Back to school program for 150 poor children

Report

First of all let us thank our magnanimous donors who contributed generously to realize the objectives of the program called “Back to school program for 150 children” from Madhari (cobbler) community, the community placed at the bottom of the caste ladder in Indian society. Even though we could not receive our donations in cash from GlobalGiving till date due to problems faced by them from the Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India, Impact guru came forward and assisted us with a donation of INR 150,000. We thank both GlobalGiving and Impact Guru for supporting our program.

As a first step towards realizing our objectives, the staffs of Village Development Center (VDC) involved in the process of selection of Volunteer-Animators as facilitators to run both Child Learning Centers (CLCs) and Children’s Parliaments (CPs) in the target villages. With a fixed criteria of (1) local community member, (2) minimum educational qualification of a pass in Higher Secondary Examination, and, (3) being a member of local Youth Clubs, we selected 20 young people from 10 target villages.

 After the completion of the selection process, the staffs of VDC involved in training the Volunteer-Animators for equipping them with information, knowledge and skills to facilitate the functioning of CLCs and CPs. With resource persons from local NGOs, we trained them on the various aspects of conducting CLCs and CPs. The training program was intercepted with input sessions in the form of lectures by Resource Persons, plenary sessions for clarifications, group discussions on specific areas for further understanding of the concept, debates on the pros and cons of present educational system, demos on functioning of CLCs and CPS, and the concept of CP with special emphasis on child participation and child rights action.

Out of the 20 participants who participated in the training process on CLCs and CPs, VDC selected 10 efficient Volunteer-Animatorsas facilitators from 10 target villages. VDC instructed them to make necessary arrangements to organize CLCs and CPs in their respective villages. The Volunteer-Animators started involving in selecting the neediest children from their villages numbering 15 to 20 and formation of Children’s Parliaments comprising of all the children in their villages. These ten Volunteer-Animators provided VDC with data of children who need to be given learning skills and a list of other children who would be integrated in the proposed Children’s Parliament.

 At present, VDC started 3 CLCs in three villages and remaining 7 will be launch on September 9, 2019. VDC will update the information from time to time.