December 18, 2019, by abrierley

Rosie May Foundation Internship reflections… blog and a video

Additional blog information from Noor and Sutharshini is available at the Rosie May website https://www.rosie-may.com/blog/

Sutharshini Jeyathaas – School of Economics

“I travelled to Nepal as a research intern for Rosie May Foundation which is an international charity who help children in crisis. My role consisted of conducting research into children’s academic life in mountain schools. We had to find out what the school needed from volunteers as the mountain village has not engaged with volunteers before. We created case studies to build an insight into the lives of communities in the area. During the weekdays, a group of us taught English at the schools to further investigate the culture and the way things were carried out in rural villages. Coming up with innovative solutions for problems faced by children in these villages was challenging yet extremely rewarding. This was definitely a very memorable trip for me!”

 

Noor Yafaie  – School of Law

This summer I spent a month in Nepal working with the Rosie May Foundation to help brighten children’s education and future. We spent a week in different mountain villages each to carry out research in rural schools on the conditions of education and how we can help improve the level of teaching. We conducted interviews with the headteacher, male and female teachers, and children from different age groups on things such as what could help improve the level of teaching, what students’ aspirations are post school, and the level of funding the schools receive to help gauge an idea on what we could do to improve learning environments to help the students achieve the best future possible. We also took the time to conduct classes to children of all age groups teaching English and Physical Education so we could see first-hand what their learning environment is like. After that, we all planned ideas on what we could do to resolve these issues such as lack of sanitation, low funding, few resources etc. and presented this to the Founder of the organisation. We suggested things such as; a medic room for girls on their period so their attendance can improve, donations for resources and wages of teachers etc. This led us to come up with another campaign for the charity specifically tackling period poverty.

Overall this experience was extremely invaluable for me. Not only did it open my eyes to the reality of the situation for students around the world, but it also improved my professional and personal skills immensely. It built my teamwork skills, improvisation, resilience, and it also made me more confident and willing to push myself out of my comfort zone. I will never forget the children warmly welcoming us when we entered their school, and the smiles on their faces once they understand something from our classes. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget.

You can hear more from Noor and Sutharshini in this short video of their experiences with Rosie May.

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