VISMAYA KALIKE
Learning for the Naturally Curious
ABOUT US
Vismaya Kalike is an after-school support initiative for creating the right learning environment and to kindle the learning aptitude among learners in marginalised settings. We have been running a center in Anjanapura over the last 18 months catering to nearly 250 learners.
SOME OF OUR EXPERIMENTS
Creating learning environments where children can thrive is not easy and no one can claim to have all the answers. Every child and community is different and it's important to iterate and evolve co-creating the spaces with the learners. At ViKa we've experimented and tried various strategies reflecting and learning together with the community and children. Below are some of our efforts and some of our open questions to which we'd be happy to hear some ideas?
ALPHABET DANCE
The objective with this was to merge an activity that the children did not like very much with an activity that they thoroughly enjoy. Many young children find it tedious to memorise the letters of the alphabet and learn to identify them. To help with this we created an alphabet song that the children could sing and dance to.
MEET THE TEAM
VIGNESH PRASAD
Vignesh Prasad is a computer scientist from Georgia Tech. Having worked in the Silicon Valley startup environment, as an engineer at Tilt.com, Vignesh learnt about creating customer centric products. Vignesh believes that a similar philosophy is necessary to change the education system and thus began his journey of creating learner centric spaces.
PRASANNA SALIGRAM
Prasanna has a bachelor’s degree in engineering, an MBA equivalent, and a Master of Science in Global Health and Public Policy. He moved on from his engineering career to work with communities. Prasanna is currently involved in raising awareness among waste picking communities on health and well-being in the urban areas of Bangalore, Vijayawada and Shimla.
ABU HURAIRA SHAIKH
Abu is a designer who has a Masters in Design from ISD Rubika, Pune. Abu has worked on human centered design projects including automobiles and watches. Abu is keen on using his design knowledge to create learning environments that are able to keep in mind the learners’ socio-psycho-economic context.
VENKATESH NAIK
Venkatesh has extensively worked with communities for many years now predominantly focusing on health related work. A SOCHARA fellow, he has conducted Tuberculosis awareness camp and has worked as a counsellor for persons living with HIV. Having a bachelor’s degree in education it was natural for him to move to the education space.
ARATHI B R
Arathi is a Kannada teacher with 10 years of experience. She is also a certified Yoga instructor and believes that meditation and calm spaces are crucial for child development. Arathi believes that there is a lot to learn as a learning facilitator and aims to transfer learnings between her school and after school experiences.
JANAKI PRASAD
Janaki is an MPhil in Mathematics and has been in the education space for the past 30 years. She has been the Head of the Department of Mathematics at Sishu Griha School and has also worked at the undergraduate level. Having worked in a Montessori school, Janaki believes that all learners should have freedom in their learning.
