Help educate 600 tribal children in India yearly

Sajani and Kasmita are two tribal girls from Ahirwani Satellite School. Both of them aged 12, are currently enrolled in standard 7 in Government Middle School, Ahirwani. Three years back when the Satellite school was started in Ahirwani both the girls were like majority of the other students who didn’t even knew how to write their own names at the age of 9. Their regular attendance at the school and getting promoted to higher classes was not leading to even minor improvement in their learning levels.

Life dramatically changed for these young girls when the Ahirwani Satellite School was started in 2012. Initially both the girls were irregular and even when present in school they were found quietly sitting in the classrooms, only marking their physical presence. They could hardly catch the wavelength of teachers due to skills far below the standard they were enrolled in. Now after studying in the Satellite School for nearly 3 years they are able to display a number of skills which they could not even imagine in their previous life of schooling. Today they are able to translate Hindi sentence into English. One can see them engrossed in solving Mathematical problems as difficult as additions and subtractions of Fraction Numbers and putting their minds in the food cycle or functioning of Panchayati Raj.  They would actively take part in class works and approach teacher without any hesitation and doing group works.

The extent of their satisfaction with the improvement in their learning levels is evident from the enthusiasm they show for attending the school on regular basis. Another thing they are glad about is the opportunities they get to participate in the range of extra-curricular activities. They also participated in the Annual Cultural Programme held in Adharshila on 14^th November; 2014.They added (with big smiles) this was the very first time that they had performed on stage. Not only that, Sajani won in an event in the Annual Athletics Meet organized in December 2014. It means they have not only learned the regular subjects at school but also successfully exploited their hidden talent of art, culture and sports.

Sajani’s family is mainly dependent on farming and Kasmita’s father runs a small shop in the village, both the girls are the eldest of the siblings and thus are required to assist their parents in daily chores. But attending school has become a daily ritual for them, which they don’t compromise with for anything and also their respective families have extended their cooperation seeing the overall development in both the girls. Unlike many tribal parents who face the dilemma of whether to send their children to school or use their labor for supplementing family income, parents of Sajni and Kasmita chose to send their girls to school seeing the positive results in their performance.

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