Help create a Billion Literates!

Our core program continued this quarter with various innovative methods adopted by our pare-teachers, as mentioned in our previous reports. We continued to conduct Small Group Learning classes in open areas, distribute worksheets in the neighbourhood of each of our para-teachers, and have WhatsApp worksheets for those fortunate enough to have smart phones.

 We have recently launched our Tablet Program, where we have made short educational Apps with videos, which can be loaded on to tablets and distributed to groups of rural children in the same neighborhood. We have started a pilot with about 100 rural children.  

 A Migrant Community

 The last quarter also saw us engage very actively with a migrant waste pickers’ community (WPC), with whom we had established initial contact during our Covid Relief work from April to June. During our multiple trips to this 450 strong migrant community, we soon realized that the pandemic had only exacerbated the extremely pathetic conditions they were already living in. We also became aware that there were close to 60 children in the community (aged between 3 to 12), almost all of whom had never been to school. Once our Covid Relief Program started petering down, we decided to have an informal Learning Centre for these children. The small start quickly grew into a very active – 4 times a week intervention from this month – program for these children. A curriculum in Early Childhood Education, smart T-shirts for uniforms, learning materials, a properly fenced/roofed/floored space, appointment of 4 trained teachers, story-telling sessions – and more, quickly took shape. Health camps for the kids as well as the adults were organized, hygiene kits distributed and sustained efforts to inculcate good hygiene habits are part of our rehabilitation initiative for this community.

 Our long term goal is to have a ‘bridge school’ to help these children enter the formal schooling system, which is the Right of Each Child.