Street to School -Mainstreaming Street Children

Dear Patrons,

All of us at Aasraa are wishing you a wonderful start to the new year with good health and happiness.

As we dive into 2021 with renewed hope and energy, we want to tell you how grateful we are to have you by our side through and through despite the daunting odds that all of humanity is facing due to the pandemic.

Mother Teresa says, “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving,” and that thought perfectly describes your gifts of love and care to the lives that so need them.

Aasraa supports children who have bleak living conditions and even bleaker futures. But their hope and healing begin with you; because of you. Your contribution is priceless to every single beneficiary in our care.

Below are the success stories of 2 students, whose lives you have influenced in such a positive way, that mere words cannot express our appreciation:

• Shubham is the oldest son of a daily wage-earning single mother with four younger siblings. Instability due to economic migration took a heavy toll on Shubham's education until he joined our shelter home and started his formal schooling in Class 7. He completed his school education with first division, and then completed his 3-year Diploma Course in Mechanical Engineering under Aasraa’s support. Shubham later bagged an internship with Padmini VNA Mechatronics Private Limited, one of the leading manufacturers in the automobile industry. Now, Shubham wishes to work in the luxury car sector.

• Salim, one of our children, completed his schooling from a government school under the mainstreaming program of Aasraa. Born to illiterate parents and to a father who never understood his dream of working in the medical field, Salim is a focused and diligent student. He has completed his Diploma course as a medical lab technician. Currently, he assists at one of the most renowned pathology laboratories in the town.

Thank you for putting your heart into our cause and joining hands with us to make the world a better place for them. Your kindness helps nurture several dreams to fruition.

You make Aasraa and there’s no greater gift than that.

Thank you for tipping our scales to success every day.

EDUCATION IN THE TIME OF COVID

For every dark cloud there is a silver lining

We, at Aasraa, greatly appreciate your ongoing support in meeting our mission to reach out to vulnerable children and give them opportunity, care and love. It is a joy and an honor to partner with you in an effort to provide quality education amidst the pandemic.

As Covid has swept across the planet like a raging storm; everyone has been impacted.

At Aasraa we have risen to the challenge of educating our slum and street children while schools are closed. These children do not have access to laptops, tablets and smart phones.

We have created a model, based on a grid mapping system, to not only reach our children and continue their education, but to significantly raise the level of education they receive.

We have called this program ‘Silver Lining’

Aasraa’s mission is to provide opportunities to marginalized children through education to break the poverty cycle; to level the playing field. We have designed a blended learning program to raise the education bar for these slum and street children… and deliver it!

They have taken to it like little ducklings to water.

THE PLAN

On a grid, we mapped our children and created small clusters based on location.

Using a ratio of 8 children to a dedicated education phone, we raised funds through our wonderfully supportive donors and bought tablets and smart phones.

Three learning zones were established and teachers were mapped, based on subject and class level, to match these zones.

These education specific smart phones (Ed Phone), assigned to each cluster, combine online classes, education apps and tutorials with teachers. Printed education material to reinforce these concepts taught on line is distributed, collected and marked each week. A combination of on deck and off deck activities keep the children engaged throughout the week.

THE TRAINING

A massive exercise was undertaken to train our teachers to use this blended learning program; to teach online, to use education apps and respond to children’s queries online.

Technical training was essential as well as online lesson planning to use on this new medium of communication with the children.

Delivery of concept online and ensuring a child’s ability to understand it. Reinforcing concept with education app which is both audio/visual and interactive.

EDUCATION APPS

The new generation of education apps is a quantam leap ahead of previous programs. Aasraa focus on using technology as a tool for education had stagnated slightly due to the quality of material available online. Covid has marked an incredible leap forward in quality, delivery, and assessment. We have the new generation of education apps; interactive and fun, using a child imagination and increasing retention, able to assess individual children’s progress, and record it.

THE DISTRIBUTION

A responsible adult had to be found and trained to handle and charge each smartphone. The outreach team researched each cluster to pick the most responsible adult in each. Each designated ‘Keeper of the Ed Phone’ had to be given basic training to turn on, charge and use. One of the main challenges to this plan is to keep the Ed Phone in working order and making sure that it is charged for battery and updated for data usage.

THE IMPACT

 2400 children at Aasraa will remain in education!

Technology and the cluster model of the Silver Lining program will ensure a much better quality of education. The analogy is that we have created mini smart classes all over the slums of Doon. In theory, our slum children via the medium of online education, can be receiving the same quality of education as a child at more affluent schools.This is our chance to start levelling the playing field and win the war on illiteracy. 

Your kind gift is already creating visible change in the lives of slum children as more children are now connected with us with the distribution of smartphones & tablets. We'll share the stories of further developments becoming possible by your generous gifts, in coming editions of our newsletters and Project reports.

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