CherYsh: Making a song & dance' over helping Siddhis

Bengaluru: This week, Bengaluru will play host to a very special concert. World-renowned pianist and professor at the Vienna Conservatory — Marialena Fernandes, will perform with ThreeX, a trio of musicians who also want to make a difference to the world through music. She will also be joined by a group of young girls from the Siddhi community, all between the ages of 11 and 15. The girls, who have been trained by Marialena herself, are being brought to the city by CherYsh, an NGO that has worked extensively with the Siddhi community in Karnataka’s Haliyal taluk, trying to provide them with tools to a high-quality education. The concert, Serendipity, is being organised in collaboration with the Bangalore School of Music and the Alliance Francaise.

“Marialena has wanted to do something for us through music, by virtue of her talent and her generosity, really,” said Cheryl Rebello, founder, CherYsh. “The children we work with are naturally inclined to music and sport. They are of African descent and rhythm is part of their lives.” Singing songs about their day-to-day lives and the occasions they celebrate is a part of the Siddhi tradition, she explained.

The Siddhi community, which lives in the deep forests of Haliyal taluk, does so under fairly hostile conditions. Mobility has always been a severe challenge, for no buses go to and from the interior village and even getting to Haliyul taluk headquarters for their basic requirements means walking 15 km each way. Anything more means travelling to Hubballi, which is 60 km away.

Cheryl began CherYsh back in 2011, although she had been active in the social space for some time before that. She used her Master’s degree in Economics to examine poverty alleviation, which had always been a subject that deeply interested her. The decision to work with the tribal community came about simply because the urban space is crowded with NGOs and activists working in every possible realm. Very little was being done for the rural areas, most of which are remote and very much in need. It was a challenge, of course – the villages exist in the heart of forest areas and achieving some sort of permanence requires a great deal of effort.

Their programme is two-fold, although its basis lies in providing quality education and helping the younger members of the community integrate better into mainstream society. This they do by setting up after-school learning centres within the community, where kids can learn Math and English. The teachers are also members of the community and are trained by members of the NGO.

“Ultimately, it’s about them enjoying their own habitat,” said Cheryl. "Their native ways are very strong and we don't intend to change those. However, we do want to give them access to better quality tools." When the children were asked what else they would like to do, nearly all of them expressed a keen interest in sport – “They asked for things like bats and balls,” she explained. They also displayed a love for music and learned the basic songs being taught to them with great alacrity.

Needless to say, the learning programme is as beneficial for the teachers, who, like the students, gain a lot of confidence. They also have a platform to work on their own managerial skills, because planning out the schedule and working through the curriculum is left to them. "We have phone-in mentors who connect with the teachers as often as possible, to ensure that things are on track," she explained. The other advantage, of course, in training people from within the community to teach, is that learning facilities will be made locally available.

"The change that we see in the children – and their teachers – is quite amazing," said Cheryl, who travels to the Haliyal taluk as often as she can. They also work in conjunction with the BVB College of Engineering and Technology in Hubballi, with support from Vice-Chancellor Dr Ashok Shettar.

"He believes that engineering needs to be rooted in real world issues," said Cheryl.

So far, there has been a marked improvement in the children's ability to read and communicate in English and the attention has done wonders for their confidence. "They're so eager to speak to us in English, just so we can see how much they have improved," she said. "At the end of the day, we work by observing the kids and their innate abilities. We don't think of the best way to teach, but the best way to help them learn."