Each month, we celebrate our girls good deeds and transformation by giving them a positive reinforcement through an award that we call it 'Child of the Month'. For the month of January, we felt a 12th grader truly deserves this award and her name is Tamilselvi.
Tamil joined the Hope House due to difficult family dynamics when she was in 7th grade. She has an older brother and her mom was not keeping well at that time. According to Tamil, she never went to school regularly so for obvious reasons, her academic foundation was shallow.
After joining the Hope House, she learned the nuances of the Hope House culture where there are no consequences for attempting to do activities failing. She always wanted to learn English and her English was no different from the other girls so she would sit for the daily English spelling tests among the girls that take three letter words tests (there are girls that would take six letter words tests also). It was so striking to note that she had no idea of phonics so she used to struggle a lot even with the three letter words.
Gradually we introduced her to phonics which she was able pick up quickly. By the time she reached 10th grade, her English has improved significantly and passed 10th grade board exams with good marks. That set the ball rolling for Tamil to believe that she can do anything if only she puts her mind to it.
Those that clear 10th Board exams are enrolled in our in-house 'Leadership Development Program' (or LDP) where our girls are exposed to refine communication skills, Computer skills, Organizational Skills and Typing skills. Under each of these modules, girls are required to undertake different sets of activities to refine themselves to become future leaders. Most of the activities are fun based. We believe that it is in these two years, Tamil had transformed. One line emails have become one page, became internet savvy and chirpier than ever.
In all this, she has become kinder and gentler. In our recently introduced 'Adopt a Sister' program, she was the first one to volunteer and when the lots were drawn, she was assigned to a special needs child that needs more care than other children. She gladly accepted the responsibility to learn about empathy, tolerance and patience. Tamil would go out of her way to keep her adopted sister clean and help her in every possible way to keep her cheered up.
As part of LDP, she was introduced to reading newspapers (English and Tamil) and having a mentor. Her mentor is a septuagenarian retired plastic surgeon in the US. Every little achievement, she communicates with him and he in turn corrects her English and encourages her to learn more. She participates in daily competitions and solves Sudoku puzzles. She was featured in the school edition of the Hindu newspaper recently for participating and winning a small competition.
Tamilselvi will move on to college to pursue her career in healthcare in June, 2016 and we feel that she has done exceedingly well to prepare for this stage of her life. She not only became a studious girl in studies but a girl with strong life skills to handle herself well. No doubt she deserves to be the 'Child of the Month' of the Hope House.
Want to support more girls like Tamil at the Hope House? Click here. Like this story and if you want to write a comment, please express yourself in the comments section below. Please share the story with your friends and family.
As part of LDP, she was introduced to reading newspapers (English and Tamil) and having a mentor. Her mentor is a septuagenarian retired plastic surgeon in the US. Every little achievement, she communicates with him and he in turn corrects her English and encourages her to learn more. She participates in daily competitions and solves Sudoku puzzles. She was featured in the school edition of the Hindu newspaper recently for participating and winning a small competition.
(Click on the image to enlarge the image)
Tamilselvi will move on to college to pursue her career in healthcare in June, 2016 and we feel that she has done exceedingly well to prepare for this stage of her life. She not only became a studious girl in studies but a girl with strong life skills to handle herself well. No doubt she deserves to be the 'Child of the Month' of the Hope House.
(Click on the image to enlarge the image)
We will miss her but we know that the spirit of the Hope House (not to be afraid to attempt newer things and face the challenges as they come) will be carried on in her. We couldn't ask for more from her. Good Luck Tamil and God Bless.
Want to support more girls like Tamil at the Hope House? Click here. Like this story and if you want to write a comment, please express yourself in the comments section below. Please share the story with your friends and family.
No comments:
Post a Comment