Projects -> PENN

Maintenance and development of an Ashram (boarding school) to adivasis children

ONG responsible: Ankur Trust, Penn, Raigad District
Responsible: Raj Anthony
Duration: 1 year (2007)
Amount: 7.000 €

Ankur Trust works in the regions of Penn, Khalapur and Alibag, of the district of Raigad in the Southeast of Mumbai. Two freeways cross the district, Mumbai-Goa and Mumbai-Pune. The district has an extension of 1,748 Km2 and a population of 2.205.972 inhabitants.

The adivasi tribe that inhabits this zone mainly is the tribe of the Kathkaris, one of the tribes with less resources, without earth, access to drinking water neither social equipment and often without light and other comforts.

The majority of them are temporary workers and for more than 6 months per year, in the dry season, they migrate far from their villages looking for work and transferring the family with them, fact that causes the children to be absent from school. We think that the education is the base for the development of this tribe.

The project tries to provide a boarding school with a right atmosphere to take care and to educate the children, to help them in the learning and to be able to maintain their interest for the education. It is essential to place a special emphasis on the girl's education.

In the ashram coexists 35 kathkaris children, distributed to 50% approx. The selection criterion is based mainly on the motivation of the parents to promote the education of its children valued by the social worker who visits each village.

The children participates actively in the diverse tasks of the boarding school (sweeping, moping rooms, cooking, vegetable purchase, planning of the studies, etc.) supervised by the superintendent. In the boarding school they receive school reinforcement classes and specific formation as future leads of self-help groups for their community and also no formal education.

The local authorities have valued very positively the work made. In a period of 10 years they have been able to obtain a strong impact in the attitude of kathkaris towards the education. More and more parents are convinced of the importance and necessity of the education of their children, although they tend to be discouraged easily.

Budget

We decided to prorogue a year the maintenance of the boarding school that it finances ADA since 2001, approving an annual contribution to ANKUR TRUST with a budget per child similar to the one of the other boarding schools of 200€ child/year. The budget is of 7.000 € per year (200€ x 35 children), although that the global budget asked for by the local ONG is of 8.166 € per year.