We had gone to a nearby ground today to play some Kho Kho since the center was being used for a women’s self help group. On the way back the children were all excited and were laughing, singing and dancing. I was a little wary of how the community would react since there were people giving angry glares. However, since the children weren’t really doing anything wrong and were simply having fun I didn’t really say anything and allowed them to continue their song and dance.  As we were heading closer to the center, one man (possibly drunk) started to shout at the children asking them to go home silently without creating a ruckus. I was just about to intervene and was beginning to explain that we were doing nothing wrong and that we were just singing when he hit one of the girls in the group. This girl in particular was also not at all the one creating a noise and she spoke back saying that she was not the one making a noise. I too backed her up and tried to diffuse the situation saying that I would take care of everything. I decided it would probably be wisest to not make a big issue out of it and continued on my way back. The girl was quite annoyed and angry and broke down. Though she had done nothing wrong (in this case the singing and dancing which was perceived as wrong) she was the one who got hit. She explained to me that this is not the first time this had happened to her. Sometime before when she was riding around her cycle in the community, someone had told her mother that she was roaming around “loosely” as a result of which she got in trouble.  In hindsight, I wonder if I should have perhaps stood up more for the learner and made sure that the person knew that he had no business hitting the children especially when they were doing nothing wrong. I feel that we have established ourselves to an extent in the community and maybe given where we are I could have been a little bolder about handling the situation. However, I felt that I did make good use of the opportunity to talk to the learner. I explained to her that she had no reason to be disappointed with herself. The person had no business hitting her and that if she hadn’t done anything wrong then there was no reason for her to hang her down in shame.  Most of my life I’ve always been taught and told that when you do the right thing and work hard things usually go well for you. But that may not necessarily be true for many of these learners. It felt a bit tough to know that though we were doing our best to create a great learning environment for the learners, their lives outside continue to be filled with unpleasant situations even when we are present. <mark style="background: #FFF3A3A6;">I really feel that at some point we need to not just create a learning environment but start to create a better community for the learners to grow and thrive in.</mark>