Its a world one hardly notices. Make shift huts. Families. Both father & mother work. Work in constructing those appartments coming up all around Bangalore. Kids at home. Playing in their own Chinnara angala.
A play in a devilish field. Wasted childhood. No learning. Child labour. Soon a construction worker. Marriage. Kids. The devilish field again.
Solutions ??
I guess you can tackle the problem at various levels - macro, mini, micro - Lots of people already on the job. Yet, the construction worker kids remain in those devilish fields, the Devil very happy.
One solution is to educate the children. Give them a good education. An education that will be second to none. Well, does that sound too optimistic ? Lets settle for atleast basic literacy for ALL the kids. And, for lot more take them to 5th std, then 7th std and then yes, 10th std. And, then vocational/skill based training(ITI's , Diplomas). And, for those who really want to study furthur. Lets give them the opportunity that you and I had.
We at Dream School Foundation share this dream. Quality Education for everybody. We work to strengthen the govt. schools. These schools reach out to the under-previleged.
The education department has this programme called Chinnara Angala. 60 days during summer vacations. The primary school teachers focus their attention on the construction worker kids, school dropouts, and kids who have never been to school. The 60 day course, full time, Mon to Sat, 9:30 to 3:30 with support interms of meals & snacks helps in getting the child back to school. And, soon many are part of the regular school.
The Chalghatta school (right behind the B'lore airport) is running one such programme. And, volunteers from DSF assist it. We plan to have a lot of fun based learning. Lots of outdoor games are planned. With activities like painting, clay models, etc etc
Today, the programme started with around 20 kids. Many of these kids brought their baby brother/sister along. Later, we went on a drive to talk to parents, and get more children. Another 25 enrolled. The Chalgatta school HM Mary, along with teachers Lalitha & Bhuvenashwari went from hut to hut. A few regular school kids joined us in the march.
The construction worker kids are either Kannada speaking people from Raichur/Gulbarga or Telugu speaking crowd. We saw a few from Orissa too.
So, knowing Kannada/Telugu would be fantastic, but the lack of it shouldn't stop you. Our experience shows that the enthu of the volunteer makes all the difference.
Interested ?
Dash a mail to our DSF co-ordinator Maitreyee, or to Santosh or me.
Join us any saturday 10:30am onwards until June 14th 06.
You are needed to move the devil out of the Chinnara Angalla.
Giant Milkweed
Large Cormorant
Omkaara dweepam Shivam.....Bhaje Manjunatham Shivam...
The dogs came alive!!!!