Happy New Year from Tamil Nadu! While Ilana headed north over the holidays I traveled west to Mumbai and then south to visit an another education organization, Communities Rising. CR runs after-school programs in villages of Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district. They work especially with Dalit children, and tonight I had the great opportunity to hear a presentation by a Dalit priest and lobbyist. I listened eagerly and asked many questions, as caste discrimination is an issue that hasn’t come up easily in conversations in Andhra Pradesh. I’ve wanted to learn more about the topic but wasn’t sure how to approach it, so that is party of why I came to visit CR.

While I’m here I’ve also been holding video workshops with some of CR’s great college students who volunteer in the after-school program. One of those students, Agni, has already completed editing a project in which he talks about CR’s work and his experiences with the organization. Check it out!

Fire at Communities Rising from The Modern Story on Vimeo.