Training Space for 600 Poor Girls in Mumbai

Friends,

June is when major examination results are declared. First such external exam is after class 10. Admissions to Higher Secondary level and Junior colleges depend on results for class 10. All the 47 children in our project have passed this examination and 29 of them have go above 60 to 70 per cent marks. At this stage they will decide if they wish to go for science, commerce or humanities stream. After class 12 they go to undergraduate level. We had 24 programme participants in class 12. 14 of them have received above 60 to 70 per cent. Considering their limited access to academic resources and lack of adequate formal education among parents the results can be termed good. Other participants are still in lower classes. Currently we are looking for scholarships and annual fee amounts for the deserving students who perform well in community work as well as in examination. Seven girls have been selected for scholarship by a US based foundation. Any help towards term fee, book and stationary purchase extended by you is most welcome.

Monsoon is setting in. Girls in bastis are working with men and boys in covering roofs of their homes in hutment colonies with plastic sheets and getting umbrellas repaired. Soon flooding will affect our schedules.

This year we plan to include dilapidated building projects in our work with deprived girls. These projects give 225 to 265 built space to a family, assuming the family size to be 5. This space has a small room and a smaller kitchenette. The best part is indoor toilets. Families are usually bigger and there is no scope for keeping goat or chicken they had when in a basti. These tenements known as SRA (Slums Rehabilitation Authority) come in place of demolished slums. Looking at space situation in Mumbai, SRA is obviously the future and we must know the status of girls there and survey their education and development needs. We hope to start this work in 2018 itself.