Transform lives of 85 child laborers in India

Dear Esteemed Patrons,

Greetings to you from HEARDS - India!

I trust you are doing fine.  I am reaching out about the Progress that happened during this project.  The Child Labor Rehabilitation Project, a Child Welfare Program by H.E.A.R.D.S aims at granting freedom from child labor and inequality.  Primary education is the foundation to achieve success and eradicate poverty. Hence, this program aims at a prolific learning module for impoverished children, with a lot of emphasis on theoretical and practical knowledge for their overall personality development. An environment for better education coupled with an assurance that every street child and dropout is ready for mainstream schooling is necessary to bring equality and ensure that all the children get equal rights to schooling.

HEARDS follows a sequential approach to ensure school enrolment for the underprivileged and reduce the dropout rates, especially for girls:

1. Kids who are working in various hazardous and non-hazardous occupations are identified and counseled on the importance of formal education.

2. These kids are then equipped with bridge education and basic cognitive skills. Their performance is monitored and documented for the scope of further improvement.

3. Enrolment of kids into formal schooling program after crossing the bridge education program, followed by some remedial classes for doubt clearance after school.

Research indicates approximately 40 million children in the age group of 4 to 14 years are school dropouts and two-thirds of them are girls. After the initial five years of elementary education, only 40% of the children attain basic levels of learning, while a staggering figure of 58% of the girls' drop out before completing primary school due to several reasons. These children belong to very low-income groups and are first-generation learners; hence, they face a lot of familial and societal pressure to discontinue their education for several reasons like poverty, job, and child marriage.

SURVEY

The survey program has been targeted at school dropouts, child laborers, rag pickers, etc to preach education at a community level, which will foster an overall physical, mental, and social well-being from an early age. Parents of these kids were quite elated while they were enlightened with the importance of education and their child’s progress. Gender equality with skill-based functional literacy is the penultimate objective.  During our survey, we found out 51 children who are working as child laborers and dropouts.  After repeated visits by our staff, they convinced the parents as well as the employers of these children and bring them brought to our child labor rehabilitation center.  

MAINSTREAMING OF CHILDREN

There are 10 kids, who have transformed into bright and confident individuals after receiving primary education from HEARDS and then have been admitted into different Government schools. Proper education is instrumental in their success and all of them are quite elated to have received the appropriate guidance to fulfill their long-term aspiration.

Child Labor Rehabilitation Program is indeed a milestone achieved in spreading literacy to every nook and corner of Chittoor, to form the backbone of the not-so-privileged kids to fly.  Though the road ahead is quite long and some benchmark needs to be set at each milestone in the long run, victory is inevitable with adequate support from the stakeholders.  As the schools are reopened, we are in process of mainstreaming the children who are up to the mark.  

Thank you for your decision of supporting HEARDS and your contributions are helping us to save and protect children from the hazardous jobs where children are facing significant threats and immediate danger every single day.  You will receive regular updates showing how your money is making a significant difference and you will see first-hand the challenging realities we face and how your support is bringing hope to the lives of children and their communities. 

Thank you for supporting HEARDS.  Have a pleasant day ahead.

With fond regards,