Piyali Learning Center

CALCUTTA METROPOLITAN PIYALI LEARNING CENTER

January 19, 2008 - Piyali Learning Center

Principal - Alokeparna Ghosh
American Teacher- Kristine Pederson
Kristine Email: kristine.rizalinda@gmail.com

The Piyali Learning Center is a diamond in the ruff. With a little bit of vision and finical support, I can see this center/school expanding through grade twelve in less than five years. The community in which the center is located is the poorest in West Bengal, a farming community, with very hard working women. I say that because all the men of the village seem to drink and talk all day while the women work, cook, and take care of the children from my full day observation. I tell you that it was a sight to see in a very negative way.
But among this broken social system of equality, there is a school with teachers that are changing the village and the world. The all girls' school is a safe setting in the community which allows the female student to gain and education from grade K-8th. Many of these women if not for this school would have been sold into slavery or female trafficking or married off at the age of 15. Although this still is happening, the Piyali Center is teaching these girls that there is another way out of this dilemma and it's called an education!
This small school is not recognized by the government to be a school but as a teacher, I can tell you that I saw that illumination of hope in those little girls' eyes and realized that they want the same thing that most American students want, a better more productive life. The difference was that these girls realized that without the Rotary Foundation Matching Grants Programs, they would not be fluent in English nor will they ever have had the chance to obtain a secondary school education. It was a beautiful site that reflected the power of a teacher's love which is what I saw those teachers giving.
I asked Kristine, what is expected of you as a teacher in this school, and she told me that I'm more than just a teacher to these young ladies, I'm a parent. I educate them on much more then math, and science, I educate them on hygiene, society, and self motivation. Kristine is an awesome American Teacher at the Center that at the age of 24 has done and is doing what few American teachers get the chance to do. She implements change at the most primitive level, and the word in the village is that she's exceptional at doing it.

I firmly believe we will be reading more about her and this developing school in the near future.