Chandz
- May 14, 2020
- 5 min read

India Coding Trip 2018 🇮🇳

Namaste Readers, 🙏🏽

As a recent graduate who is now entering the real world, I have realised this DMU Global trip to India will be my final fondest memory of going internationally with students and staff at DMU. This trip will always remain close to my heart, which I aim to share and inspire my story to others.

In reflection, this unforgettable experience has inspired and educated me beyond the truth of reality to how people value, appreciate and acknowledge the importance of the little things in life. We as privilege citizens who are provided with a wealth of opportunities, growth prospect and a better life; should begin to acknowledge those who are less fortunate and help each other. The meaning of gratefulness sometimes slips away from us which we should never forget as I have seen the other side to what it means to be grateful. The basic essentials we take for granted are seen as the most valuable items to young children in India. Seeing young children with ripped clothes, no shoes, jewellery, dirty nails and unwashed hair; has broken my heart into thousand of pieces. However, no matter what conditions these young lovely children come from; their heart is pure and full of life. They never forget where they come from, what they have or show any selfless actions to others. This spoke the truth to how much I respect the culture, norms and values these children are educating me. Hence I quote from my own words:"I'm not changing their lives, they are changing mine".

This trip has transformed the way I value life, education and culture. Young children in India are offered at least 10% of opportunities to progress higher in life, compared to other counties which are more developed. By visiting the Gandhi Ashram we transformed the lives of 2,000 children by visiting 5 local community schools across the area of Ahmedabad. We as educators, students, employers and privilege citizens must learn to show selfless actions and kindness to those less fortunate. These children were never offered an opportunity to visit other cities in India or country; they would inform me that they never been on a plane before. By acknowledging their curiosity of the 'outside' world just shows how people in less developed counties are living a completely different life to us. The classrooms were completely different, there was no tables, chairs or books; only one blackboard at the front of the classroom. The classes were oversized with an average of 50-70 children in one class. However, this did not affect the value of education, all the children respected their teachers as they saw their teachers as role models. This inspired me in wanting to make a difference their lives. When we visited each community centre, each child saw us as role models who will be changing their lives, but in fact they were changing ours. Watching the children perform activities such as dance and role plays brought smiles and love. The amount of energy, excitement and enthusiasm they all showed melted my heart as I was able to build stronger friendship with these young children. This experience will always remain close to my heart as it was such a rewarding and unforgettable experience.

I never heard a single child complain about any issues they may be suffering which shows how much they value what life has given them. The atmosphere completely changed my perspective to how much each child appreciates the value of education and simply saying "Hi, how are you?" meant the world to them. All they wanted was someone to talk to and share their experience, alongside sharing our experience. This is the true reality to life; sharing each other's experience and building lasting friendship with one another. I taught them coding, but they taught me the most valuable thing I will cherish which is being selfless. They all touched my heart, soul and mind in different ways which I will hold and cherish for a lifetime.

During each coding session we split the children into groups and they were so welcoming and warming; if you did not speak Gujarati they would not mind, they just wanted to be friends and share their own experience with you. Your presence of being around them was enough to them as they saw us as role models. They valued how much time and dedication we spend teaching them coding, however we saw it as a new learning experience which has transformed the lives of 2,000 children.

This followed onto myself recognising the importance of life and how we should be grateful with what we are given with. Communicating with these lovely inspirational young children made me acknowledge throughout their childhood they may not have experienced society in a diverse form in comparison to our childhood and how we follow our norms and values in society. They describe to me of never being on a plane, never visiting another city in India or never playing simple childhood games such as tennis or riding a ride. Hearing this from such young talented children broke my heart. The simple forms of playing on the IPad, riding a bike or going to the park we are given in the UK seems completely normal to us but for them seems like a privilege life we live.

When visiting the 'slums' or in reference their house; the children were so happy to show us their house and what they have. They would offer us food, drinks and entertainment even when they were portioning with how much food they receive and with limited amount of food within their local area. This completely changed my mindset to what we are given back in the UK. We don't value the privilege of what is offered to us in a sense to the amazing opportunity of food, drinks and resources we are provided with. When visiting the 'slums' each child was happy and content to their own way of living as that was the only sort of lifestyle they grew up into. Watching a child play with a broken toy found on the streets which does not work had so much value to their life. If they lost the broken toy it would break their heart. They never seen an iPad or iPhone before or even a normal telephone we have in our houses. This showed the true colours to reality, where technology can transform a person's life, but without money that person has nothing; which they are left behind in a rapid changing world. Children who are born into a world of technology are offered endless possibilities to changing their life and education; which is why countries who are fully invested in technology should see the bigger picture and invest into countries where young bright children such as India can be the future to changing our economy.

Overall, as a student who has been involved in a variety of volunteering projects; this experience has encouraged and inspired me in making a difference as I have recognised with hard work, passion and desire in changing the world in small steps can make a huge impact to a young child's future.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which can use to change the world"

In words of an inspirational leader:

'Be the Change you wish to see in the world'- Gandhi