Schools

Our main focus has been on 9 small state schools in the Mahabalipuram area. This is one of the poor areas in the south of India. The majority of children in this part suffer from malnutrition and dental hygiene problems, which reduce their ability to learn due to diseases. The habitants of this area live from agriculture and the general prospect for a better social condition is weak.

In many of these poor families, the despair of their hopeless situation is drowned in alcohol, which is a rising problem. For many of the children in the schools, the hot meal at lunch time is the only meal they get all day. Many families cannot afford the children’s school uniforms, and the worn uniforms are therefore handed down from one sibling to the next. A fact that does not improve the children’s pride or boost their self esteem. Help is obviously needed to help the children escape negative social heritage. This is why we concentrate our help around the schools where we work in different directions. We sponsor school uniforms, pay assisting teachers, organize special tutoring for children with learning disabilities, sponsor tuition fees for private schools to further the education of specially gifted pupils, work for better nutrition in the schools and teach hygiene and dental care.

To create the proper framework for these projects, it has been necessary to obtain funds to construct simple but adequate school buildings, drill for water and improve the sanitary conditions.

The help has gradually resulted in the schools receiving more attention on a local administrative level, possibly helped along by exposure in the media (television); and it has also sparked a change in attitude amongst the school children and their teachers, resulting in greater care taken of the school and the surroundings. As a case in point, after receiving a new building and better sanitary conditions, the teachers and the children at the Vada Kadambady School not only cleaned up the school premises, but also planted new flowerbeds and is now being referred to by us as a an example to follow.
The local authorities appointed the school as “School of the year”, which later resulted in it being upgraded to a Middle School receiving local government financing of a school building and more teachers. This implies that children can stay in their community even after the 5th grade raising the likelihood of them continuing school until they are 14 years old – something that the government strongly supports.


The list of schools that have received supports
from the charity in 2010 and 2011