Angie Toppan, one of our most beloved volunteers, and a confidant for many people in the Foundation, conducted a series of interviews with different staff members:

There are several points which come up again and again in the interviews, themes that permeate them all consistently. One is the high regard in which staff members hold each other and the organisation. Another is the appreciation they feel for the opportunities they have to develop, both personally and professional, both within the foundation and without, for example training in Delhi or elsewhere.

In addition, the mutual respect which is engendered in the foundation, regardless of employees’ caste or social position, is considered a unique and special aspect of the staff. The “bosses” will share food with the cleaners, there are no “ma’ams”, only “didis” (sisters), and a huge effort is made to make everyone feel part of what is happening. A number of the teaching staff I’ve spoken to have received on the job training through the school, but in terms of actual education, they have only completed class 12, which they insist does not put them in a strong position on the job market. However, they have been employed and trusted, have grown into and in their jobs, and are now highly qualified and ready to teach others. It’s amazing. Empowering. Invigorating. These women (and men, but the special educators and assistant teachers are overwhelmingly female) feel that anything is possible, that the more they learn the more they want to learn, that the sky’s the limit. Their “can do” attitude is exciting and infectious.

Sometimes, when Edmund and I are de-briefing with each other at the end of a day, we'll wonder at the opportunities we've had as volunteers. In some of the situations we've found ourselves in we've been regarded as experts, or at least competent, in areas where we've not considered ourselves to be highly skilled or informed. Yet we've been invited to give workshops and presentations, we've never said no, and they've been well received. Edmund has considerable experience presenting to an audience, both as a monk and a patchwork artist, and I've got all those years of being on stage in classrooms in different educational establishments, but there's still something both daunting and thrilling about being entrusted to communicate to a group something that is important to you. Putting together a programme for a workshop or a presentation is a tremendously useful exercise in itself: brainstorming ideas, choosing the areas of focus, selecting ideas to support the focus, organising the ideas, rethinking, rearranging, making sure a presentation contains variety, pace, balance, opportunities for interaction and active participation, and so on. We've both thoroughly enjoyed the processes, not to mention the events themselves.

Speaking for myself, I've done many things since we started this journey that I wasn't aware I could do. Staff at LRMF projects can relate to this. They sometimes surprise themselves.