-Karma Gyurmey
I still remember the day when I visited ENVISION’s Career help desk in Majnu ka Tilla with my mom. I was demotivated and unsatisfied with myself at the time as I was not able to continue my schooling. ENVISION Team working at the Help Desk recommended Ritinjali Second Chance Programme so that I can continue my formal education and also learn a life skill at the same time.
This is my second year at Ritinjali and I feel really lucky to be able to get back on track. I have learnt a lot including things I have missed whilst in school. In the first six months at Ritinjali, I studied life skills training. As part of extra-curriculum activities, I along with other students were tasked with drawing graffitis for our hostel and classrooms, practice dance performances and teach life skills we have learnt to our juniors. We were responsible to look after differently-abled children which I felt was most fulfiling and happy about. We were also taken to camping which helped me bond with my batch mates better. One of the best parts of the training was that we were made to join classes at Inlingua, a language Centre to improve our English. My English improved and I am confident that this will help me understand textbooks better and clear my class X exam at National Institute of Open University.
After six months’ training including sessions on building employability skills such as writing professional resumes, mock interviews, I was given an opportunity to intern at Trident Hotel since I am interested in Human Resource Management.
For the first two months, I was assigned to their HR department. In those two months, I learnt about managing human resource and also got the opportunity to learn about their database system. It was all a new experience for me. It was hard, but fun and gradually I adapted well. I learnt the process of selecting a new employee for a hotel and also learnt how to respond to emails from the people who have applied for work at the hotel.
I also got to intern at the Oberoi Hotel wherein I learn about sponsorship paperwork, billing, voucher, and Tax invoice scanning. It was all different from what I have experienced at the Trident hotel. At present, I have suspended my training at the hotel due to the nationwide lockdown because of the Coronavirus. I am taking full advantage of this free time to prepare for my class X exam which is in May.
I thank Ritinjali and Empowering the Vision Project for this wonderful experience and I recommend this Second chance programme to all the Tibetan kids like me to join.