From Child Labour to College: Support Her Future

Reshma, 19, lives in the village of Velhale in Maharashtra, India. Reshma lives with her parents, grandparents, cousins, sisters and brother. The family took in Reshma’s cousins after their parents died in an accident. In all there are ten family members living in a two roomed tin hut.

The family live on a small plot of land that they grow crops on to sell at the market. However the area is drought prone and the crop often fails. The grandparents are dependent on the family to pay their medical bills. Reshma had always wanted to help the family financially but didn’t have the skills to find a job.  

The project team held a meeting for young people in the village on vocational skills training they were providing in the area and Reshma was immediately interested. The girls who went to the meeting wanted to learn garment making skills so the team agreed to make these available. Reshma completed the course in 2 months making the 10km journey by bicycle that the team had provided for her as transport.

When Reshma finished her training she got a loan from her Aunt to buy a sewing machine. Soon she was taking orders from the local area. With the money she had been able to enroll in university as well as help her family with some of their costs. Now Reshma is facing a much better future as a result of the help given to her by the project and its supporters.

Zole is a small village 12km form Sangamner, Maharashtra, India. The government school in Zole was built in 1949 but until recently it had become very poorly cared for. The school did not have proper toilet facilities for boys or girls. The walls of the school had never been painted. There was no kitchen or eating area and no library or computer facilities.
Despite the bad condition of the school nobody was motivated to improve the school facilities. Teachers were often absent and the school management committees were not interested in making the needed changes. The school was not a joyful place to be and as a result suffered a high dropout rate of students.

The project team took responsibility for improving the school in 2012. The first thing they did was to hold meetings with all the school stakeholders such as teachers, students and parents. The team convinced the stakeholders of the importance of a child completing their education and how this could be helped by bringing up the schools standards. They conducted training and workshops with all the stakeholders to show what role they could play in improving the schools quality.

The team conducted local fundraising through the stakeholders at the school and raised over £20,000. With this money a drinking fountain, sanitation facilities, kitchen, computer laboratory, library and study area were built. Teaching standards improved as teachers became better skilled and motivated and the school management committee became skilled and engaged in running the school professionally.

Enrolment in the school has now increased and the school is attracting wealthy students from the village who previously went to the private school. This year the school achieved A grade status and has won praise from the local teachers union and government education committees. None of this would have been possible without the project and its wonderful supporters.