For two weeks in May, we organized a medical trip consisting of two doctors and one ESL teacher from Montreal, Canada. Dr. Helene Mansaray, Dr. Pierre Filteau, and Nelly Odiette ventured to Lucknow helping not only the Lucknow Project and our area of focus, Amethi, but also areas within and outside of the Lucknow district. 

This trip would not have been possible without the help of the Shine India organization based out of Lucknow, led by India team : Colonel U.K. Vaish (Shine India head), Dr. Amar Singh (Shine India head), Pankaj Mishra (translator & guide), Jyotsana Kaur Habibullah (onsite aid), Sachin Singh & Sandeep Dutta (Mission Church Coordinators), and Inderpal Singh (Shine India member). 

With the help of Shine India members, Nelly, Dr. Mansaray, and Dr. Filteau were able to conduct medical camps in Amethi, Saidanpur, Mission Inter College, Srimad Dyanand Baal Siksha Sadan (Orphanage), Chowk, Bonhra (Delhi area, Vair district), and finally at the Mahindra Society. The team served approximately 1,000 individuals, as well as provided medical seminars to all of these locations and more. They distributed 28 Glucometers and 860 blood strips. On behalf of the Lucknow Project, I would like to thank this team for creating magic in such difficult (and hot!) situations.

Afshan Nasseri

The Lucknow Project Director

Eid Mubarak to all of you from all over the world. If you are looking to donate to the project this Eid (or any other time) please press here. Any amount would immensely help improve the quality of life and education in Amethi. 

Thank you, 

Afshan & the people of Amethi

So a full week of teaching has passed, and each
day has been a uniquely different experience to me. With three schools and
eight classes, we have been using a schedule to better organize the teaching
curriculum for every class. In addition to teaching the basic “My name is” and “I
am from” sentences, so far we have also taught colours, fruits, animals,
greetings, question words and short phrases to the more advanced students.

I’m not going to lie; coming in the first day I
genuinely did not expect the students to pay much attention to our classes. I thought
the idea of non-Hindi or non-Urdu speaking foreigners (like myself) coming into
their village would be taken as a joke to them, and that we would be a source
of fun rather than a source of education. I have had previous experience
teaching English to kindergarten kids in Jordan back in 2013, and at the time I
was taken aback not only by the kids’ lack of discipline but by their nonchalant,
passive attitude towards education. I thought that this teaching initiative was
probably inducing too much excitement in them to be taking it seriously.

            But I must say that coming here, I
was immediately greeted with respect. With the Indian culture being vastly
different from my past experiences, I was so charmed to see how enthusiastic
each student was in the classroom. Every single student carries a bright energy
with them and an everlasting eagerness to learn. They all pay attention and
they cooperate unconditionally, which is something that I have a lot of respect
for. Holding their tiny and dusty notebooks in one hand and their worn pencils
in the other, they attentively jot down everything we write on the board and
try exceptionally hard to retain the information. The schools have no air
conditioning, the classrooms do not use lights, it is rather dusty and some
classrooms were not built with a roof. We ourselves struggle to teach, yet
nothing holds them down. They are there to learn and they know it, and it is
one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen.

            What strikes me is that in both
experiences (Jordan and Lucknow), the school conditions were exactly the same;
the students attend their classes under the heat with very limited facilities. This
is what I take from it: education starts from anywhere and lies in anyone’s
power. It is, after all, a fundamental right. However I have come to see that it
is sheer ambition that precisely releases a person’s full potential to succeed.
And in that aspect, these kids are so promising to me.

- Amina Abdelilah