I heard of Kalidasu Vamsidhar in 2012 when I was featuring an inspiring teacher every month for my newsletter/website.
See the interview here.
His work with the Chenchu tribe had started in 1996, and even then he was quite involved in the education of tribal children of Nallamala forest, “Children of Forest”, along with his teaching sessions in Hyderabad. He was initially shocked at their naivety and lack of common math skills, but he also discovered that they have tremendous physical stamina.
I had been hearing from him on and off over this decade, and I can’t help being in awe of the work he is doing with the children. Five years ago, he stopped his classes at Hyderabad, except for some consultancy in schools to fetch the money he badly needs, to devote more time to CoF.
The place he has chosen is so remote and difficult to reach, that he hasn’t been able to get any volunteers to help him. An occasional visit or a 1-day participation is not what he is looking for, but consistent and reliable support. To cut a long story short, he is handling only what he can do alone. For example, two of his CoF students joined a SHANA International school in Rajasthan for free last year. Even bringing them home for holidays is his job, and thankless to top it!
Together with the children and others, they have built a school, which became operational in June 2023.
The Chenchu tribe is victimised by parasitic banjara communities, and I was quite shocked to know that the average life span of a male chenchu is 35-40 years. 70-80% of adolescents are therefore either orphans or with only a mother. Hence their coming to education is even more difficult, because of other pressing needs.
Severe malnutrition and kidney diseases due to inadequate water intake are quite common (it seems they wouldn’t carry water and sustain long periods without..the process of filling water is a development in recent decades).
With CoF, the children have undergone first-aid training and road safety training leading to certifications.
This tribe is still predominantly ‘hunting gathering’, but living in harmony with the flora and fauna of the region. The story of government initiated development projects and other social dynamics are too complicated (I found a research paper here) and Vamsidhar has therefore restricted himself to education and sports like marathon running, jogging (500km from 1st June to 18th Oct 2023), javelin throw, rigorous fitness exercises and cycling. Yes, he believes that sport can bring in the necessary change in the children. Towards this, one of his successful projects has been cycling. He got second-hand bicycles and also some from a corporate house and since the last three years he has taken the children on really long expeditions and off-road cycling. They regularly ride 50+ km (5000 km from 15th Aug to 18th Oct 2023) and have gone on a Himalayan expedition of about 3000km with support from sponsors and friends.
He has sent me a lot of photographs and videos and some news items about achievements of his CoF school. I have put them in an album here.
The next Himalayan cycle expedition is scheduled to leave on 20th Jan 2024. CoF needs funds and anything you can contribute is valuable in the journey of these children of forest.
Here is a link to a talk with him.
Contact: childrenoftheforest31(at)gmail(dot)com, (+91)98667 03785, (+91)94918 48168
the path.. 