Bricks to Books

Bricks to Books is an initiative by Learning Links Foundation to bridge the gap in education inequity and increase awareness of the rights enshrined in the constitution. The project provides support to the not so privileged section of the society and impacts the lives of the children by enabling them to maximize their potential to transform their lives. The project aims to involve students, teachers of the nodal schools and the school going children from the communities to adopt a robust awareness campaigns against abuse, discrimination, exploitation of children. The project involves working intensively in the communities adjoining the nodal schools of Panchkula, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

 Activities taken up in the last quarter:

 Parent’s Orientation:

 An orientation session was organized for the parents of the school dropouts. The session was conducted by the principal of a renowned private school. The reasons for not sending the children to schools were discussed. The following were the reasons given for not sending their children:

• Hefty fees are charged by private schools
• Although Government run schools offer free education the overhead costs of buying books, uniform, etc cannot be supported as the economic condition of the parents do not allow
• Private schools do not provide admissions to children from underserved segments
• Migrant nature of the parents

The outcome of the session was to organize specialized individual coaching to the children to kindle interest in them.

Basic literacy classes are conducted every week end. The children are also encouraged to use computers and express themselves.

Some of the children’s profile:

Rahul and Rohit are two brothers, who work at the contractor site.  They have been attending the classes and show a lot of promise. Their parents want to see them in the mainstream school.

Khushi, daughter of mechanic Ramesh, works at the petrol pump and wants to join back her friends in school.

A signature campaign is going to be organized in the coming months to invite volunteers and motivate them to work towards the cause.

• Bricks_to_Books_Report.pdf (PDF)