Paul Antao sdb SUKET, NOVEMBER 15, 2008: On N
ovember 14, 2008, as India celebrated its “giant leap” of landing on the moon, the Salesian Community of Suket took the “small step” of launching an Adult Literacy Programme in Badodia village, about 4 kms from the Salesian house of Suket. Although this may be just a humble initiative, it certainly is a tiny step in the right direction towards helping the millions in India who are on the wrong side of the economic and digital divide. Our interactions with the people of Badodia over these past few months helped the villagers to identify this need and address it at their level. Varmaji, a teacher from the village government school volunteered to coordinate this programme with the help of three Std X students from Don Bosco School, Suket. The task at hand is to ena
ble these 30 odd women develop reading and writing skills, and also to introduce them to basic arithmetic. It was interesting to see the women – young and old – ready and eager to learn from their own village children. The women began enthusiastically by encouraging other women of the village too to join them and unanimously demanded that the classes be held every evening from 8.30 to 9.30 pm, with the exception of Sunday. This initiative, under the direction of Fr. Cedric Sankul and the house of Suket, was inaugurated with the people invoking the blessings of the Almighty by singing five bhajans as in customary in the local culture. This was followed by a brief orientation of the programme by Varmaji and a few words by Fr. Paul Antao who assured them of Salesian guidance and assistance to help realize this objective in the months to follow.