January 2 - January 16, 2010
This is a two week Winter Break immersion trip into Southern India. After a long flight, students participate in several days of orientation at the Institute for Dialogue between Culture and Relition, hosted by a Jesuit College in Chennai. Part of this orientation includes touring a variety of religious sites in the area, such as ashrams, mosques, temples and churches.
Following our orientation, students travel into rural India to live at a boarding high school for Dalit, or "Untouchable," children. We spend our mornings in the classrooms of up to 50 Dalit children, teaching simple English lessons (the local language is Tamil). We also engage the children in games, songs, sports, and crafts. Our afternoons are spend meeting up with a variety of human rights activists, lawyers, writers, village leaders, women's groups and priests who educate us about the Dalit issue in India. After a week fo service, we relax for a few days in Pondicherry, a costal former French colony, before heading back home.
The language barriers, rural setting and serious subject matter make this trip very intense!
Download an informational power point here. (.pdf)
Team India 2010 is full. Applications for the 2011 trip will be available in February 2010.
For more information, contact Lu Firestone at x2422 or firestol@canisius.edu.