Going to Gujarat!

Recently I found out I'll be heading to the beautiful state of Gujarat, in western India! I was thrilled upon discovering this as Gujarat is not a place in which I would have ordinarily found myself travelling to. Upon finding out this information, I immediately started down an Internet search path to learn all I could about this region. Here are a few things I discovered:

• Gujarat is a dry, primarily vegetarian state

• Ghandi hails from Gujarat

• The current prime minister is from Gujarat

• The tallest statue in the world, The Statue of Unity, is here

• It is famous for its majestic temples

The more I learned about Gujarat, the more thankful I felt. This place has so much to offer, there is so much to learn, and there is so much I hope to bring to the students and teachers of this incredible state.

We were put in touch with our community host teacher, Nilam, who informed us we will be in the city of Ahmedabad working with an NGO called Manav Sadhna. This NGO focuses on teacher training as well as providing education relating to hygiene, Social-Emotional Learning, nutrition, and more for under-privileged children in the city. This couldn't be a more exciting opportunity for me to be able to share some of the many valuable resources we take for granted with the people of Ahmedabad. I immediately started thinking of all the materials and resources I could bring with me to help these teachers and children. I think I might need a bigger suitcase after all...

How fortunate am I to get to be a part of all of this? There will never be enough words to describe what this experience means and how grateful I am. Working with an NGO in western India sounds like an incredible way to spend part of my summer. I can't wait to start building connections and become a stronger educator.

Learn more about the amazing work that Manav Sadhna is doing here.