Giving young lives the best start
Some children living in India are denied a formal education because of their special needs or because of discrimination. Take Santosh, for instance. Because he was born with underdeveloped legs that kept him from walking, the school in his village would not admit him. However, through our Bridge Course program in India, children like Santosh, who have been excluded from school, have dropped out or who have been involved in child labor, can catch up on the basics – reading, writing and arithmetic and then be mainstreamed into the formal school system. Since 2003, we have implemented this program in 36 villages and have successfully bridged 200 students.
“I can’t wait to go to a regular school. I will miss these friends I have made, but I am sure I will make new friends in my new school!” –Santosh, who is starting fifth grade at the government school in Sirigeri.
For those children who can’t be mainstreamed, special centers offer an environment in which they can learn and develop. The centers offer sign language and speech therapy training, Braille training, activity and behavior management training and music and drama therapy.
The quality of children’s education is an important priority in India. For that reason, we work to ensure that all schools are accountable for their performance. A School Quality Improvement program uses an integrated development approach to impact all aspects of learning. This program will be replicated in schools in all of our program areas. And to keep India’s schools providing the highest level of education possible, we are teaming up with the community, children, youth, and other partners to monitor schools’ infrastructure, classroom processes, learning levels and community participation. To date, 1,227 pre-schools and 1,067 primary schools in 14 states have been accessed.
Because reading skills are foundational to any educational program, our Reading Skills Improvement program, supported by the government, helps students living in rural areas become better readers. At the end of 2008, we had assisted more than 18,000 children from 900 government schools.
Our Early Childhood Development centers, called Balwadis, use song and dance and age-appropriate play materials to engage preschoolers in the learning process and sharpen children's cognitive, emotional, motor, and language skills in preparation for school. Balwadi teachers also keep a close eye on the nutritional status as well as the growth and development of their students. In Mahad and Maharashtra in partnership with PRIDE-India, we have implemented the Early Childhood Development Scale. It’s an innovative and user-friendly tool that allows teachers and parents to track children’s developmental milestones and design programs around children's specific needs. This valuable program is currently being replicated in all Balwadis across India.
Health: The first building block for hope
Children’s health starts in the womb. Women are taught the importance of prenatal checkups and hospital deliveries or trained home-birth attendants. We also give mothers-to-be important information on proper breastfeeding practices, weaning, postnatal checkups, and vaccinations. Mothers and caregivers discover how to prepare nutritious meals using locally available, low-cost cereals and vegetables; we even help them grow their own kitchen gardens. In fact, many children’s clubs plant and tend kitchen gardens near the Balwadis and the vegetables are used to feed the children while in school.
We also work to help stem the tide of disease in this country. Our comprehensive HIV/AIDS program for women and children targets high prevalence areas in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with about 357 infected children from Andhra Pradesh served. More than 250 of these children are now studying in schools and colleges. Children and youth conduct awareness campaigns, including rallies, street plays and cultural programs, to help communities prevent, detect and learn timely management of both tuberculosis and malaria.
In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, children and adolescents, especially those who lost their parents and guardians, were left vulnerable to child labor, domestic and school-based child abuse, child trafficking and early marriages. We mobilized community members and 164 children’s clubs and 41 Child Well-being Committees, training them to monitor child rights and provide a community-based mechanism to protect their children.
Every day, our programs help India’s families learn to protect and take better care of their children. Help us continue giving these children every chance they deserve.
