I saw two boys come out of the classroom, collect some stones, and start playing the ‘number wheel’ game. It was morning, and the day’s activities were about to begin. After a fair amount of travel, I reached a school in rural Cajamarca. Our team was helping the Peruvian government pilot Pratham’s teaching-learning approach in some rural schools. Not long after this field trip, I found myself on a plane to Peru. Their sheer enthusiasm and passion is forever ingrained in my memory. Later, I sat under the stars talking to villagers about their aspirations for children’s learning. He responded that they would manage on their own and that he would be that area’s Gunjan. I met the cluster head with Gunjan (the Pratham staff member leading the initiative), and asked him what he would do if Pratham teams moved on from that area.
The purpose of my trip was to visit a cluster of villages where local leaders had taken the initiative to work on children’s learning. I landed in Patna on a warm October night and caught a train to a district called Jamui on the edge of the state. As I look back at my time in the organization, while there have been (plenty of!) moments of frustration, I would not have had it any other way. From spending hours on train stations to eating guinea pigs in Peru to conducting elections in a village in Uttar Pradesh, Pratham has exposed me to a range of experiences that I could never have imagined. My three years at Pratham have been a rollercoaster.
Our team is at a rather interesting niche in the organization – we interact with donors and manage those relationships, while also working with and supporting field teams on program planning and implementation. My name is Arjun and I have been a part of the Program Management Group at Pratham.
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