Name: Juliet Sandler

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):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?:

On the morning of Tuesday, February 23rd, my group and I sat down on zoom with a bunch of girls our age from the AARTI home. The AARTI home instills a few main values in their students that really stuck out to us, including, the values of Integrity, Compassion and Empathy.

At the ARTTI home the children are provided love, and their broad range of insecurities addressed. Children grow with the security of shelter, food, health care in community based living. Children get an education at the appropriate age, have an opportunity to dream and are guided towards a secure, definite future.

These girls are currently in India, and when we talked with them it was 8pm. It was an extraordinary experience. The main activity we had planned was surrounding food. They showed us how to make an Indian dish called Dosa, and we showed them how to make a sandwich. We also shared and spoke about our interests, favorite food, what we want to be when we grow up, and what subjects in school we enjoy.

We steered clear of topics surrounding family, religion, and marriage. we were told that those topics are sensitive to the girls, which is understandable. It was interesting to hear what the girls enjoyed doing. I learned that they enjoyed the show Wednesday, and many of them love K-POP groups like blackPink and BTS.

Talking with girls our age gave us an entirely new perspective, one that we needed to gain a full understanding of this topic. The girls we spoke to were so eager to hear us talk about our lives, and we felt the same way toward them.