By Ancy Reuben | Resource Mobilization Manager
Dear Friends,
NEW YEAR WISHES FROM THE ENTIRE IDEA TEAM !
Pune city is known as the Oxford of the east for its rich legacy in education. But that is only one face of the city. For people who have migrated to the city from the nearby villages to make a living by working as laborers and daily wagers, education was still not a priority. Their children as first-generation learners found it difficult to continue schooling though government had made it mandatory to enroll all children in school. In 2002, IDEA started its educational projects in slums and underprivileged communities to bridge the gap between educational initiatives taken by government and the uneducated parents and to make sure that every child gets equal opportunity to complete their schooling. IDEA study centers have made a difference in many children’s lives. Many of them have not only completed schooling but also have taken up professional courses and got placed in good companies.
In 2020, everything has changed. Our study centers were running very smoothly and successfully for 16 years, suddenly we are faced with new challenges. For a while, we thought we won’t be able to continue with our work as the lockdown continued for months and months. Schools closed everywhere and we didn’t have a choice but to close down all our activities. But unlike other children, we couldn’t leave these children to their own families as their environment and the family background is not at all suitable for their progress. So, like other NGOs, we have also decided to switch to online interventions, though it wasn’t easy for us as we are already dealing with families with less resources and income. IDEA social workers consistently worked to keep in touch with the children over phone and made them aware of the current COVID situation and precautions to be taken as well as to keep the learning process ignited. We are able to continue all our study center activities online now and we have also modified our extracurricular to fit into the virtual platforms.
We have arranged programs on every important day, like Gandhi Jayanthi on 2nd October, children’s day on November 14th. We have organized programs on festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali, children and their parents were equally excited and supported their children in taking part on extracurricular activities. Every year children look forward to IDEA sports competitions, so this year instead of cancelling it, we looked for alternate methods. Our team was very innovative to organize sports events which can be done in their own small rooms. The categories included were skipping challenge, Ball Dribbling, Hopping, High jump and Ball balancing. Children were very excited to take part in these activities.
Thank you so much for your support so far and please continue to support us because we can only continue our interventions and meet the extra expenses with your generous support.
Hope the new year will be better than last year, and we all will be able to live a normal life as before.
Thank you!
By Ancy Reuben | Resource Mobilization Manager
By Geetanjali | Manager
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