Send a Child in India to School for a Year

Dear Friend

I hope that you and your loved ones are keeping well.

Whilst much of Europe and North America are still shivering through one of the longest cold winters on record, spring has most definitely come to this part of Rajasthan.

2018 sees the 50th anniversary of Seva Mandir and, while we have many achievements to reflect upon, there are constant and changing challenges.  Education has always been one of Seva Mandir’s core activities, and we have worked hard to give children in the far-flung villages of tribal southern Rajasthan the chance to learn.

Our bridge-schools (Shiksha Kendras) manage to reach many children who might never have had the opportunity to learn.  Often this is because it is too far for young children to walk, over difficult terrain, to government schools, or because their parents keep them back to help with cattle grazing and other work.

Asha, who is around 13 years of age, is lucky enough to live in the hamlet of Madlafala, part of Parevi village, where 15 years ago Seva Mandir set up a Shiksha Kendra amongst the fields surrounding the hamlet.  At the beginning there were 15 pupils and Nar, who has been the instructor there since the beginning, would go around the village homes to explain the importance of education for the children.

Now there are 36 children aged between 6 and 14 years, grouped into three classes by ability.  The two ablest groups sit in the same area of an open-sided classroom with the third group sitting nearby.  They work on different lessons at the same time and the teacher often gets his best students to sit with the children in the lower class to help them while he works with the other pupils. Asha is one of his best students.

She is a bright, enthusiastic girl, always the first to put her hand up to answer a question and the first to volunteer to lead a recitation or song.  Her parents did not go to school, so she says she tries to help them, for example by making sure her mother isn’t cheated by the shopkeepers.  She is clearly a leader and is not afraid to correct her elders even in matters of hygiene.  She says, ‘If someone sits down at home to eat without washing their hands, I tell them, “You haven’t washed your hands!  You must do that before you eat!” I also make sure my mum washes her hands before she cooks our food.’

About a third of Nar’s pupils go on to the government school three kilometres away after spending around three years at the Shiksha Kendra.  This year nine children will probably go on to government school, most straight into 6th grade because of the level of education they have attained.  Asha will be one of these and she has said she wants to teach when she grows up.  Of the other pupils, most want to go on to teach and three say they would like to become doctors.  Two previous pupils have indeed become teachers in government schools, so they make good role models for the children.

With your help we will be able to train more instructors like Nar to run our schools in these remote areas.  His enthusiasm and dedication will continue to inspire more children like Asha in the future.

Thank you so much.

Regards

Atul Lekhra and the Seva Mandir team

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