This past weekend, I traveled with Wayne and Noah (the other Friendly Water team members) to the rural village of Manjakuddi. We went to see the work of and stay with Shanthi Ranganathan, a social worker who has received accolades including UN Civil Society Award and India’s fourth-highest civilian award for her contributions to society. She has dedicated her life to working constantly towards making a difference, and even at 70 years old, she is constantly running around with various projects.
She does a lot of work in the realm of alcohol addiction therapy and works with the Swami Dayananda Saraswati Educational Society to transform education opportunities in Manjakuddi. Friendly Water has worked with her to bring our filters to her school and into the curriculum of the vocational program, and we have also received support for our work at Gandhigram from her family and their foundation.
The school at Manjakuddi, with Shanthi’s guidance as well as the dedication of many passionate village members or outside educators, is a fully-equipped facility for rural children from kindergarten through post-graduate studies, should they desire. This school is on par or more progressive than many urban schools in India. They emphasize a holistic education and teach kids music, karate, debate, sports, etc. They insist on colorful classrooms and hands on learning, especially for the youngest children. The university, with its impressive computer labs and science labs, keeps successful students from feeling forced to abandon their village to pursue their education in big cities and gives students who can’t or don’t want to leave opportunities in Manjakuddi itself. Many girls aren’t allowed to leave their families in pursuit of higher education, but with good higher-ed opportunities in Manjakuddi itself, this opens new doors. If we are talking about the education system in India, or the US for that matter, I have many thoughts. But with the immediate result of giving rural children a chance to get good jobs and help their families, this school is doing good work.
For the students who don’t pass from 10th grade, a vocational school helps make sure these students aren’t left without opportunity. They learn English and the theory behind their discipline. They essentially learn to be hands-on engineers. We saw an engineering drawing class where students drew with the precision of my own CAD drawings. Some student showed us the buildings they had drawn and modeled in CAD on their own. In another classroom, electrical students showed their work with motors and breadboards. They were amused when I pulled out a random capacitor of my own that lives in my pencil pouch! I guess my engineering projects haven’t fully left me.
This vocational school is serious about sending their students into the workforce with the tools for better jobs. The women are much fewer and still some disciplines like welding and electrical looked entirely male, but was still happy to see a few learning good skills that could guarantee them good jobs
What is particularly exciting for us at Friendly Water is Shanthi’s enthusiasm about our project. Through the school, she has worked on spreading knowledge of health, hygiene, and nutrition to students and their families. And getting families access to clean drinking water is part of that mission and our mission alike. We have been able to instruct students at the vocational school in the building of filters and the welding of filter molds. And when filters are sold, the students begin to earn some profit. To encourage this process, I gave a speech to about 1000 children and dozens of teachers about clean water, the benefits of our water filter, the great results we’ve seen around the world, and why the small upfront investment would be worth it down the line. Of course, with the help of a translator!
Shanthi showed us her work at a current addiction workshop hosted in Manjakuddi, we witnessed a special prayer at the school where children show appreciation for their mothers (since women are often highly undervalued and overworked in such villages), and we even got to do some site seeing to an ancient temple and UNESCO heritage site. Oh yes, and she fed us fantastically! We had an informational, emotional, and inspiring, two-day experience!
The photos show Wayne with the welding instructor looking at their filters, the celebration of mothers, and a 16-university badminton tournament that we saw! Not exactly like my college tennis experience, but still reminded me of those long days at the courts!
