The Program

Service Focus

Working with underprivileged youth and creating teaching materials.

Program Leaders

Leela Prasad, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Director, Duke Center for Civic Engagement, Duke University.

Baba Prasad, President and CEO, Vivékin Group, Chapel Hill, NC 27517

Program Dates

June 7 – August 7

Program Scope

Hyderabad, with a population of nearly 8 million in a metropolitan area that covers roughly 300 square miles, is the 5th largest city in India. In recent years, it has emerged as one of the fastest growing Indian cities due to global investment in technology and infrastructure by MNCs in industries such as software, banking, pharmaceuticals, and printing. Consequently, class contradictions in Hyderabad’s poulation are becoming glaring: Middle and upper class professionals (many diasporic Americans) are the white collar workforce of these companies, while migrant laborers work at the expanding construction projects and provide domestic services. The two segments remain deeply interdependent but starkly disparate particularly in their access to basic resources and rights, such as education. Local NGOs and independent volunteer organizations worry that the dazzle of development is blinding the public to the continued lack of basic amenities to large sectors of the population. Working in economically underprivileged communities in collaboration with two NGOs: the Association for India’s Development, and the Smile for Life Foundation, our DukeEngage team will focus on making education exciting, meaningful—and most importantly, transformative for everyone involved in this process.

We will

• help elementary school children develop communicative English and storytelling skills
• help these children gain in self-confidence and self-expression
• demonstrate basic science experiments in schools
• work with the school children on visual-arts projects
• collaborate with students on producing skits, and,
• develop illustrative materials for subjects like geography and history.

Service Opportunities

We will jointly work with the Hyderabad chapter of the Association for India’s Development, (AID also has a Duke Chapter, for which Dr. Leela Prasad is the faculty advisor) at the following schools:

• Nirmal Nagar Government Elementary School
• Sri Sai Nagar Government Elementary School