Providing Education & Training to Women in India

The Manipuri Children are a group of 23 children from the orphanage in Kerala in which we help. We give them education whilst the orphanage (where they are now living) waits on their paperwork (birth certificates and previous school papers) before they can be admitted to a formal educational institution. Aged between 4 years to 13 years, they were part of child labour trafficking and were brought to Kerala on the promise of earning some money. We are fortunate to be working with these amazingly bright children since June 2011.

We have split up the children into different groups based on their capability and prepared a schedule that involves them with sports, numeracy and literacy abilities and arts /drama or science on a daily basis. This is in line with our long term goals which include language acquisition and helping disadvantaged children. We all work hard towards putting together material for these children without a curriculum at hand. We have got volunteers to use their knowledge and interest to teach the children the vital language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

This past month has been very successful as we have had some qualified teachers and a few experienced and hard working volunteers to help us. One of the most successes has been getting the kids to write out a Spanish folk tale that a volunteer told them. The children got really involved and wrote the story in a book form that is now going into print after we edit it. It goes to show how talented and creative the children are and also how well they are learning. The money we raise from sales is going to go towards buying them more story books. The journey continues and we hope that these beautiful children keep smiling and learning.