Nethra ESL: When Weekend Volunteering Becomes Family, Friendship, and Finding Your Purpose

Every Friday and Sunday evening, kids across the United States are usually playing video games or cramming some last-minute homework. But for Nethra Vidyalaya volunteers, there is a whole other story.

Every weekend, youth volunteers across the United States log onto Zoom to help visually challenged students in Nethra Vidyalaya schools practice their English as part of Nethra ESL. From practicing verb tenses and figures of speech to participating in mock interviews and impromptu speeches, Nethra students are always learning something new. Thanks to over 20 student volunteers leading 2-4 breakout rooms each session, we have been able to have 180 sessions so far in the past two years, benefitting 60+ Nethra students in grades six through eight. 

At first, there were a fair deal of challenges. Having to talk to multiple students in one room, lacking visual cues to rely on, and just the sheer distance and cultural differences between Bharath and the United States all proved to be obstacles to overcome. However, volunteers quickly stepped up. Within the first few sessions, we were able to keep Nethra students engaged using a variety of conversation guides on topics relevant to youth in both spheres of the world. Seventh grade Nethra student Siraj describes her favorite discussion topic to be friendship, and she enjoys the times when she and her classmates crack up at a joke a volunteer makes. At the same time, Nethra students themselves were very focused and eager to learn from day 1. Nethra students use microphones or alternate seats throughout the session to make sure that each person has a chance to participate. They always help each other when they are struggling to translate a word or phrase into a sentence and prompt each other to speak when they feel someone is being left behind. Volunteers who know Telugu are able to translate for them as well. To this day, both volunteers and Nethra students and teachers actively provide each other with feedback to continue improving the experience for everyone. 

Volunteers in grades 9 through the second year of high school are very busy with their school activities, extracurriculars, and so on. They could choose to do any number of things, but they still choose to spend their time volunteering every week because of their deep connection with the Nethra kids. For them, it is no longer a volunteer activity, but a core part of their life.

Friends Adhrith and Mourya, both eleventh graders who reside in Minnesota, first picked up this activity because they wanted to volunteer together. Soon, their friendship opened up a door to friendship with tens of Nethra children, who are always full of passion and curiosity. Adhrith’s favorite memory with Nethra kids is “seeing them talk fluently about Sri Rama and Shri Krushna Bhagavan with such enthusiasm.” Nethra is a way for him to stay connected to his roots and he is grateful to see the impact he can make as a leader in his community. Mourya’s favorite memory is “playing role-play games where students were shopkeepers assisting me with buying cricket gear,” which happens to be Nethra student Rithvik’s favorite game as well. Mourya keeps coming back to Nethra ESL because “he enjoys helping students grow and get better.” Students have gone from being scared of making mistakes and responding with short, straight answers to asking us their own unique questions and replying with strings of sentences. Their fluency and confidence only continues to improve!

On the opposite side of the country in Texas lives tenth grader Sanmita, who loves “interacting with the Nethra kids and hearing about their life and school in India and their families.” Every time she hears from Nethra kids, she “feels personally connected to them through their stories,” and I think she speaks for all of us volunteers. One of her favorite exercises to complete with kids is the idioms exercise, where students had a blast learning about some of the more silly and counterintuitive idioms in the English language.

All the way in Michigan, twelfth grader Hiba describes weekly Nethra classes as “one of the most grounding and fulfilling parts of [her] routine” even though they take place at 12 a.m. EST. To her, students feel like younger siblings. She appreciates each moment that she and the students “talk about our lives, share favorite movies and songs, and play games like Antakshari.” Hiba feels she has learned just as much from Nethra students as they have from her. Her gratitude for her connection with the visually challenged community from a young age truly manifests through her commitment and her engagement with the students; Nethra student Rithvik describes Hiba akka as his favorite teacher because of the way she patiently repeats English sentences for him and his peers every class. 

Also living in Michigan is ninth grader Kushi, who despite being one of the younger volunteers, shared a moving account of her experiences: “My favorite memory of Netra ESL sessions was actually last year, during the final class of the school year before the student moved on to the next grade. Our class ran a bit longer than usual, but another class ended a few minutes earlier than mine. The other students came from their other class to say hi to the kids I was teaching. The moment they saw me, their excitement was overwhelming in the best way imaginable. They were yelling my name and were asking if I remembered them. I assured them that I could never forget. They were the very first group of students I ever taught. They were so happy when I was calling them by their names, and were even more thrilled to share all the different things they accomplished the past year since the last time I saw them. It felt like I was catching up with a group of friends, and it was just such a full circle moment to see all the kids I saw when I taught my first class, during my last that year. It was unfortunately my last time seeing them since they were moving on to 9th grade, but it is a memory I will always treasure.”

I am one of the older volunteers, being a second year college student in California. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to teach Nethra students because they have widened my perspective of the world. Aside from improving my teaching skills, I have understood how inspiring Nethra students are. I remember being in awe when I asked students to explain their daily routine; they are so sincere and dedicated, waking up at 5am everyday to do yoga, school, and participate in a wide variety of extracurriculars with listless energy. My schedule appeared like nothing compared to theirs.

Nethra kids know so much about topics we have barely scratched the surface of; if anything, their weakness in vision enhances the sharpness of the rest of their four senses beyond our comprehension, enabling them to do just about anything. They are not only able to play sports, perform music, dance, paint, write, debate, participate in robotics, and give speeches (the list is inexhaustive), but they are able to excel in all of these areas. It is so wonderful to see how students are so supportive of each other as well when sharing about their friends’ victories in the Paralympics or school competitions. They make the absolute most of the opportunities they are given, which is why I believe they should be all of our role models.

Overall, Nethra ESL has become something both Nethra students and volunteers look forward to each weekend. Despite exams, monsoons, and poor connection issues along the way, the connection between Nethra students and volunteers is as strong as ever and will continue to be for a very long time.

Blog Written By: Jahnavi Tungtur