Educate street children in rural India

Thank you so much for your support in helping to educate the street children in urban communities. You can never over estimate what a difference you are making.

Last Saturday we hosted four workshops for eighth and ninth standard girls from our city schools in a program led by our Malala peer mentors who you are helping support. Our peer mentors, recruited from our slum schools and shelter home have attended a year-long campaign supported by Malala Fund to end the exploitation of children. The Educate.Empower.Lead. campaign gave them the skills which they were able to use to manage and present over the whole day. They helped nearly 70 local school girls conduct practical exercises to enable them to plan and manage their own awareness and advocacy campaigns to promote girls’ education in their schools and communities. At the end of the day they made a pledge and were inaugurated as our newest Malala peer mentors. They will report back on their progress on 12 July, Malala Day, and we can’t wait to see the impact they make.

As part of the workshop we shared a recent report issued by Malala Fund on the state of education in India. This reports that 25% of boys and girls are unable to read 2^nd Standard text, 36% of girls and 38% of boys are unable to read English, a core subject, and 42% of girls and 39% of boys are unable to do basic arithmetic. These shocking statistics show why our work in our slum schools is so vital. Our after-school study classes focus on the basics of reading, writing and maths to ensure that our children can do better in the curriculum taught in their schools. We also supplement this with ad hoc activities in other subjects. For example, last month, our seven slum schools took part in a science exhibition, showcasing experiments and science knowledge to their peers, families and community leaders. You can watch highlights from the science exhibition below.

Joining the children was Aniket. A former beneficiary and now mentor and example to the younger children, he overcame many challenges to enroll in higher education.

Coming from an extremely poor background, he lived in one room with his mother, father and two sisters. His father, fuelled by alcohol, would often be abusive and make life tough for the young Aniket .

He dropped out of school and became a drifter, getting in with bad company and making a meager living selling Vada Pav, the ubiquitous Maharashtrian potato snack. Life seemed pretty aimless for Aniket and he was never far from trouble. That was until one of our Balbhavan education coordinators saw the potential of this young man and helped turn his life around. They spent time mentoring him and gradually involving him in their education projects and counseled and encouraged him to go back to school. Seeing he had a keen interest in football they helped him form a football academy coaching 20 boys from the nearby slums. Many of his team have played at state and national level under his training.

He is a talented and natural host of our Balbhavan Annual Cultural Shows and wins over even the toughest of audiences. His talent is also on display at the regular street plays that we perform in Ahmednagar. He and his fellow performers have won several trophies proving what winners they are.

Nowadays you’d wonder how Aniket finds the time to pack so much into one day. But that he does. As well as studying animation at his local college he provides a helping hand and is a popular figure at a nearby hospital where he works the nightshift. On top of this, he continues with his football coaching, can often be seen climbing poles to fix electrical faults in his community and is a regular volunteer at the slum community halls helping and mentoring children to take the right path.

His real dream is to become an actor, and he can be found practicing in front of the mirror every day to perfect craft. The good news is his dream has already become a reality as has just completed filming his first feature film taking a lead role in a Marathi movie.

 Aniket is just one example of how your support is helping to improve the lives and help give kids access to an education that would otherwise be denied. Thank you!

Links:

• Balbhavan Science Day Exhibition
• Visit our website

Thank you for your support of our project this year. We simply couldn’t do what we do without your backing so on behalf of those whose lives you are improving may we wish you and your loved ones all the best for the new year.

As 2018 draws to a close we would also like to share some of the highlights of the year with you. We have over 20 projects working in rural India to help improve lives through education, rehabilitaiton, health and advoacy.

As you can see from our Review of the Year video below our beneficiaries are as diverse as our projects and you are helping to put the smiles you see on their faces. You are also helping us to advocate for change through our work with global campaigns for gender equality in education and to end trafficking as well as more localised work we do for women and child rights. We won’t stop until every woman and child has the equal right to live a life free from cruelty, discrimination and violence and we hope you stick with us next year and beyond.

Your support this year has ensured that 700 children living in slums have had access to after school tuition which has seen a 400% increase in A and B grades over four years. While we have 7 classrooms in the hearts of the slums, our peer educators also work in outreach identifying and counselling the drop out children and their parents meaning 41 children have been re-enrolled in school so far this year. Also parents are beginning to see the impact and value of educating their children with 37 families enrolling their children into additional tutoring at their own expense. When you consider that most of them work for unreliable daily wages of US$2-3 per day as piece-workers, rickshaw drivers or maids this is massive. We also support and encourage extracurricular activities and our winter sports camp which ended today saw over 300 children participating. All of our work ensures community harmony but has also brought and end to child labour and marriage in the areas we work in. 

We need your continued help to maintain these records and impact and encourage people living in slums to invest in their children's futures. The good news is we are currently taking part in Global Giving’s End of Year campaign and our education project is in the runing for bonus prizes that will help us to continue our good work in 2019. Anything you can give before 31 December will help us to ensure a brighter 2019 for our children.

Thank you once again and Happy New Year from all at Snehalaya.

Links:

• Watch our 2018 highlights
• Visit our website