Street to School - Mainstreaming Street Children

I would like to begin with a big thank you for the faith that you have placed in our endeavor. Your support has enabled us to enhance the scope and quality of our work. 

Past four years have been times of tremendous growth for Aasraa. As we sat down to work out the financial projections for this year, we realized how much we have grown. The impact has been spectacular, especially for Street Smart. Last year alone, 240 children were mainstreamed; 151 into regular schools and 89 into the NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling). This year we have over a 150 children ready for mainstreaming. 

We have been feeling overwhelmed, scared even...as every child who crosses the threshold of one of our programs is making a conscious decision to change their lives. It is our responsibility therefore, to ensure that this happens.  Even though we make every rupee stretch till it screams, our inability to say no to children who need us makes the situation difficult for us sometimes.

 This year we plan to focus on deepening our impact by spending more time and money in further enhancing the quality of education provided at our projects. Hiring specialized teachers, Intensive Teacher training, (we are now included in all teacher training workshops conducted at The Doon School) more detailed lesson planning, integrating Computer Aided Learning (CAL), we are going to do it all. 

Our goal is to give these children an education that they deserve, one that empowers them. We are also going to look at ways of regulating some of the costs incurred, without compromising on quality.

We are so thankful we have a friend like you in our crusade to bring these children into education, helping their dreams take flight. You have made it possible for us to come thus far. 

In this letter, I just want to express my gratitude and take a moment to tell you how valued this association is for us.

Thank you !

Warm Regards,

Neelu Khanna

Secretary - Aasraa Trust

In our quest to spread literacy, we have launched our FIRST MOBILE EDUCATION CART in Dehradun! It negotiates the tight ‘gullies’ of the slums and allows us to reach and teach previously unreachable and unteachable children!!! Colourful, attractive and fun, children are drawn out of curiosity and into education. There is a dedicated team to bring children to this cart and engage them in meaningful activities. The cart is equipped with activity books, drawing sheets, colours, chart papers, play blocks and learning toys. The idea is to prevent them from begging and rag picking.

The slum and street children deserve an equal chance to be introduced to the joy of learning. Our aim is to reach to out to these children and bring them under Aasraa’s umbrella. If they can’t come to us, we go to them wherever they are. The second mobile education cart will be out on streets by the end of March 2018. These carts are great mediums to enhance our outreach on streets, thereby enabling us to impact many more vulnerable children who are living meaningless lives.

As we continue our efforts to maximize the impact of our programs, the 2017/18 academic year is coming to an end… On one hand, Aasraa’s Street Smart children are gearing up to be mainstreamed into regular schools and on other hand, our mainstreamed students are preparing for their annual examination. Children who are studying under the National Institute of Open Schooling – Open Basic Education programme have appeared for their annual exams. The results shall be out by the month of June. There is lot of excitement along with a twinge of nervousness amongst all of us. Wish us luck. We are positive that our dedication and commitment will surely reap fruitful results for every child at Aasraa.

We thank all our donors and well wishers for the invaluable support and encouragement. With your generous contributions, we’ve been able to continue our beautiful journey of empowering lives of the most vulnerable children of our society.