Education for 100 street children in India

College can be tough. Being the first member of your family to attend college can be even tougher, especially when you come from an underprivileged background like the children in AIC’s impact communities.

Recently, we sat down with several of the students in our AIC college program to see how they were settling into their new experiences. Talking with them emphasized one resounding point: the kids miss the personal touch of an AIC education that they haven’t found at college. Pooja struggles with the lack of structure, specifically having no one to guide her on how and what to study. When engaging in impersonal interactions with his college teachers, Rahul (Waghri) laments, “I miss the concern and discipline the staff of AIC provided.” Not only do they feel a lack of guidance academically, but also socially. As with many of our students, Umesh comes from a traditional background where boys and girls do not mingle, so college was a shock for him, and it took him a while to feel comfortable communicating with his peers.

The hurdles they face are not surprising due to the fact that no one in their families has attended college (or in some cases, school at all), and therefore cannot provide guidance and advice to help them overcome their disadvantages. Starting a new educational experience in a new place full of seemingly confident strangers is difficult everywhere. Luckily, these students have AIC on their side. The nurturing environment provided by AIC is due in large part to a passionate, skilled support team, headed by directors, Bunty and MK, college counselor, Greeshma, resident counselors, Suchitra and Madhavi, and many others who have supported these students up to this point and continue to guide and mentor them as they spread their wings and learn to fly. Greeshma, in particular, has dedicated herself to the college program and continues to serve as an adviser from whom the college students seek frequent guidance. “Knowing the kids face so many challenges, it’s nice being able to provide any comfort of relief,” she says. “Makes it worthwhile!”

To further bolster the post-education prospects of our college students, AIC has collaborated with multinational gaming company, Ubisoft, to offer job skills and mentoring, and hopes to add additional companies, organizations, and individuals to participate in a more formalized mentoring project in the coming months. Exposure to the different departments in a company and workshops on future goal planning has helped them to begin exploring more options for their future career endeavors.

In spite of the challenges, AIC’s college kids are enjoying learning new things, both through their studies and about themselves. “College is the only place where I feel free and happy,” expresses Neha, who is currently focusing on preparing for her 12th standard exam in the hopes that her parents will allow her to continue to pursue her dream of working with computers. Rahul (Wagheshri), who hopes to work in the service sector, has become more responsible towards his family and about his future. For Rahul (Waghri), an awareness of his strengths and weaknesses has helped him work on improving himself, particularly his communication skills. Umesh, who explained, “I didn’t know how to talk to people in college, hence would keep quiet all the time,” now feels that the adversity he faced has made him more confident.

It is achievements and triumphs like these that reinforce our belief that we are on an exciting path with the college program. Although still in its infancy, the college program is growing as more and more AIC students graduate from high school with each passing year. We are honored to be able to continue to support these trail-blazing young men and women as they become the next generation of leaders within their communities.

One might imagine that sending a child to school would be a relative easy affair - provide a uniform, pay annual school fees, purchase some pencils and notebooks - sounds doable, right?

However, the factors that affect this child's success (or lack thereof) at school are much deeper and more complicated than that. Problems at home are often the root cause of poor academic performance, behavioral issues, and inconsistent attendance. Ensuring the health and welfare of families is a crucial aspect of providing educational opportunities for AIC's students and we don’t have to search very far to witness the impact of this approach—we see it every day in students like Divya (name changed).

By all accounts, Divya is a sweet and fun-loving little girl. She loves studying English, excels in sports, and never misses an opportunity to participate in any shenanigans happening at the AIC Center. Her cheerfulness is so infectious that you wouldn’t imagine that she had been struggling to stay afloat at school until recently.

Divya and her four siblings live with their parents in one of the many make-shift housing structures in the slum made from corrugated metal and fabric. During monsoon season, unsealed, leaky roofs on these shelters lead to dangerously unsanitary conditions and a variety of health problems for the families that inhabit them.

In Divya’s case, the roof was not just leaky, it was completely porous, made from layers of fabric stitched together and stretched over the metal sides of the building. Divya explained that during the rains, so much water would come in that her family would wake up during the night to change their clothes, but it didn’t help much because the dry clothes would be soaked through by the morning. Possessions, including the children’s books and school supplies, were frequently ruined. Things weren’t much better during the winter season when Divya’s family huddled together to keep warm, with no protection from cold nighttime temperatures. Night after night of sleeplessness caused by poor protection from the elements began to take its toll on Divya's school performance and her teachers were deeply troubled by her tendency to fall asleep in class and resulting patterns of disruptive and defiant behavior.

This monsoon season, AIC staff provided Divya's family with a microloan to buy materials to fix the roof of their home. AIC has also taken an active role to provide counseling services and hands-on support for the family to help them improve their economic conditions and continue building healthy relationships with one another. Divya says that since AIC extended this support, the whole family is able to get a good night's sleep, everyone is in better spirits, and arguments between her parents are much less frequent.

Today, Divya is a wonderfully silly and vibrant 10 year old. She has shown significant improvement in her studies and aspires to become a teacher after college. This school year, we discovered something new about Divya—she is a gifted athlete. This term, she began participating in an afterschool P.E. program at the AIC Center, and her talent and enthusiasm shone through so brightly that the coach remarked that she could be an Olympic athlete one day. True or not, Divya is more focused on playing kho kho (a tag game) and kabbadi (a rugby-type game) with her friends than training for a gold medal.

But who knows—maybe one day.