Confidence in Cancer Patients through Tangled Meera Sharma

Before starting the Wordsworth Project, Varsha’s life was a smooth and comfortable one. Born in Kerala, Varsha moved to Dubai with her parents where she studied in a reputed school. Varsha Varghese is the only child of her parents. She had always been a bright student and the president of her school’s student council. She led a privileged life. The harsh reality of Indian kids gave her a rude shock when she returned to India to pursue her graduation in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

WONDERFULWOMEN.IN

When she was in the first year of her college, Varsha Varghese realized she did not want to enter the corporate sector. She knew she would rather love working towards helping the needy people. To fulfill this dream she joined an NGO, Make a Difference, as a volunteer teacher and taught kids English over the weekends. But she wasn’t satisfied with this and wanted to make a bigger and better difference. Being a lover of reading books, language was the tool she identified as medium to a better life for these kids. When she noticed that underprivileged children found it difficult to understand the English language, she decided to help them.

varsha_varghese_2

PC: facebook.com

This was the beginning of The Wordsworth Project in 2014. This program was targeted to empower low-income group kids by improving their linguistic comprehension and learning.

“Language literacy is not only essential to function in society, but it also opens doors to magical worlds hidden within books. My co-founders Priyanka Roychoudhury and Rahul Sreekumar had their own reasons for being invested in it and a lot of our initial conversations got us closer to what the project is today” – Varsha Varghese

PC: facebook.com

The Wordsworth Project works by making enjoyable reading spaces accessible to underprivileged kids. The Wordsworth project currently operates from five places in the Indian capital Delhi—Shiksha Rath in North Campus, The Magic Room in Adarsh Nagar, the Manzil center in Khan Market, an independent space in South Extension, and the Aarohan center in Shahdara. These places are full of storybooks, where poor kids can come and read books either on their own or with the help of teaching volunteers, who also help the kids with grammar and comprehension.

varsha_varghese_.5jpg

PC: facebook.com

Teaching Volunteers of Wordsworth Project record the progress of each and every kid to evaluate the impact their efforts are making and make plans for future ahead accordingly. “Progress is slow. Sometimes getting a child to just learn the alphabet is a success story for us,” says Varsha. At present, the Wordsworth project works with 100 kids and has a team of 25 volunteers and nine core members.

varsha_varghese_.6

PC: facebook.com

Getting the spaces to operate and to execute the idea wasn’t difficult for Varsha and its other co-founders as they began the project when they were part of the Young India Fellowship. They wanted to find the right volunteers. Varsha says, “Any model with volunteers can be quite tricky. Most volunteers are college students who are constantly seeking new experiences and often do not continue with us beyond a year. So there is a need to consistently recreate the same teaching quality for the children with new sets of volunteers with every cycle.”

PC: facebook.com

Varsha Varghese wants to work in the space of urban primary education, and is preparing for it with a Master’s Degree in Developmental Studies. As far as the Wordsworth Project is concerned, she wants to do better in what she is already doing.

“True success would be when, in a few years, we would have other college students in other cities replicating our model, and also recreating elements of the project to suit their communities.” Varsha Varghese
Please follow and like us:

You might also like

Comments (10)

  • Annie Ch 3 years ago Reply

    I was searching these kind of article that attract me, it is really worth it, every blogger should tech with you
    Annie Ch recently posted…Yeh Teri Galiyan | 10th January 2019 EpisodeMy Profile

  • avelox moxifloxacino 3 years ago Reply

    Jed, աhich would certainly perform just about anything Sarah really wanted,
    particularly right noѡ, gladly went up as well as took a seat next to his ife and also todԀⅼer.

  • Howierxl 4 years ago Reply

    I am sure this post has touched all the internet users, its really
    really pleasant paragraph on building up new webpage.

  • momof3boyz1dog 4 years ago Reply

    Great goods from you, man. I’ve be mindful your stuff previous to and you’re simply too great. I really like what you’ve got here, certainly like what you’re stating and the way in which during which you are saying it. You’re making it entertaining and you continue to care for to stay it wise. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually a wonderful web site.

    deekshatripathi 4 years ago Reply

    Thanks a lot dear!

  • brettysmail 4 years ago Reply

    Everyone loves it whenever people get together and share
    thoughts. Great blog, stick with it!

  • rdrance 4 years ago Reply

    Attractive element of content. I simply stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to
    say that I get actually enjoyed account your weblog posts.
    Any way I will be subscribing in your feeds or even I achievement you get admission to constantly
    fast.

  • Emdawgx 4 years ago Reply

    It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most
    certainly donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll
    settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed
    to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook group.
    Talk soon!

    deekshatripathi 4 years ago Reply

    Thanks for your suggestion dear!

  • kaanda 4 years ago Reply

    I have been browsing online more than 3 hours these days,
    but I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours.

    It is lovely value sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content
    as you probably did, the net might be a lot more
    helpful than ever before.

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)

Facebook
Facebook
fb-share-icon
Twitter
Visit Us
Follow Me
Tweet
Pinterest
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
Instagram