“I believe education can be a powerful tool to make a difference in the life of the poor.… That was my personal journey, ” says Ms Immaculate Mary Rennis, an alumna of WCC, a passionate educator and a social development worker. Ms Rennis is also a social researcher, Expressive Arts facilitator, playback actor, and creative communication and life skills coach. She co-founded Ignis Careers, a social enterprise, along with her husband Rennis Joseph in 2009. The low-cost education solution, the Ignis model that she developed with her husband, has reached over 3,00,000 children and 20,000 teachers in 900 schools across 9 States in India.
Ms Rennis recollects her past when she had to struggle with poverty, especially the times she had to study without electricity. Being a first-generation learner, Miss Rennis had a passion for learning and is thankful to her teachers who were always there to support her through her numerous struggles. “ I always have that love for my teachers, because I feel that though my mother gave birth to me and provided me with survival skills, my growing needs to face society were met by my teachers who played the role of mothers,” she said.
Recently while addressing a webinar for students of the Department of Psychology, WCC, Ms Rennis shared a few reminiscences from her life, where she talked about how she developed social empathy after seeing people die due to extreme cold conditions on the platforms of Delhi. She also talked about encountering a child who managed to study under the streetlight while his father lay drunk beside him.
A boy studying under the street light; image courtesy – Immaculate Mary Rennis
She spoke of how she developed empathy through these experiences and how she wanted to incorporate the concept of empathy in various social hierarchy systems . “I saw different angles of human vulnerability by which people were getting affected, and examined the kind of social structure that was not allowing people to unleash their own potential, and wondered why the human spirit was blocked with layers of discrimination in an unequal society,” she said. She added that education was the only tool which could break this vicious cycle of poverty and patriarchy.
Ms Rennis’ life is inspiring and her message is:“It’s our duty to give back to society.” This is a reminder of a quote by Muhammad Ali: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
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