Empowerment of Dalits in India

Dalit Solidarity runs St. Patrick’s Academy, an affordable and cost effective matriculation school for more than 600 children who are from 30 nearby villages. Each child, at St. Patrick’s Academy is enrolled because their family circumstances are particularly needy. 

The school remained closed almost two years due to COVID. We lost a couple of parents and many children moved to other towns and cities as their parents lost their jobs and livelihood during the lock-down. We have an enrollment of 650 students from kindergarten to high school from more than 30 villages.

We have 45 staff both teaching and non-teaching. We spent a great deal of time with them to understand their needs and evaluate their performance, their success and shortcomings. We had a meeting with parents who were very much involved in the development of their children and the academy. We thanked for their participation.

We deeply listened to all children, staff and parents and assured them of our continuous support in providing quality education. Most of our children come from poor families who could not even make $3-$5 a day. They could not afford to pay their tuition, books and transportation. St. Patrick’s keeps the doors open to any child regardless of their ability to pay or not.

The ongoing operational budget for St. Patrick's is roughly $10,000 per month - covering staff salary, teaching materials, transportation and maintenance. Your support is vital in helping us leap over our pressing budget hurdles, and in ensuring that we can continue our excellent service to our little ones, who are so very motivated, enthusiastic, and diligent in pursuing their studies.

St. Patrick's maintains a strong record of success and excellence in providing cost-effective, quality education to children who are socially and economically disadvantaged. As supporters of St. Patrick's, you can be proud of what your contributions have made possible.