The families of such youngsters are migrant agricultural labourers, moving where work is to be found. Seldom having a fixed address, they are marginalised and their status is low. These conditions affect the education of their children. Rural areas in Rajasthan have few schools, which means long and hazardous journeys to reach classes in a large town.
Opportunity
“It’s great that we can launch this project in India with the Kavli Trust,” says Malou Bratt at ChildFund Sweden. “Many children who would otherwise never learn to read, write and do arithmetic will now get the opportunity to do so.”
Her organisation works to give vulnerable children in Africa, Asia and Latin America a better future, and she explains that its work always starts from the child’s needs.
“The knowledge that we’re working with children’s lives and futures colours all aspects of our work. We constantly strive to find new ways of creating positive change for vulnerable kids.
“To ensure that families can take better care of their children and plan their lives, we also work intensively on parental education and support.”
Centres
Focused on youngsters aged six to 14, the project in the Kotra district of Rajasthan calls for the creation of three community-based learning centers. These represents a first step to improving the position of vulnerable children, and will be administered at local level by residents.
A key element is drawing on the energy, knowledge and commitment of the community. The aim is to teach children to read and write so they can attend state schools.
No obstacle
Distance will no longer be an obstacle to youngsters exercising their right to an education, and efforts to influence their parents play an important role here.
The goal in this context is to help the adults to find fixed work which allows them to establish a permanent home.
Education will be supplemented by various activities for the children, in part to prevent the ones who have never been to school before from quitting.
Using instructors drawn from the local community, the youngsters will get the educational stimulus they need for their personal development.
The project
- The aim is to give children aged six to 14 from minority groups in Kotra, Rajasthan, an opportunity to attend school.
- Three community-based learning centres will be created.
- The children will learn to read and write in order to attend state school.
- Parents, teachers, managers and local residents will be given resources to support the pupils.
- Instructors will be trained to teach reading and writing.
- The three centres will have a child-friendly design.
- Secure outdoor areas will be created so pupils can feel secure.
Read more about ChildFund Sweden (in Swedish only) here > .