Help Empower 100 Children in Madhya Pradesh India

The Sangrur Children’s Umeed Project is run by Mrs Sonia as the Project Leader and teacher, building on work she started in 2022. The Umeed Project (Umeed means Hope in the local Punjabi language) seeks to provide elememtary education and a feeding program for 50 destitute children in a slum colony situated in Sangrur, Punjab State of India.

Currently the project serves about 25-30 children through Sonia, a qualified teacher who feeds and teaches in a makeshift classroom made of polythene sheets. The children’s parents work as rubbish pickers and usually leave the slum colony early in the morning at the break of dawn for the city of Sangrur to forage through the city’s rubbish in search of recyclable items. Usually, the parents leave the children sleeping unattended and once they get up then join their parents in the city picking rubbish or begging. The project thus serves not just to keep these children from the streets but also to offer them some elementary education.

The last few months (May-July) was a difficult one for the people of Sangrur and especially the destitute living in slums. It was monsoon season in India and Punjab province where our project is situated was adversely affected by heavy flooding which was made worse after dams filled up and the provincial government made a decision to release the dam waters. These conditions severely hampered learning mainly because the children do not have the benefit of a permanent classroom that can shelter them from adverse weather conditions – hot, cold or wet.

There was however, a silver lining during the period, in that donations made through GlobalGiving facilitated the purchase of books and stationery for the children. These gifts were well received by the children and their teacher. The project was also visited by Cynthia, the Project leader from Kenya (photographs attached). Her visit enabled the team to make an assessment of the structural requirements in Sangrur, as funds are raised to build a classroom(s). We look forward to the day when the children will be able to learn in a permanent classroom building and in school uniform.

Donors like you help provide meals and an elementary education for the destitute children of Sangrur. You are not just providing meals and books for children in rural India but in a seemingly hopeless situation, you are giving them hope for a brighter future.

We are deeply grateful for your support!