Everyone knows that education can be an incredibly empowering tool for poverty affected communities. But accessing education at all is a struggle for too many children today. Find out how we're tackling this issue.
Whilst most children have access to a school in rural areas of India, many schools struggle to maintain quality education with the numbers of students and resources given to them. Secondary schools often try to teach science to children with no science equipment, IT with no computers, and literature with no libraries.
At Sebastian Hunter Memorial Trust, we feel that all children should have the opportunity to learn about the world hands-on through quality education, and so we support 5 schools with new buildings, computers, libraries and science equipment to make sure that their students are given the tools to be the best that they can be.
Many children in rural schools in India's rural schools drop out of schools between 10 and 14 years old to labour in the towns and cities of India, often travelling interstate away from their families and being forced into bonded and black market labour. These are often first generation learners facing pressure from their families to leave school and few dreams for themselves, attending schools where rote learning is the norm and teachers struggle to manage.
Our DREAM program is an interactive and fun class based that works with children and teachers in 5 rural schools around Vellore, South India to build children's dreams, help them feel supported, teach them skills such as problem solving a team work, as well as building their knowledge of english and IT - the 2 most essential subjects to progress in India's increasingly technological and global society.
The Sebastian Hunter Memorial Trust works with 12 communities in the remote tribal forest community of Jawadhi Hills. Many of these villages are up to 15km from the nearest primary school, and so even basic numeracy and literacy is just a dream for young children in Javadhi Hills. Our team has identified 4 of the most inaccessible regions of this area and has set up primary schools for the tribal children, whilst identifying and training teachers from within their tribe and similar areas, so that the community and the children feel that this is 'our school', whilst empowering tribal people to be able to find rewarding work within their own community, and without having to leave the forest..
Once children are old enough to graduate to secondary school, we also work to support them through secondary school and into higher education or work through scholarships, mentoring and counselling, as well as working with the government to ensure that education for remote communities becomes a permanent fixture in these hills.
Although I have never had the opportunity to attend school, I am happy to donate my small piece of land to build a school so that my children and future generations will benefit from education.
Saroja, Kupsoor Village
Marcus's school was established in 2015 in memory of Marcus Egerton-Warburton.
It was brought to our attention that there is a need for a middle school in a tribal village called Panangkatteri, where there are about 30 -35 tribal young people who have completed their primary education (Class 5) from the village school and have not been able to pursue higher education. The nearest middle and high school is in Ambur, which is about 12 km away, and a school in Nayakaneeri, 21 km away. They also have the menace of wild elephants, making their journeys unsafe; no means of transportation except by foot or bike; and a lack of motivation from the parents to support their children.
We are happy to report that for the past two months of 2016, we have had 30 children attending classes and more expected to register in the coming weeks. The teacher is of the opinion that more children will attend when we start the noon meal programme, as many of the children are forced to work just to keep them from hunger.
In order to maintain the quality and uniformity of education in each of our tribal schools, Seb’s have supplied textbooks, notebooks and sports equipment for all children in accordance to their class requirements. The students were also provided with books, pencils, pens, erasers and other educational supplies.
Whilst education levels in the cities and towns of India are improving by the day, those children living in the rural and tribal areas are becoming increasingly desperate for the same chances, but are often held back by the poverty they live in and obligations to support their families.
Sebastian Hunter Memorial Trust provides over 50 scholarships a year to families who are struggling to educate their children in rural and tribal communities, and every year the need grows as more families turn to us for help!