Semester 1
At the start of Semester 1, we learnt about an organisation called ‘9 is Mine’ that was campaigning for the 9% of GDP in India the government had promised to children but not yet delivered. We were to connect to some of the children in India via technology, and write down their stories. Due to technological difficulties, we were quite far back on our schedule to collect stories and ended up properly starting at the end of Term 1. We then communicated with them, which changed my view towards them in terms of language, and also how well they managed to keep themselves in their conditions. Some of the people we connected with were difficult to understand, both because of language and technology, but overall I was surprised to understand them so well; and eager to hear about what they have been doing and their conditions and how they have such a big voice in all of this. I am in awe of their voice and their ability to make a stand in such tough conditions. Though I personally did not learn that much circus from them, I did get a few glimpses of their enormous skill in the area. Over the course of Term 2, we were first writing and listening to their stories and later compiling and combining the stories for later use.