Building a Future for Brick Kiln Children in India

There have been a number of exciting developments with this project over the past six months. In the first few months of 2015 a one-off grant of £5,000 from Karuna enabled the project team to buy and equip a new mobile learning centre which now travels between the brick kiln sites offering the children access to new learning resources such as educational dvds and tablet computers. We recently visited the project and were able to see the van in action for the first time. The kids are really enthused and excited by the new technology and their parents like to get involved to! Using e-resources means that we are able to deliver a high level of education in isolated areas to inspire and engage. 

We also have just completed an independent evaluation of the project. One highlight is the success of the non-formal education project in enrolling and retaining children in school. 30 students have passed 4th standard this year. The parents attitude to education has transformed. During the first year of the project, parents did not send children to class. Now they send their chidden regularly at 10:00am.  Some come to school and help clean the classroom. Some parents volunteer to conduct class if the teachers are not present in the school. They encourage students to go to school. With the support of these parents, the children are positively progressing in education and the relationship with the local school is very positive. The project is demonstrating to the teachers that children who were thought "unteachable" are in fact able to learn and schools are coming to visit the project to find out how!

This is great news for the sustainability of the project. We are working with the partner to develop this into a model of best practice which hopefully can be rolled out to more brick kilns in the future.