Week 1: Initial Impressions

I've just finished my first week at PORDAC, an NGO in New Delhi, India that works with kids with disabilities (mostly autism) and tries to spread awareness and inclusion for these kids. I work at Parivartan School which has about 12 kids aged 4-14 and about 4-5 teachers. My boss Manjir is really nice but she is extremely disorganized. My first day of work she had nothing for me to do and didn't even have any clear directions on what she even wanted me to do. In Indian culture it is also acceptable to be late so I was often at work for awhile in the morning before my boss would come in. She has a lot on her mind with running her own NGO and after the first few days, I discovered that I would have to take initiative to do my own projects to help her because there is obviously a lot of work that needs to be done at PORDAC. Parivartan School is very small and needs a lot of funding so that is what Manjir is mostly focused on. I found out from Manjir that the teachers are not very well trained to deal with special education kids because she didn't have the money when PORDAC began to hire fully trained teachers. So during my first week I've created a monthly newsletter specifically for the month of July to be sent out to parents and friends (and a template for later months hopefully that she will use in the future) , a new pamphlet for PORDAC and the school, and sample lesson plans for the teachers along with guidelines on working with the kids after observing them in the classroom. The teachers don't speak English well so my boss helps me communicate the importance of lesson plans. The language barrier is definitely an obstacle and the fact that it is such a small organization there is a lot that still needs to be done. In the coming weeks I hope to work with the kids on computer skills because they recently lost their computer teacher and some of the older kids are very talented with computers. There is also another intern working with me, Emily, who has been here longer and is helping Manjir with securing funding and coming up with a reliable long term plan.