Gift Preschool Education to Children in India

Dear Friend, 

We are happy to share with you that Hippocampus has opened close to 100 new centres this year. In June this year we have opened the doors of 213 Hippocampus centres in 12 districts in the state of Karnataka. Nearly 7000 children will be studying with us this year. With your kind support students from poorest rural families will receive scholarships to attend our centres.  

This year we have implemented a technology platform through which we will be able to track the attendance and learning of every child. We will also be able to monitor the performance of every centre on an on-going basis. As per results of the last year 92% of our senior students are able to do addition and subtraction within 10, and 87% of them are able to read a simple English sentence.

As we continue to grow and enroll higher numbers of children every year we strive to deliver joyful and fun learning for every child. 

Dear Friend and Supporter,

The months January to May is a bustling time at Hippocampus as the action moves primarily to the field. The Annual Days for each Centre are held in the months of February and March. These events in most villages are well attended by the whole village and become an occasion to celebrate their children’s learning and talent. There is much community engagement and sponsorship and in many centres are preceded by activities and events for parents. In many centres the Annual Day had over 2000 people attending.

Simultaneously, the expansion team are also on the field identifying new villages, finding centre spaces, recruiting teachers and doing parent orientations for enrolling children. This is our year of big expansion as we expand our Kindergarten program from the current 4 Districts to 12 districts in Karnataka through our own centres and schools partnerships. We are looking at opening 120 new centres across these 12 districts taking the total number of villages with our KG program to close to 300. This year we are also working with 100 schools taking the total number of children who benefit from our program to around 20000. In pursuit of this goal, we have already identified and approved all the required villages and have finalized spaces in over 100 locations.

Teacher recruitment is currently in progress in full swing with hundreds of teachers undergoing our robust 6 stage recruitment process. This includes a written test, classroom demonstration as well as personal interviews. At present we have selected teachers in upwards of 60 villages. For many of these women this is their first job and the opportunity to be trained as a Teacher and working in their own village is very exciting.

As we move towards our enrolment stage, we hope you will continue to support our scholarship program for the poor children. We have a long way to go, so do share our link at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-700-children-to-school-in-2015/ with your friends, family and your colleagues at work.

With appreciation and gratitude,

Lily