Enrolling slum children in schools...

2011 is so far so good as there are many moments to pen down. During this summer, I engaged myself in Aashayein Foundation’s flagship program Bache Man Ka Sachche (BMKS). BMKS program identifies underprivileged children in slums and enrolls them to schools with a measurable scholarship. Here is how I did it along with a bunch of 30 active volunteers.

    Firstly, we identified four slums to find underprivileged children. We trained volunteers to approach each family and judge the family condition on certain parameters. While identifying kids, we noticed that some kids never went to school, some were drop-outs to join labor and some wanted to get educated in private schools rather than Government schools. We appreciated the efforts of the parents to bring up their children and provide good education. In some cases, I was really blown away by the efforts of the parents to educate their children.

    Secondly, we analyzed the family condition and conducted a test for the children. Through this test, we identified bright children who couldn’t pursue their education and also those who wanted to get educated in private schools. In a bid to make the parents responsible, we conducted a session to help them understand the value of education. Thus, we granted scholarships to the bright children.

    Finally, we convinced school officials to enroll the children and also paid the students' scholarship amount. During this process, we received valuable inputs from the school officials about the performance of the students and the behavior of the parents. We documented the details of the children for our future reference.

    At last, we enrolled 300 underprivileged slum children to schools. Though it took us four months of exhaustive effort, the difference that we made gave me immense satisfaction. Over a period of four years, I could enroll 600 children from slums to Government and Government aided schools.