Educate street children in rural India

Thank you for your support of our education projects for children living in our city slums. We are making great advances and eagerly await the results of 10^th and 12^th standard exams which recently concluded. Over the past three years we have seen a 350% increase in the number of A and B grades our children are achieving, fingers crossed this trend continues this year as well!

While our centers focus on raising the academic grades of our children we are also equally as focused on soft-skills development and extracurricular activites. Shubangi is one of our longest attending Balbhavan beneficiaries who we have proudly watched grow up over the past 12-13 years. She lives in one of our poorest slums with her two younger sisters and brother. Her father is one of the ubiquitous bottled water sellers plying bus stands and her mother is a maid so money is very tight for the family.

As well as completing her final years of a BA in social work she is campaigning for girls' education as a peer mentor for our Educate. Empower. Lead. campaign with Malala Fund. This involves visiting communities throughout our 74,000 sq km district with roadshows focused on improving equality in education and peer mentors like Shubanghi are delivering the presentations and running activities to engage girls aged 13-17 in campaigning to improve their own opportunities. It’s fantastic to watch our mentors facilitate discussions amongst the young people and listen as they come up with their own very practical solutions to help break down the barriers. One example is the paperwork required for college entries, for some people the documentation needed, such as caste certificates, is incredibly hard or even impossible to get hold of. Our girls have since appealed to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to relax the rules for people from poor socio-economic backgrounds and he has promised to look into it.

Sharing their own experiences is also important in inspiring others. Despite watching all her friends give up their education in favour of marriage, 22-year-old Shabanghi is determined to complete her degree and join the police force before settling down herself. Having grown up attending our evening study classes she still turns up every night to teach and inspire the next generation and is a great role model for other girls.

On top of all it all she also has a passion for football and is a member of our women's team and recently represented Snehalaya and Maharashtra in the Slum Soccer state and national championships. Her teamwork and skills on the field stood out and she has now been selected to represent India in the Homeless World Cup in Mexico in the next few months. We are equally as excited as she is for her to embark on her first overseas trip and represent our organisation and nation on the international stage.

Thanks for being part of our team and the part you are playing in giving our chldren life-changing opportunities to achieve their goals.

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