VOLUNTEERING
CUCKOO FOREST SCHOOL “The Cuckoo Movement for Children” is an informal group
The routine at the construction site needs a mention. We
of friends and volunteers who have been working with rural
would wake up to the rooster calls of 5:30AM, having
children of Tamil Nadu, India since 2004.
slept on rock slabs from an abandoned temple. We would begin work at about 7am to 2 pm. When the sun mellowed
For ten remarkable days, we gathered from all over India, and
down at around 4PM we would hit the building site
helped to build the Forest School — an alternative schooling for
again, where we were also joined by the village kids and
the rural kids, where they would be free to explore, think and
they never failed to shower love on us. We would finish
create with no rights and wrongs, and nor would there be any
work at 7PM, and sometimes even 11PM, depending on
grades to define them. - Kaveer Rai.
the tasks and energy we had.
LOCAL RESIDENTS SHYING AWAY FROM CAMERA
1ST DAY OF THE WORKSHOP AND BUILDING
ADOBE BRICK MAKING
VOLUNTEERS RESTING
