12 Year Old Takes on Teaching Responsibility

A 12 year old Indian girl has taken it upon herself to teach homeless kids in her devastated hometown:

Indian schoolgirl Aashna Lucas is only 12 years old but she has taken on the massive job of helping educate youngsters left homeless by the tsunamis which lashed India's remote Andaman Islands.

"The tsunamis washed away their schools so how will they get an education if we don't do something?" asked Aashna at a fairground in the territory's capital, Port Blair, that has been transformed into an emergency shelter.

A grade A student at Mount Carmel Convent in Port Blair, Aashna has plunged into the task of schooling kindergarten-age tribal children evacuated from Car Nicobar island, which was devastated by the towering tsunamis two weeks ago.

She takes her job of teaching the tots — mostly aged three to five years, but a few of whom are older than her — extremely seriously. "I come here exactly at 8am every day and often leave at 11 at night during which I hold several shifts and they should not be disturbed," she said during a recess break.

Aashna, whose own school is closed due to the disaster, teaches some 15-odd tribal children poetry, English and arithmetic during each shift, shelter officials said. Teachers said she had a natural gift for teaching.

"It's amazing for a small girl like this to be able to instill discipline among such small children and then actually getting their attention to teach them stories," said N. Senguppa, a Port Blair teacher and aid worker.