1. Context
Post an intensive and testing second COVID wave that raged havoc in the lives of community members, local healthcare systems such as PHCs/CHCs and other village and block level clinics proved overburdened to cater to the proliferating needs of the rural populations. Furthermore, there was a lot of vaccination hesitancy, scepticism and fear within local communities in the slums of Shamsabad. Many villagers had to deal with ill-health, grief and loss while navigating limited resources and access to quality healthcare systems between May and June. While the foundation was continued its efforts of raising awareness and working on improving local governance in healthcare delivery by setting up oxygen plants, collaborating with AHSAs, CHCs, PHCs, district hospitals in facilitating access to critical supplies and medical equipment, there was an imminent need to work on vaccination hesitancy. On-ground circumstances revealed the urgency to generate the demand for vaccinations at the village levels and motivate and mobilize local communities to fight a possible third wave by getting vaccinated.
2. Intervention
E&H Foundation launched a large-scale intervention in July, to promote COVID-appropriate behaviour, address vaccination myths and hesitancy and facilitate access to vaccination within bastis, building upon its existing right-based interventions and expanding operations to cover 100 villages across two - Shamshabad and Nawabganj in the Farrukhabad district of UP. Kits of medicines, masks and dry rations and are also being distributed to the most vulnerable households including parent communities where classes are running.
3. Implementation and Strategy
The project is being implemented by the current field team comprising of 20 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and a cadre of about 80 volunteers from these 100 villages. Large scale mobilization drives are being conducted within these villages to counter vaccination disinformation and promote COVID appropriate behaviour and mobilize the adult populations to get their vaccine doses. This is being done through door-to-door awareness campaigns, Public Safety Announcements (PSAs) through Religious leaders at Mosques, Temples and recurring E-Rickshaw drives within bastis; distributing IEC materials like Pamphlets; placement of multiple Posters, Banners and Wall Murals to build the narrative and encourage vaccination at large. To continue the momentum and meet the demand, engagement with local stakeholders (CHCs, PHCs, ASHAs etc) is being undertaken to work in collaboration and identify, motivate and mobilize 18+ individuals to participate in government-organized vaccination drives. In many areas, we directly intervened to set up vaccination camps partnering with local CHC, MOIC, doctors and ASHA workers.
4. Impact
Since July, E&H Foundation has motivated and mobilized over 40,000 individuals across 100 villages to get their first dose of the COVID Vaccine and is now undertaking mobilization activities to get these individuals their second jab. In the last three months, teams have conducted large-scale awareness campaigns in 100 villages.
COVID has been tough on communities. Many children had to drop out and could not afford digital learning during the lockdown. In the rural slums of Farrukhabad where E&H Foundation has been running education programs since 2013, families were struggling to survive the impact of COVID. Post the second wave, the fear has been high. Building upon our existing programs, we intervened in our work areas last year in the rural block of Shamsabad in the Farrukhabad district of UP, reaching out to 28 villages covering over 6000 families and worked on:
Since August 2020, E&H Foundation is supporting communities with access to information, entitlements and education in the rural and urban slums of UP. We are building preparedness for any future COVID waves and also working in close collaboration with public infrastructures and front-line workers to address myriad challenges and social issues in a collective approach.
In the ongoing academic year, E&H Foundation is supporting the quality primary education of over 5100 underprivileged children from STD 1-5 in the rural and urban slums of Farrukhabad and Lucknow in partnership with Gyan Shala and Bharti Foundation. Of these, around 4400 students are being covered from STD 1-3 through learning centres within slums of Lucknow and Farrukhabad and another 720 students from STD 1-5 are being covered through three operational schools in the rural slums of Farrukhabad.
In the last few months, we have worked closely with our ground partners to promote COVID awareness within classrooms via distributing masks to students and parent communities, distributing oximeters to teachers and supervisors, distributing food kits to parent communities as well as motivating and mobilizing entire villages to get vaccinated.
"The greatest danger is that children from marginalized backgrounds will lose out on their education and we cannot let this happen. The scale of the challenge demands innovation, partnership and solidarity. We need to act urgently and work together as one" - Global Education Coalition, Message from Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General
At the onset of the pandemic, children in rural and urban slums of India were cut off from learning networks. For months, they could not come to class, as the programs remained suspended from March when lockdown began and school closures continue. Furthermore, internet access remains a luxury for most in rural India. Most of our target groups families have either one smartphone or no smartphones at all and hence could not access digital education, where it was provided. Furthermore, they were struggling to sustain livelihoods during the trying months of the pandemic. Furthermore, most of our students (over 80%) are first-generation learners with little to no support and no facilitating education environments at home.
We found that this significant break has led to a drop in the learning levels of children, which was already low. They needed immediate assistance and continued access to learning networks. However, the starting point was not the same for all children in 2020-2021. Being cut off from learning, social and friendship networks has setback primary education in rural India, especially the education of the girl-child. We are working with communities to send their children back to school because learning shouldn't stop and we are making sure of it.
Greater challenges demand greater resolve. And that is when we decided that the class should reach them instead. August onwards, our filed teams including teachers, senior teachers and supervisors reached kids within their homes and started teaching them in groups of five, maintaining COVID protocols. They had been in constant touch with the parent. communities and even provided assistance with other difficult and challenging situations emerging from COVID.
We need support from partners like you to keep children studying and in classrooms. Over the next two months, our aim is to assess learning levels, support children and parents struggling with preparing for assessments as well as to conduct oral tests for over 3000 children in Farrukhabad, UP. Pedagogy has been made more robust as children could not come to classrooms from March until September and are currently studying in small batches, maintain social distancing.
E&H Foundation is enabling quality education for children in rural and urban slums of Uttar Pradesh with proven models and robust pedagogy. Join us in bringing missing children back to classrooms.
Sharing key achievements & highlights for the academic year 2019-2020 where we supported the primary education of over 7000 children in the rural and urban slums of two districts of Uttar Pradesh - Farrukhabad and Lucknow.
Earlier this year, E&H Foundation along with its team of interns conducted the first part of its ongoing research study aimed at assessing the long-term impact of our programs and partnerships. It was a chilly January afternoon; when we had just entered the Bhikampura (Farrukhabad) locality for our weeklong survey. This included going back to the children from earlier batches of our program (2013-14; 15-15, 15-16 & so on) conducting interviews with parents, teachers and children as well as engaging with the communities.
The goal was to understand how many children are continuing education after graduating from our classes at Std 3 & 5, understanding parent’s perceptions regarding their children’s future ambitions as well as current education status. After brief meetings and quick rounds into the classrooms of ongoing classes, we began field surveys and interviews. Group discussions, community meetings as well as door-to-door surveys were also conducted
There were many interesting encounters but one was deeply memorable.
Motivating children to continue learning/ Family that learns together, grows together
In the interiors of the Bhikampura colony, resides the Khan family. A chirpy little household painted blue and white where two families reside together. The family was one of the first we visited, as the children had been part of the E&H Foundation run the program (in partnership with Gyan Shala model) for 5 years. The three siblings Amreen, Shareen, and Arman were part of the Gyan Shala system and were eager to share their experience with us.
All three (Amreen, Shareen & Arman) studied under the program from Std 1-5 and are all first-general learners. Like most families in the area, they too earn their living through Zardozi work. Their father, a Zardozi worker has migrated and works away from home in Punjab and their mother does the same job at home, part-time.
Learning to chase dreams of a quality life
All three children are currently studying in nearby government schools. Here were a bunch of kids who were extremely excited to talk about school, what they learn, and what they like. The survey and interviews were going on as per schedule, the children, mother, and little siblings all engrossed. Each of them discussed passionately their learning experience and how it urged them to learn more and study more.
Highly motivated and sincere in their work which reflected in their grades and most importantly acknowledged by the teachers as well. Their mother, Noori, was keen to see her children flourish and willing to support their education till wherever the children would like to study. She did express the difficulty they face financially, “but that would not weigh down on my children’s dreams”, she says.
The children were zealous and aspired to move ahead in their lives. One of them is driven to become an inspector in the police, one a teacher, and many other ideas racing through their minds.
The commendable thing about their situation was that despite the strain they faced financially they still insisted that their children attended school and in case of extra support, even had the option of attending remedial classes within their locality.
According to the family, their ‘first school’ or E&H Foundation is where they learnt everything from reading, writing, to make basic calculations.
“Classes were held and taught is an orderly manner; the teachers always took a personal interest in us. A lot of our friends could not clear the entrance for Std 6 and that is where the classes made all the difference” – they said.
The involvement of teachers encouraged the students and especially parents to send their children to classes. Post Std 5, when the children wanted to enter into mainstream government and private schools, they firmly believed that they cleared the entrance due to the learning achieved in classes and the help supervisors and field team provided at the time of mainstreaming. This is also possible due to the consistent efforts of the field team, the parent’s motivation as well as the continued support our classes have received our partners. Fostering long-term learning outcomes and motivation for continued learning is possible only due to the persistent presence of our organization, partners and program in the colony, but especially in Bhikampura where the program is running since 2013.
These first-generation learners are now keen to study further and achieve greater heights. Their youngest sibling, Mahim (5) is currently enrolled in Std 1 and is eagerly waiting to return to class as soon as COVID-19 related fear and outspread is controlled. In the absence of support from partners like you, there is a high possibility that these children would not have been able to access primary quality education or continue learning in the first place.
We are currently supporting marginalized communities to survive through these tough times by focussing on providing relief and rehabilitation to the most vulnerable 3000 families (including parents of children enrolled under our educational program who are currently out of work due to COVID-19).
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