Send a Child in India to School for a Year

Dear Friends, Happy Holiday Season! Hope you are enjoying the holiday season. This year the winter has started a little later here but it is pleasantly cold right now. We hope it is also nice weather where you are. I am sharing the half yearly report (April to September 2010) which my colleagues have prepared for you with much enthusiasm and gratitude. With this letter we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you for all your support to this project. During these six months a lot of work was done and on many occasions the village communities and the students have come together to exhibit their solidarity on the issues of Education in our region. In the report one such incidence of village Chhali is narrated. I hope you will enjoy reading more about it. By September 2010 we were running 192 schools with 208 teachers. Total enrollment has been 5,703 with 3,310 boys and 2,393 girls. 227 teachers were enrolled for the certification course which is an in-depth training course for the teachers that Seva Mandir offers in the project you are supporting. However, this year, the village communities also selected some teachers from the Government Schools. This shows that the investments in teachers made by Seva Mandir are of great value in the local community and people are able to see positive impact on their children’s learning. More than 1000 children got enrolled in Government schools this year after graduating from Seva Mandir supported Rural Schools (SKs). We are very excited to share all the progress we have made. We believe that our success is your success. We are delighted sharing it with you and we hope you are also glad to hear about it. Thank you for being a wonderful partner to us. We hope to continue receiving your support as your contribution and support brings us a lot of strength and positive energy. Do consider to donate to us again and tell your friends about this project. Thank you very much once again. A small story at the end of my letter is given for your reference. I hope this holiday season is the best of all you have had so far. With warm regards, Deepti ------------- In Losing Dhana village the Government School was located 2 kms away. During monsoon it was even more difficult for children to walk to it as the stream in the village divided it into two halves. Considering these hardships the village community proposed to open a rural school in their neighborhood. Therefore, Seva Mandir supported the rural community to set up an SK in 2004. At present there are 22 children enrolled in the centre, including 11 boys’ and 11 girls. The SK is run by a local instructor, Premlata, who has studied till class 8th. She teaches children with lot of care and attention, and makes sure that the environment is child friendly and comfortable. One of the students at this centre is Meethalal Rawat (12 years old). He came to this centre in 2009. He had passed out of the Government school in Losing Dhana from class 5th, but could hardly read any letter in Hindi nor could count till 20. After 1 ½ years now at this centre he can now count till 100, can do basic mathematic calculations and read and write small sentences in Hindi. As per the instructor he is friendly to all his classmates and is much disciplined. He loves playing cricket and Kabaddi (Indian sport) too. Lakshmi (12 years old) another student at this centre also studied in government school till 4th class. After realizing that she has not learnt much in 4 years, her parents enrolled her with the SK in 2008. Now after spending 2 years her academic performance has improved drastically. She can read and write sentences, count till 100 and can do basic ma thematic calculations. She enjoys reciting poems in the class. She works hard and is very bright. She dreams to be a teacher in future.

Links:

• annual report 2008-09

• Half Yearly Report April-September 2010 (DOC)