Every Child Counts - You can help a child reach school !

Suhani , Radhika and 50 other children of school going age live with their parents at Chakrapani vasti in Bhosari.

Their parents are engaged in selling herbs and medicines, some others sell trinkets and small jewellery items and some of them are rag pickers.

Door Step School through its "Every Child Counts-Citizens' Campaign" located this community and children in April.Their parents have never been to school and were  not aware or interested in sending these children to school. After several meetings with parents, they were convinced to send them to school.

All the children were admitted to the nearest Municipal school in Bhosari. To introduce them to schooling and the idea of going to school regularly, it was decided to deploy a "School on Wheels" at the community in June . Children were curious about the bus and started walking in.. Soon all the children were clamoring for a space on the bus.  

Teachers have inculcated a sense of discipline among the children and given them a hint of what they can expect in school. These children are now ready and eager to attend mainstream school.

 

  

Having crossed the major hurdle of making parents aware and ready to send children to school,we have hit a wall !. 

How do these children go to school which is 3 kms away from where they live and across a major Highway? We need to arrange for a school bus/ van to take them to school. Though school education is free in India under the Right to Education Act, school transport is not.

It will cost Rs. 400 each month or Rs.4000 for a school year for each child to reach and attend school regularly.

Please write to us at  pune@doorstepschool.org  if you would like to sponsor school transport for Suhani, Radhika and many more children who are looking forward  to being in school and attending school daily .

Every Child Counts - Many miles to go.. many smiles to see

Door Step School's efforts to reach and enroll all children at the right age into schools continues into its third year. 

Launched as a Citizens' Campaign, this program has Volunteers 

a) surveying their neighborhood or chosen localities 
b)locating children of school-going age ( 4-8 yrs) at construction sites or other dwellings
c) counselling the parents and 
d) helping the parents enroll their wards in the nearest Government School.

Having reached over 3000 children in 2 years since 2012, this year, with the support and encouragement of many Organizations and Volunteer groups, we have decided to spread the reach to Pimpri Chichwad as well as fringe areas of Pune such as Talegaon, Chakan, Hingewadi, Pirangut and Wagholi.

Volunteers, sometimes working with our field staff and sometimes working independently, have helped survey many areas .

More than 900 sites have been surveyed and over 3000 children reported.  

This only reiterates the findings of a recent Unesco report that 1.4 Million children in India are out-of-school . 

This also strengthens our resolve to do our bit to reach as many of these children as we can ... 300 children have been enrolled so far...we need all the hands that we can get to fulfill the challenging goal of reaching such a large number of children.

Please connect with Volunteer@doorstepschool.org to be part of this effort.

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