With week 5, the thematic classroom sessions of NFLC came to an end and week 6 was practice week for the students, wherein they were given the opportunity to actually work with/in one of the Keystone organisations, based on their interest and/or their longer term research objectives.
Hailey and Sowmiya decided to go with their longer term research goal of working with health workers, while Anupriya was interested in documenting the Irula culture with the Radio team. Visithra and Zoe worked with Aadhimalai in campus.
Hailey and Sowmiya visited Aracode to see the production centre and shadow the health workers. They walked in the village stopping at households to administer health surveys. They also discussed perceptions of local health systems with the production centre employee. Zoe and Visithra worked on data entry and helped the packaging section working with beeswax and freshly ground coffee. Anupriya’s Irula exploration took the whole team on a visit to Vagappanai where an Irula cultural event was celebrated on Thursday. The visit exposed out students to a breathtaking and challenging landscape where they got to witness and learn details of Irula culture upclose and personal.
