Open Kindergarten Centres in 40 villages in 2013

Festivals in India are celebrated with great enthusiasm; they symbolize the cultural heritage of our country and highlight various aspects of our society. They also help to promote solidarity and promote acceptance of diversity in religion and traditions. Our Centres use it as an opportunity not only to highlight the talents of children but also to celebrate the event and pass down the history and cultural heritage of the country. While some are religious and some are of national importance, all are celebrated colourfully and with great harmony and enthusiasm.

I would like to share with you a few of the important national dates and festivals celebrated at our Centres in the last 6 months.

August 15^th is Independence Day and at our Centres, children dress up in costumes that represent heroes like Gandhiji, Nehru, freedom fighters and other national personalities. They tell stories of their heroes, the national flag is hoisted and the teachers share with children the stories connected with Independence and the lives of national leaders.In some centres, children join up with students from other schools for a joint celbration of the event.

October 2^nd is celebrated as the birthday of Gandhiji and children come dressed up as Gandhiji. It’s a fun celebration and likewise we have had festivals like the birthday of Lord Krishna when every child in the Centre comes dressed as Lord Krishna. Stories and traditions associated with the lives of Gandhiji and Krishna are shared and acted out.

Another national day is November 14^th, (birth date of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) which is fondly celebrated as children’s day all over the India. The day calls awareness to the rights, care and education of children. The children come dressed up as Nehru, and other national heroes. Rani Chennamma, a well-known queen of a princely South India state who was a freedom fighter in the 19^th Century is a favourite character among the little girls. The life of Nehru and the importance of Children’’s Day is shared with the children and parents who attend.

Among the festivals, Diwali, known as the festival of lights is celebrated with the festivity it deserves. Children come colourfully dressed, traditional Indian decoration and patterns made with coloured ground rice are drawn on the floor and lamps are lit to symbolize the victory of light over darkness.

Do enjoy the pictures of children from some of our centres dressed up for the different celebrations.

From the current 124 Villages, by June 2015 we aim to expand our work to 300 villages, having close to 10,000 children enrolled. As part of our program we offer scholarships to make it possible for even the very poor children to attend preschool. This June thanks to your support we were able to offer scholarships to 275 children. Next year we hope to more than double that number and need your generous support to make that possible.

The link to donate for scholarships for next year is uploaded at: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-700-children-to-school-in-2015/.

Do help us by forwarding the link to friends and family who maybe interested in supporting preschool education.

Happy Thanksgiving and warm wishes from Hippocampus for the holiday season ahead.

Lily

HLC started in Kyathanahalli village in Mandya in 2011. The first year was not encouraging, with just 17 children in a village as big as Kyathanahalli. However, the management, HLC staff and the teacher Latha didn’t lose hope. They started to work proactively within the community and included them in the celebrations and other programs organized by the company.

2012 was the start of the growth story. With children in the previous year showing strong learning outcomes and added effort at enrollment by the teacher, the number of children increased by 100% to 34 children and a second teacher was added. By 2014, the enrollment has grown to 74 children with 4 teachers. The growth rate gave insights of how it would be in coming years not only in Kyathanahalli but across other centres too. This success story is largely due to effective community involvement by the teachers and the learning outcomes of the children.

Latha is today the Centre Leader effectively managing the Centre and the 3 other teachers who work with her. Parents take pride in their children, since they are ahead of their peers studying in other schools and proudly participate in all programs organized by HLC. The teachers too are happy for the teaching opportunity provided, that gives them great recognition within their community and for the continuous training provided by HLC that enables them to get better every year.

Hadadi is a village in Davanagere district of Karanataka where HLC started the preschool in 2012 with only 18 children. Lakshmi was the first teacher selected from the community and trained by HLC . Initially the community was not very supportive, because they felt that we were wasting the childrens’ time by teaching through play and other materials that were very different from what they knew. It took two years for the community to appreciate the change in their children and the way they learn. In 2013 numbers increased to 42 children and two more teachers Kalavathi and Geetha joined to take care of different age levels. With the teachers growing in skill through the training they receive and the children enjoying the fun and activity based learning, HLC is today a vital part of the Hadadi community with 62 children enrolled in 2014.

These are just two stories of success as we celebrate the 4^th year of HLC with preschools now running in 125 villages in 3 Districts of Mandya, Davangere and Shimoga, with 4000 children enrolled and 250 young local women selected and trained to be preschool teachers. Slowly but steadily HLC is moving towards its dream of taking good quality preschool education to rural India and at the same time creating a pool of talented teachers who are strongly committed to improving the education in their communities.

Thank you for your support that makes our work possible.