First Impression, June 2009
Ms. Surabhi Agrawal


Having always lived in the city, I was excited to work with the Sambhali Trust on the Setrawa Project and experience village life. The organization aims to work with issues concerning women’s empowerment and education for the young girls. However, no amount of prior reading prepared me for my first visit to the village. Before arriving, I was told that the girls were looking forward to meeting me, especially because I spoke Hindi. When I first arrived at the school with six other interns from the Foundation for Sustainable Development, I saw the girls peeking through the gaps in the fence and the women watching me from their veils. They looked around shyly as they greeted us with a Marwari song concerning the importance of education.

Soon they were asked to show us around the village and then I was overwhelmed as all the girls crowded around me, thrilled at the opportunity. They held my hands, told me their names, pointed their homes along the way, took me to the local temple and broadly grinned as we took pictures. As I talked to them that afternoon, I started learning about the beauty, innocence and eagerness that filled these girls. As I returned to Jodhpur that day, I became nervous as I realized I would be teaching these forty girls for the next two months even though I had no previous experience in teaching.

Three days later, I left with Govindji, the founder of Sambhali, to Setrawa and spend my first week there. I was very excited about sleeping on the roof, as the rooms are not friendly to the hot summer months. Each morning I was awaken by the sound of the peacocks as the sun gradually reached my side on the roof. The week started with Usha, the current teacher, and I shifting the school to a new location. All the girls helped with the setting of the new school and in just two days we were ready to begin our first lesson. After some review of what they knew, the girls were ready for me to give them a test. I was awed by their willingness and determination to learn and the sincerity with which they came to class.

As I stayed in the village for the week, I started learning from the other families about the situations in the village. Sambhali wants to begin a microfinance project in Setrawa and I am looking forward to conducting interviews for the women who want to be part of this effort. Additionally, I am looking towards developing a more sustainable project in the village dealing with smokeless stoves and solar energy. The ideas for these projects came as I visited families for dinner and watched them cook in kitchens that filled with smoke as the wood burned in open air. Also, often times the power in the school would go out during the day and it would be difficult teaching a classroom full of girls without a working fan in the desert heat. I am excited about further researching these projects, assessing their need and capacity to function in the village, and most of all working with the girls in the upcoming months.