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I
Samanta, the word is inspired from the Hindi dictionary signifying EQUALITY. The experience with Samanta as an intern is indescribable. Even in a virtual environment, we got the opportunity to learn and prepare sustainable material for the students and develop sensitivity towards their crucial year of development. As a youngster coming from an urban setup, it is essential to unlearn some learnings from our system since childhood. At Samanta, I got the opportunity to contribute towards a bigger goal by developing sustainable resources. Of course, it would not have been possible without the constant guidance and support from the founders of the Organisation – Mr Prashant Anand and Mrs Tanya Khera, their consistent effort from their end to groom us into a better and conscious being have helped to identify the domains of improvement in ourselves as an individual. Even though is a was virtual environment where we were coordinating, The diversified work domains, which we got an opportunity to contribute in, for example, the social media strategies, developing lesson plans and Teaching-learning material, content development and so forth, have helped in inculcating discipline and growth of inter-personal and intra-personal skills. An individual player will only give their best when surrounded by an equal and healthy competition and supportive team. The team of five young women pursuing their post-graduate, who came together under one roof with a shared goal, helped us understand the importance of team and teamwork. Overall, the experience of these past 40 days with the team and the organisation's founders has been a roller coaster and has given me emotional and professional memories for a lifetime. I want to thank the respective authorities of Christ Deemed to be University for associating us with an organisation that is different from the monotonous goals of the society and who sincerely believe in Equality.
DAMINI TIWARI (Christ University)
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II
Who could have thought that an online internship could become so fruitful and fun-filled? Well, I did not think when I started with it, but as time passed and as we continued with our daily meetings and discussions, I began understanding the passion and dedication with which Prashant and Tanya work for empowering the forest community including children and youth and women. Though it was online, there were certain instances where we got the opportunity to get a glimpse of the community when they were on the field. This made me realise how enriching an experience it would have been if we had the opportunity to carry out the activities, including making teaching-learning materials in an offline mode; the learnings and reflections would have been more experiential. Nevertheless, team Samanta always ensured that they provided us with the best knowledge about the community, including their first-hand experiences. Another essential aspect that Samanta folks always stressed was the importance of context and its relevance while engaging with any community. Everything must be tailored according to their needs and requirements; only then does it hold real value. All in all, it was a fantastic goal-oriented learning experience. Thank you!
SRISHTI SHARMA (Christ University, Bangalore)
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III
I still remember my first day of internship and a collective feeling of excitement, nervousness, anxiousness and curiosity. Tanya and Prashant were 2 smiling faces that introduced us to the organisation and worked every second to make us feel comfortable and relaxed, never pressurising us for anything. The sheer fact that they stood by their name ‘Samanta’ and treated us all equally, and heard everyone, gave us a plethora of opportunities to not just work but to learn, speak and evolve into people who are more experienced now. I would like to express my gratitude to Christ University for giving me the chance to work with them and to Prashant and Tanya for being a very helpful guide and mentor throughout our journey. This internship, my fellow interns, the memories I made and people I met during the span of all these weeks will always be cherished. Even virtually, I learned a lot and I am looking forward to visiting Samanta and working with our guides in future.
ANSHIKA JITENDRA (Christ University, Bangalore)
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IV
When I started my internship here at Samanta, I did not know the hardships and difficulties the tribal people face in their lives regarding education, poverty, livelihood etc. The Van Gujjars have been struggling in this respect for many years. I learned about their culture, community and their livelihood during my internship. I realised how hard it is for them to get a proper education. Samanta helps in giving them a proper education with a holistic approach. I got myself familiarised with the education field of social work. I also got to know what TLMs and lesson plans are and how they are made. I made one TLM myself. All that I have learned the credit goes to Tanya and Prashant. They have helped us in every step, and I cannot thank them enough for giving me the opportunity and a space to learn, grow and improve myself.
DIPTI RAJ (Christ University)
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V
The new journey to be associated with Samanta Foundation began on 11th October 2021, with expectations and with the fear of not knowing what is going to come next. The first session was an interactive session with the two pillars of Samanta Foundation. The few best things that I learned from my internship are how to be professional without allowing anyone to cross your boundary. That is one of the things I admire our agency supervisors for. Secondly, they have inspired me a lot to travel as the quotes says “Travelling teaches you a lot of things that are not given in books”, the experiences they share of working with North-east people etc, has made me want to travel and learn a lot of things and share the experience with others. The Teaching Learning Material was a challenging thing to complete but with the help of meetings, feedback session from supervisor and my fellow christites we completed the task. Teaching Learning Material is something that came out of syllabus but it helped us with trying something new and getting exposed to a new learning. The journey was bit of roller coaster but nowadays at 5PM the notification for internship meeting pops somewhere I do miss it and thank you for all information about fellowship. Hope that one day we can visit Samanta Foundation and work (not virtually) and build more memories.
Thank you for having us on board!
ANUMOL MATHEW (Christ University)
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