'Holistic Development'for 300 Poor Kids in India

Dear friends ,

Thank you so much for supporting this project. We are here again with two stories and a brief on the impact of the project.

We also got an opportunity to host Ms. Kavita Mathew,In-the-Field traveler  from Global Giving at Foundation for Initiatives in Development and Education for All ( IDEA) in January! GlobalGiving's site visits are an important part of GlobalGiving’s  work, , to meet the people in the field & support the Non-profits partners. Here is what
Kavita said about our projects supported by Global Giving .

 “ On behalf of GlobalGiving, I appreciate the invaluable work done by IDEA ( Foundation for Initiatives in Development and Education for All) for the development of urban slums in Pune, through the empowerment of women and children” 

Kavita's visit was helpful to us in understanding the GlobalGiving platform more effectively . OUR SINCERE THANKS TO GLOBLA GIVING ! 

Stories from the field

 Lakhan goes to School !

Lakhan’s parents work as labourer on sugarcane field. They get seasonal work and have to migrate from places to places. In addition, the village they live had famine condition. They had difficulty in meeting both the ends. In such condition, the parents decided to send Lakhan to his maternal Uncle and Aunt’s house at Pune.

Little Lakhan was wandering and was noticed by the teacher. Though Lakhan attended a school occasionally in his village , he was not enrolled in a school in Pune as his Uncle faced technical difficulty of producing birth certificate or a transfer certificate from the village school . IDEA’s center teacher enrolled him in the centre first. She also got him enrolled in school within a few days as she was aware of the provisions in Right to Education Act informed to teachers in the monthly meetings. Otherwise he would have been a school dropout and may be engaged in child labour too. But teacher could notice the urge to study in little Lakhan  and she focused on him. Lakhan had tremendous difficulty in grasping due to change in medium of instruction. The centre teacher put in efforts to teach from beginning. Now he is able to read & write Marathi. He has won prize for good handwriting in school. Lakhan is happy to go to school.

 ‘My training made a difference in Heena’ - A teacher’s reflection

  ‘ Heena is unable to read & write as per her age. She is attending the IDEA centre for last three years. She is studying in 4^th Std. I tried a lot to teach her but her performance is poor. After attending the training on Learning Difficulty in children, I had empathy for Heena. I adopted different teaching technique for her. I made colourful teaching aids to develop her interest in reading. I also make use of twigs, beads to help her in counting numbers. Her response has improved. Her parents used to get angry & shout at her frequently.  I had a dialogue with her parents too. Now they also have understood the difficulty and have reduced to yell at her. I hope I am able to provide Heena better environment for learning’.

 IMPACT OF THE PROJECT : 

The Programme & activities have brought about a positive changes in the children, teachers, parents & community.   There is remarkable improvement in the academic performance and over all development of children and activite participation of parents and community people.

 Improvement in the educational performance: There has been a considerable improvement in the educational performance of the children over a period of time .  IDEA conducts yearly assessment of the children to understand their achievement level.

The number of students in Grade ‘A’ has increased to 70% (Yr 2014-15) from 49% & 13.5% in Year 2013-14 & 2012-13 respectively. In grade ‘B’ 21% ( in Yr 2014-15) while it was 32 % & 28% in  2013-14, 2012-13 respectively.  Percentage of children in grade C & Grade D has considerably lower in  2014-15.

School attendance has increased from 85% to 90% in these three years. The average centre attendance has also increased to 75%.

Development of children: There is positive development in each child. He is provided opportunity for practical application of the theory learnt in Anand Bazar ( Arithmetic  skills through replicating a vegetable market ) activity. Children have started taking initiative in presenting skits written by themselves, puppet making etc. They have participated in rallies to campaign on issues like health & hygiene & Save the girl child. They themselves made posters and slogans.

Some children applied their creativity in making varied items from the art & craft                                   lessons  they have learnt in the center like  Rakhi( wrist band) made through paper art to tie to brothers during the festival. The values like helping, sharing, and team work are inculcated in them through activities.  

Reduced rate  of  school dropout in working areas:

IDEA is working in Shravandhara slum since 6-7 years. IDEA has adopted holistic approach, considering all age groups, these include study centers to improve academic performance of children, educational sponsorship programme for high school children from poor families & skill development for youth. The survey done by IDEA in this slum shows that the school dropout rate in age group 6-14 years has come down to 0% in year 2014 where as it was 2% in year 2010 and 8 % in 2002 . This is a remarkable achievement! 
Similarly, in other slums too the percentage of school dropout has come down. We are enrolling out of school children in school, if identified. 

Teacher’s development:  Various training programmes for teachers have given them confidence, skills & motivation to work with & for holistic development of children, apart from building their capacity and efficiency as teachers.

An Appeal

We appreciate YOU for supporting IDEA to help many marginalized children through this project . We are planning to reach out to many more children in remote locations in Maharashtra. We are seeking your continuous support for this expansion plan .

Thanking you in advance for your support