Name: Iris Edelstein

Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Girls Access to Education Globally

Date of Fieldwork: February 28, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):The Aarti home

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

This Tuesday, we were all lucky enough to meet with girls from the Aarti home, a girls home in Andra Paresh, India that was both a home for some girls and a school, that focused on girls who were not able to access education in their own communities, were living in unstable or unsafe conditions at home, were orphaned or had only one parent who they were unable to rely on, or other reasons that could affect their home life or their education. We were very excited to meet with these girls in an interview set up by Zoe Timms, a previous interviewee. These girls were all very nice and as excited to talk to us as were to them. Zoe Timms had briefed us on a few things to say and not say, and we were instructed to wear high collared long sleeve shirts, and jewelry. The reason why we were supposed to wear jewelry is because the girls there take a lot of pride in how they presented themselves, and jewelry was a huge part of that, even if they did not have a lot of money, so earrings and necklaces were highly encouraged.

When we were interviewing via zoom, we discussed many things, but maybe not things that you could find in a traditional interview. We were not so focused on their story, as we were how their everyday life was, what they did in school was, what their favorite shows and musical artists were, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. They really liked the netflix series Wednesday, and they liked K-pop groups BTS and BlackPink. Then they showed us how to make Dosa, a delicious thin pancake-like bread with some filling on the inside, and we made something that would be totally foreign to them: A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Zoe had told us beforehand that the girls there all assumed that Americans pretty much only ate bread and that was the main food in our diet, which though it very honestly might be true, it was still funny to hear. The girls were extremely smart and they all told us what they wanted to be when they grew up. Some wanted to be engineers or teachers, and doctors, and we were honestly a little surprised by their answers, since when the question was posed to us, most of us realized that we didn’t really know what we wanted to do. They also had a very well rehearsed dance for us, and we were surprised at how good they were, considering the only thing we could come up with was a poor macarena. This really was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to talk to these girls, and we are so happy that we were able to.