Spice May issue ipad LR

INITIATIVE
START-UP
Atthar from Iran interacts with nursery kids in Mumbai
THE
SCHOOL OF
LIFE
CLAP GLOBAL TAKES INTERNATIONAL
TRAVELLERS INTO INDIAN
CLASSROOMS, FACILITATING A
CULTURAL EXCHANGE EARLY ON IN
LIFE. BY LIANA M.
WE DON’T LEARN CULTURAL
sensitivity in classrooms, but maybe we
should. Clap Global, a new start-up
co-founded by Mumbai residents Shirin
Johari and Aarti Chhabria, arranges for
international travellers and expats to
visit local schools. These outsiders talk
about their hometowns for an hour, and
the kids get a first-hand account of life in
other cities. Clap Global
has received initial
funding from Eton
Capital and seed funding
from the government of
Chile through its
incubation programme,
Start-Up Chile. (Earlier
this year, Johari
travelled to Santiago to
work out how Clap could
be taken to global
classrooms and how it
IF EACH STUDENT
PARTICIPATES IN SIX
CLAP TALKS EVERY
YEAR, THEY WOULD
HAVE RECEIVED
EXPOSURE TO 72
DIFFERENT CULTURES
BY THE AGE OF 15
could be adapted to other languages.)
They’ve also signed an MoU with
Amnesty International in which they
will be able to access Amnesty’s school
network and receive help in developing
the Clap curriculum.
So far, the duo has held 125 Clap Talks
from travellers from 43 different
countries. I troop along for one such talk
to an expensive school
in South Mumbai.
Chhabria is
accompanied by
Cristina Hernandez,
Clap’s head of sales from
Spain, and the speaker
of the day, Abraham, a
Mexican expat living in
the suburb of Thane.
Chhabria is carrying a
hexagonal ball in pastel
shades, with
IMAGES COURTESY CLAP GLOBAL
140
MAY 2017