What makes Makkala Jagriti a Great Place to work

Makkala Jagriti has recently been certified as a Great Place to Work by Great Place to Work® Institute India.The Great Place to Work® Assessment is considered a ‘Gold Standard’ in workplace Culture assessment. The GPTW assessment measured various aspects such as Trust Index, credibility of management, pride, respect, fairness and camaraderie between team members and the organization scored highly on all these aspects.

MJ has always had a great work culture with freedom and trust at its core, and we are able to continue to foster the same over the years. This certification is a reflection of how all our team members feel about the work culture of the organization.

Makkala Jagriti sphere of work has human centredness at its core and therefore Trust is a core value that the organization not only believes in but puts into practice day in and day out. The Trust factor needs to be and is high between various stakeholders whether it is the employees and the management, between employees, employees and the communities that we work with or the organization and its stakeholders. The high trust factor allows a high degree of transparency and freedom while creating a safe and non-judgmental space between and among any of these actors. Some of the practices of the organization that contribute to making Makkala Jagriti a Great place to work are shared here.

Open House

Within the organization, we have created the process of Open House wherein all employees have the chance to ask questions to the Executive Leadership on any matter anonymously. This has been appreciated all around and while the Executive Leadership has always been accessible to all employees at all times, this has created a greater sense of approachability.

An extended leadership team

Democratic decision making is one of the values that we like to promote and standby in the organization. Towards this, there is a team called the Extended Leadership team that comprises managers representing all Programs and Departments of the organization. The Extended Leadership team meetings are forums to discuss and decide on organizational matters including policies an culture setting practices that are beyond day-to-day operational issues.

Investment in people’s development

People are central to Makkala Jagriti’s success as an organization and therefore investing in people’s development is a strong area of focus. When we say people’s development, it is not just capacity building on the technical skills that they have to bring to the workplace, but also the knowledge and awareness about themselves and how they can tap into it and be the best versions of themselves.

Autonomy and ownership at all levels

One of the unique features of our organization is that employees at all levels enjoy a good amount of autonomy, which stems from a sense of ownership that they feel towards the organization and its cause. This comes from her feeling a sense of transparency and trust in the organization over a period of time. It also comes from sufficient investment being done in ensuring that all employees understand the purpose and objectives of the organization and its various programs deeply.

Micro-improvements – small steps towards transformative changes in early childhood care and education

Development sector overall is a complex ecosystem with multiple issues, multiple stakeholders and their perspectives, multiple power dynamics and challenges at all levels. In such a scenario, it is understandable that lasting change requires time and sustained multi-pronged efforts. We all want to see significant outcomes, but can easily be frustrated and overwhelmed by the complexity of it all.

This is where it makes sense to realize that changes are gradual and each step needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. The small changes can be empowering and they can also be more specifically defined than long term impact. Another word to describe them is Micro-improvements. And when we look at ‘change’ as a series or combination of interconnected micro-improvements, it helps us to stay motivated and committed to the cause and not be overwhelmed. As such, Micro-improvements can be defined as projects or undertakings with small goals that show immediate results. These in turn aid in establishing practices that can be repeated to create a journey of sustainable improvement.

We would like to thank and acknowledge ShikshaLokam who have helped us realize and explore the concept of Micro Improvements in the education space. To further understand the power and scope of Micro-improvements, let’s delve into what Makkala Jagriti, a Bangalore-based NGO working in the education sector has been doing in the space of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

It is well researched and understood that the early childhood years are among the most significant ones in an individual’s life in terms of growth and development. It is therefore that quality early childhood education has been rightly recognized by India’s National Education Policy (NEP-2020) as the greatest and the most powerful equalizer that can contribute to addressing social inequities. Achieving the vision of quality early education for all children in the country below the age of 6 years requires transformation at multiple levels – the most significant being at the Anganwadi ecosystem level since Anganwadis are the focal points of child development services for most children across the country.

Makkala Jagrit’s ECCE program focuses on bringing changes in the Anganwadi ecosystem by working with the Anganwadi teachers to equip and empower them with the knowledge and skills to deliver quality pre-school learning services to children enrolled in Anganwadis. We recognize that it is important to work with all the stakeholders to bring lasting change in the ecosystem and therefore we also engage with ICDS Supervisors, parents of children and the larger community.

While we acknowledge that large-scale sustainable change will require time and efforts of high magnitude, we also recognize what are the smaller changes or Micro-improvements that have taken place in our programs. Needless to add, it is an energizing exercise for us to look at these small wins in the program. We see how they can be a spark that leads to bigger changes.
Here are some stories of Micro-improvements from our ECCE program that have set the ball rolling for us to identify more.

An Anganwadi teacher creates a YouTube channel for Preschool Learning

As the world shut in 2020-21 because of the pandemic, Anganwadis across the country did too. With children stuck at home and having little or no means of learning, it was imperative that efforts needed to be made to reach out to Anganwadi teachers and parents with knowledge and instructions to engage children in pre-school learning activities. And while Makkala Jagrit tied with the government to send out bite-sized video content to Anganwadi teachers and parents, on a daily basis, there was a need for Anganwadi teachers also to step up and reach out to their communities in their own way.

Shobha, an Anganwadi teacher from rural Koppal was one of the thousands of recipients of the daily videos sent by Makkala Jagriti. Throughout the pandemic, she was an avid subscriber of our YouTube channel which was used to send the videos and constantly followed our work. Shobha was also an active participant on the WhatsApp groups that were created for the purpose of disseminating ECCE videos.

But she did not stop there. A highly motivated Shobha started her own YouTube channel to showcase the preschool activities that she did and shared with her colleagues. Now, that is something noteworthy for multiple reasons. Not only is her level of participation and commitment to preschool education exceeding expectations, but when an Anganwadi teacher takes responsibility and does something like this, it is much more relatable and inspiring for other Anganwadi teachers to learn and move forward. The steps taken by Shobha may look small in the information age where there are so many contributors, but they are significant for the community of Anganwadi teachers and a right step in the direction of the larger goal. We salute Shobha for her dedication and innovation. It is also an inspiration for other Anganwadi teachers to reach out to their communities and at the same time become updated with the use of technology. Here is a glimpse of Shobha and her work:

Bringing fathers to the forefront

Early childhood care, preschool activities or anything that involves children in their early years is traditionally seen as the domain and responsibility of the mother or women in general. And this perspective prevails irrespective of class or socioeconomic status. This is also reflected in the fact that Anganwadi teachers have been given guidelines to conduct ‘Mothers’ meetings’ in their Anganwadis and do not have any prescribed agenda of engagement with fathers. The potential role and contribution of fathers in early childhood development seems to be ignored.

Incidentally, various research studies have shown how important fathers play in the multi-area development of children.Fathers’ role in younger children’s development is something that has started being seen in the last two decades. At Makkala Jagriti as well, we have recently expanded the scope of our program implementation to engage with fathers on their role in early childhood care and education.

Recognizing that fathers’ participation in meetings requires overcoming deep societal conditioning, we have sensitized Anganwadi teachers and engaged with the community. We worked with the Anganwadi teachers to understand what timings suit fathers and also using techniques of peer-to-peer motivation. We have conducted different innovative activities including organizing group interactions with children. These are small steps in the large ECCE puzzle, but we firmly believe that fathers’ participation adds substance to the larger vision of quality early education for children. And we are seeing the results of persistence. In some Anganwadis, upto 70% attendance of fathers’ is seen in the meeting. We certainly hope that these small but focused initiatives can easily be replicated by others and eventually fathers’ participation in ECCE just becomes a way of life.

Making Preschool learning a priority in Supervisor meetings

The ICDS Supervisor plays an important role in the Anganwadi ecosystem. At the helm of a circle of Anganwadis, the Supervisor is responsible for monitoring various aspects of implementation of the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) objectives at the Anganwadi level that include health and nutrition as well as early childhood education aspects. The latter however has not required the attention it requires till recently. In fact there were no structured mechanisms or training for monitoring early childhood learning though ICDS has prescribed and mandated numerous formats and registers to collect various kinds of information and date.

The Supervisor meets the Anganwadi teachers twice every month to discuss the implementation of various provisions under ICDS. Empowered with understanding of the importance of early stimulation activities on young children, one Supervisor started with the small but impactful step of discussing the agenda, and the timetable of preschool learning happening in her circle of Anganwadis. This simple exercise put focus and demanded the need for the workers to conduct simple pre-school activities for the children. This would be the first step to building sustainable habits and practices. Come to think of it, this step is what every ICDS Supervisor needs to replicate and take up to transform the Anganwadi ecosystem into a space which delivers quality early childhood education. We certainly hope that more and more Supervisors take the cue and get started.

Everyone can contribute

What we see from the above examples is that Micro-improvements can be driven by anybody in the ecosystem and that leadership is not restricted to an organization or someone with large decision making powers. . Something specific can be taken up like a project with little or finite resources, and it can just be a simple incremental change that is seen as a result of it. What’s important to remember is that every one of them matters. And that’s how lasting change can be effected.

We are happy to note that the Department of School Education and Literacy has recognized and taken up the concept of Micro-improvements and launched an initiative called Vidya Amrit with the aim of encouraging innovations in the form of millions of micro-improvements across the 1.5 million schools in our education system, so that our students get a conducive learning environment. We can only say more power to the efforts and more power to Micro-improvements.

Instilling courage, health and confidence among children in institutional care

What are the most important things that a child needs to secure a good future for itself?

It would not be surprising if the answers include good health, a nurturing and caring family, education, values, opportunities and a safe, positive learning ecosystem. No doubt all of these are important and yet, there are many in our society and the world at large who are deprived of these for various reasons. In fact, there are many children who witness conflict within and outside their families, risky situations, neglect and injustice. And when a child’s impressionable mind witnesses all these, one can only imagine how it affects its sense of confidence, self-worth and ability to grow.

With the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as well as India’s Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act asserting that the institutionalization of children may be used only as a measure of the last resort, we are unfortunately faced with the situation of having many children staying in institutional settings. Child Care Institutions (CCIs) are an important component of the child protection system with different kinds of ‘Homes’ housing children from different circumstances and having different needs. And while they do provide care and protection, the institutions may not necessarily be the best learning ecosystem for a child’s holistic development.

Makkala Jagriti’s motto: Where a child is born should not limit how far it should go perhaps applies most critically to children in institutional care and has inspired the organization to engage with CCIs towards providing holistic learning and development opportunities to the children staying there. Using the SPICE model – an approach and curriculum that covers the Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional development aspects – MJ’s facilitators have been engaging with the children in CCIs through activities and experiences since 2007 with the support of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, the learning and exposure opportunities for children in CCIs were severely limited. This prompted a partnership with the Department and the launch of a special initiative to virtually engage with children of CCIs across the state. Entitled Project Ullasa, the initiative involved creating and sending lessons and activities for engaging children in CCIs every day, conducting live online activities with children on topics of their interest and well-being and empowering the staff of the CCIs for qualitatively better engagement with children through online workshops and sessions every fortnight. More than 2 years on, Project Ullasa continues to this day with regular online activities for children and staff of CCIs.

Project Ullasa has provided many first time and unique experiences to the Children of CCIs. One such of the unique activities in this project has been conducting online Taekwondo classes for children in CCIs in partnership with Bhairavi.

Bhairavi (Bhairavi.org.in) is a social initiative that is on a mission to empower underprivileged children with the tools and techniques to lead lives of confidence, dignity and health through the martial art of Taekwondo.

The heart and hands behind the initiative include Ved, and his elder sister Neha, who, deeply felt from a young age that they are a privileged minority and there are large numbers of vastly less privileged children. They started Bhairavi in 2013 when Neha was barely in her teens and Ved was less than 10 years. Since they had been training in Taekwondo, they saw the opportunity to empower marginalized children through teaching them this martial art. Neha and Ved started teaching, along with support of their Taekwondo master, in government schools in partnership with Makkala Jagriti before expanding the engagement to other spaces.

In August 2021, when the shadow of the pandemic was still not fully lifted from our lives, Makkala Jagriti partnered with Bhairavi to provide Taekwondo sessions to children in child care institutions online – a truly unprecedented experience in every sense. Project Ullasa was the perfect vehicle to launch the initiative and the support from the Directorate of Child Protection to ensure that the program is carried on forthwith was exemplary.

There were some initial challenges – getting a suitable time-slot that suited most CCIs, internet connectivity issues, apprehensions from some of the CCIs whether the knowledge of martial-art would be abused, etc. There was apprehension about teaching the children online itself because of limited exposure of children to this medium. However, over a period of time, things settled down and a regularity or participation kicked in.

Maria Ashwini Prathima Senior Coordinator, Makkala Jagriti says “…we were unsure of how the CCIs, and children would respond to the sessions… we are now seeing that the children are taking leadership in handling the sessions”. Part of the reason for the success of the program is that Ved and Nagarjuna introduced fun elements such as music, dance, encouraging children to lead sessions and so on. This was to keep children better engaged; but equally to make this an hour of fun learning recognizing the beneficial effect it would have on the mental mood and morale of the children especially in the tough Covid times where children had almost no social and physical activities.”

Consistency is the key. Ved along with Master Nagarjuna of Asian Taekwondo Academy have been taking the weekly 1-hour virtual class consistently so that it has become ingrained in the time-tables of the CCIs. Week after week went by and in August 2022, we had completed a year of the intervention, with many children and Child Care Institutions continuing to participate regularly and enthusiastically.

The sessions were extremely useful to children in the pandemic times as it helped them release their stress levels while developing confidence and good health. Along with other live activities under Project Ullasa, this has also contributed to the sense of community among children in CCIs as they see other children like themselves on the screen. Especially in the pandemic, this was very important to alleviate their sense of isolation and a sense that their world is not limited to their own CCI.

Ms. Kavitha S, a senior officer in the Directorate of Child Protection says “From the last 1 year, Taekwondo classes have been conducted for children of CCIs as part of Project Ullasa. This has really helped children in maintaining their physical health and self-defense. All the participating children have shown great interest in learning this martial art. Most children have expressed that this program should keep continuing and not be stopped for any reason.”.

We are happy to see the children reflect upon their experience and share how Taekwondo is not just a physical activity but a means to help them feel more confident and develop a good attitude towards health.

“I like doing Taekwondo as it makes me happy, relaxes my mind and I can also revolt in case of injustice” – Ruchi (name changed), 8th standard.

Never missing an occasion to celebrate, on the 9th of September, 2022, Makkala Jagriti and Bhairavi with the support of the Directorate of Child Protection organized an online event to appreciate more than 700 children across 37 institutions in 17 districts who have been consistently participating in the sessions. The children were awarded certificates of appreciation and we are sure they will treasure it and it will be an inspiration for others.

Team Bhairavi as well as Makkala Jagriti are thankful to the Directorate of Child Protection, Govt. of Karnataka for the opportunity to touch the lives of thousands of children in a unique and impactful way. According to Ved and Nagarjuna: “When we hear from children like Ruchi, and realize the impact we are having is not only on their physical and mental well-being, but also providing them the confidence to demand and create an equitable society in the future, it feels deeply satisfying and joyous!”. It certainly inspires Makkala Jagriti as well to put all its efforts to ensure continuity of the initiative in the long run.

Transforming Anganwadis to bring quality Early Childhood Care and Education

Every child deserves a fair start. Research shows that most of a child’s brain development happens in the first 6 years and builds a foundation for future learning, health and life success.

Various global studies have also revealed long-term impacts of early childhood care and education (ECCE). There are strong correlations between quality preschool education and higher incomes and lower rates of unemployment. Estimates reveal that the development of a strong ECCE program is among the very best investments that a country could make. ECCE promotes equity, giving the best chance for children to grow up into thoughtful, creative, empathetic, and productive human beings.

Anganwadis are the primary institutions in India that provide early childhood care and education for children in early years.While the government has been addressing the health and nutrition needs of these children through Anganwadis under ICDS, the early education component needs more attention. ECCE, being a great equalizer amidst inequities, the early learning component in Anganwadis needs strengthening through capacity building of Anganwadi teachers to impart age-appropriate pre-school learning,equip parents to enhance their involvement in the child’s early learning. Further, ICDS-supervisors need to be equipped to monitor the quality and outcomes of early education.

Makkala Jagriti, A Bangalore based NGO has been working with children from socio-economically disadvantaged communities for 19 years now. In the work with government schools and poor urban communities, Makkala Jagriti noticed that children who came to the school at the age of six years were just not school-ready. They lacked the necessary fine and gross motor skills, cognitive skills and socioemotional skills. All these showed that the Anganwadi system was not able to offer the required stimulation for different domains of development.

This prompted us to work with Anganwadis in partnership with the Department of Women and Child Development.

This prompted us to work with Anganwadis in partnership with the Department of Women and Child Development.

We have three main focus areas for bringing about quality Early Childhood care and Education and school-readiness among children.

First, creating safe, vibrant and conducive environments in Anganwadis:

This is an important first step to ensure that the centers are functional, safe and well equipped, with the right age-appropriate materials and environment for pre-school learning.

Second, building the capacities of Anganwadi teachers, Anganwadi helpers and supervisors through formal trainings, mentoring and handholding. They are trained on the importance of their role, importance of early years and on every domain of development for early years.

Third, empowering parents and communities to be effectively involved in children’s learning process and in the Anganwadis’ functioning: It is not enough to focus on the Anganwadi system only. Parents and communities have a huge role to play, especially in the early years. Parents are trained to create conducive home environments, provide early stimulation at home and nurture children’s development meaningfully and thoughtfully.

Makkala Jagriti’s experience with 300+ Anganwadis have resulted in enhanced school readiness among thousands of children, enabling them to cope up with required learning levels throughout their school years and beyond.

Ecosystem Approach :Makkala Jagriti recognizes that multiple stakeholders need to be sensitized and empowered for sustainable and effective change to take place. Consequently, the project employs an ‘ecosystem approach’ wherein all stakeholders who can influence quality early education of children in Anganwadis are involved right from inception through an inclusive and non threatening approach. Practices like shared visioning, collective thinking and empowerment through training and capacity building equips all the stakeholders to play their roles more effectively.

These stakeholders include the Anganwadi Teachers (Workers), Helpers, ICDS Supervisors, Parents and the larger community. While the capacity building of ICDS functionaries helps create a conducive space and institutionalization of good ECCE practices, the work with parents and the larger community is instrumental in sensitizing them about their role in their children’s education and create demand for quality education. The right to early childhood education is as important as the right to education, if not more.

Build-Monitor-Transfer approach for sustainability:There are distinct phases of the project that we undertake which are classified as Build, Monitor and Transfer. Through the first phase, the necessary capacities are built among Anganwadi teachers and other stakeholders along with putting the appropriate resources in place. This is followed by handholding and monitoring so that best practices in early education become a routine while allowing the creativity and leadership of the functionaries to thrive. The third phase includes a focus on further institutionalization of the practices in the system and advocacy so that quality early childhood education is not just prioritized, but becomes a way of life.

Leveraging policy: The NEP-2020 rightly underscores the importance of early childhood education and Karnataka is the first state to start the implementation of the NEP. We are conscious of the opportunity and leverage the same so that we are able to create scalable and replicable models for the state to adopt. From a policy standpoint, it is a conducive time for implementation of this project so that the knowledge, experiences and evidence generated from the intervention can be put to larger use.

Data driven implementation with conscious use of technology: We have a strong M&E component with assessments of children, Anganwadi teachers, helpers, parents and even the grading of Anganwadis at key points in the course of the intervention. These assessments inform tactical and strategic changes needed, if any, on a regular basis. We are also conscious about using children assessment formats prescribed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development Govt. of India, which are developed by UNICEF and CECED, Ambedkar University. We use technology for digitizing and analyzing the data and also for communication across the stakeholder groups. Promotion of digital literacy by empowering Anganwadi teachers to optimize the use of Smartphones to streamline and simplify their work is a component integrated in the program.

A bouquet of innovations: Various innovative ideas have been a hallmark of our experience in implementing ECCE programs. These include creation of more than 350 short videos (in Kannada) on domains of children’s development with relatable content for parents and Anganwadi teachers, sensitization and involvement of fathers, bringing focus on ECCE in parents’ meetings conducted by the Anganwadi teachers, setting up of Toy libraries where parents can borrow toys and books, large-scale community events(Mela/Habba) that celebrate and create mass awareness on early childhood education.

One of the most important and unique practices of our program is to address Anganwadi workers and Helpers as co-teachers. This has boosted their self-esteem tremendously and is directly instrumental in the functionaries taking up ECCE seriously. From our perspective, it is a small act of giving the nation’s inimitable frontline workers their due.

We gave Anganwadi teachers badges which said ‘Proud to be an Anganwadi teacher’ . Nagarathna, an Anganwadi teacher said that no one had ever called them as a teacher and MJ helped give them a representation. She also said “ people see my saree uniform and identify me as an Anganwadi worker but from today I will wear the badge daily so they also know that I am their child’s teacher

Organizational culture, capabilities and relationship with the Government: Makkala Jagriti is a 19-year old organization with a strong practitioner experience in providing holistic development opportunities to children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We are a learning organization whose guiding principles include being child-centric, creating a non-threatening environment and fostering a culture of inclusion and empowerment.

We have a proven capability of undertaking large programs and our experience in ECCE includes working with over 300 Anganwadis directly both in urban and rural settings and conducting statewide programs virtually. The unique contribution we could make in partnership with the Department of Women and Child Development, Govt. of Karnataka during the pandemic was to reach early childhood learning to lakhs of children across the 66,000 Anganwadis of the state and make an impact in their formative years through a Learning at home initiative called ‘ Maneyalliye Oota, Maneyalliye Paatha’ launched by the Hon. Minister of Women and Child development. Makkala Jagriti has been regularly identified as one of the credible organizations by the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka.

With the above approach, one could apply the best practices of early childhood education making the ‘right to quality education’ a reality for a marginalized and deprived population, in the truest spirit and intent.

With nearly two years of closure of schools, our children were reliant on lessons they would get virtually, through Zoom, WhatsApp or YouTube. Children were longing to meet their teachers and classmates for quite a while.

In November 2021, schools reopened, which brought some relief to children, parents, and teachers alike. However, it was not easy for children to get right back into action at school. Being removed from classroom learning, the pace differed from what they had just gotten used to while learning at home. Children had to make adjustments once again, this time with “learning at school”.

Makkala Jagriti, a holistic development NGO in Bangalore, worked systematically to ensure these adjustments happened smoothly. The first step was to conduct an assessment to gauge where the children were in terms of their learning levels. The results showed what we expected – they had fallen behind quite drastically in their learning levels, even in foundational literacy and numeracy. To address this, Makkala Jagriti started specially designed bridge courses to help children close the gaps in their foundational learning. 

Our facilitators used a number of strategies to make sure learning is enjoyable and effective, and one that worked very well has been peer learning. 

Makkala Jagriti’s facilitators created groups of children with different learning levels, with the group leader responsible for the group’s learning. 

The response of our children to this initiative was beyond what we expected. Children took the initiative to create their own WhatsApp groups, which led to greater engagement beyond the confines of the classroom! They became so invested in each other’s academic growth that they exemplified the value of leaving no child behind.

We observed a renewed enthusiasm among children who needed a little boost in understanding and interest in the subjects. Numerous studies have shown that children tend to respond more when their peers teach them in a collaborative and non-threatening manner.  

Peer learning, however, is not a one-way street. A great deal of mutual learning happens; children who take the lead also have the opportunity to assess their own understanding of the lessons. By explaining what they learned to a group, children may discover newer outcomes within the lessons that they can share further. Likewise, children within the group, seeing their classmates taking the lead, may be motivated to take on the mantle of explaining lessons back to their fellow students. All in all, what is formed here is a circular network of the passage of information among students, with the teachers overseeing the activities within the group and ensuring the children are on the right track.

The benefits of peer learning are not confined to the exchange of knowledge alone. A significant advantage of peer learning is improvement in communication and social interaction among children.

Learning through cooperation leads to that same cooperation being extended to other facets of a child’s life – at home and within the community where the child lives. Another benefit observed is that children feel more comfortable opening up and interacting with their classmates than they would with a teacher or an adult guardian.

Numerous studies and theories speak in favour of peer learning. But, the biggest testament to its success lies in what our children have to say about it. 

11-year-old Neha, a student of the 6th standard, says it best:

“I miss going to school because of the lockdown. When I was away from class, I had forgotten some of what I had learned in my Kannada class. However, when I came back to school, something new was waiting for me. We were given activities in groups, and thanks to my group, I remembered what I had earlier forgotten. My friends and I helped each other this way, and it was very exciting for me to learn from my friends and teach them as well.”

With the schools closed this last month again, children continue to help each other through the peer WhatsApp groups they created, and we are sure this spirit of collaboration and helping each other is here to stay.