Support Us In Setting Up A Community Learning Center | Milaap
Support Us In Setting Up A Community Learning Center
  • Upasana

    Created by

    Upasana Negi
  • UN

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Upasana Negi

    from Surat, Gujarat

Support us in setting up a Community Learning Center: An Innovative Space for Innovative Learners.




Nancy (name changed for confidentiality), a 12-year-old fifth grade student from government schools in Surat, Gujarat. Despite being good in academics she is somehow unable to keep up with assignments and suffer behavior related issues. She lacked guidance, both in day to day life and in academics. We found that there are a lot other children who face numerous challenges in their day to day life.

It is rightly said,
“For everyone of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out.” 
 
Why we do what we do.
A few facts about children attending schools were heart breaking. 
Despite achieving close to universal enrollment at primary level, 27% children drop out between Class 1 and 5, 41% before reaching Class 8, and 49% before reaching Class 10.
Gujarat's dropout rate of students between class I and class X ranked 16, at 58.84%, which was higher than the national dropout rate of 55.88% in 2008-09.  Of Gujarat's girls, 62.25% dropped out and 56.24% was the figure for the boys.


“Everyone is important”, is an initiative,  by two Gandhi Fellows from Gandhi Fellowship ( Kashif Khan and Upasana Negi ). The initiative aims to deliver ‘Hope’ and ‘Dream’ among the students who come from humble backgrounds of India. It is a fact observed that the students are losing aspirations and dreams and thus giving up the possibility of creating a better life for themselves or for their family or for community at large. The initiative took birth among the debris of broken dreams and dead aspirations of these students for a better tomorrow. 
Everyone Is Important takes up the responsibility to help these children build a vision for life and also make them develop their skills.Through Mentorship and English Program where we focus on academic, life skills and personal interest for children from low-income communities in Surat, Gujarat, India.

Our Projects

STUDENT MENTORSHIP PROGRAM:

The Mentorship programs intends to serve as an early intervention to assist young students to achieve the following objectives:
  • Supportive relationship with their peers;
  • Progress in academic performance;
  • Improvement of personal skills; and
  • Development of inter-personal skills
Primarily catering to the students belonging to age group of 9-13 years, typically hailing from middle to lower socio-economic background, provision of a one-to-one mentor aims to fill in the gaps in learning.
The program which runs for a span of 1 year, intends to impart guidance for both personal development and career prospects. With the goal to increase the students' performance and attendance, the purpose is to help students to create and adhere to short term as well as long term goals.

English for Everyone:

This particular endeavor is to enhance students with the basics of English language and enable them to converse in confidence. As the second-most used language in the world, and in a multi-lingual country like India, it is essential to enhance students with the intricacies of the language and open up avenues of options as opposed to native knowledge.
 Hence to give them a final touch of development and brushing up their skills the team of Everyone Is Important provides volunteers who help these students gain fluency in English language to take their life a notch up!


Why this campaign?
Children in poverty make up thirty-nine percent of the population, and most of these children do not receive proper care and attention at home or in their community. Their houses are too small to have an extra study room where the child can learn and explore. Parents cannot give their time or support the kids require and this results and affects the leaning of the child. By setting up a learning center in the community we want to create a learning space for the children where they can sit and learn.  We aim to help these children get a better education.
We are currently running our program in a public park, Gandhi Baug, Chowk in Surat, Gujarat.  Out of around 550 students only around 50 children attend the programs. This is because the park is 3 to 4 kilometers away from the community. We also face many distractions in the park as it is an open public park and so to ensure the smooth functioning of the Mentorship and English Program, and to engage almost all the children in the program we need to set up community learning center for the students in Gopipura in Surat where they can spend time before and after school everyday explore and learn.

How are we going to use the donated funds:
Note: Please refer to the attached file for the breakups of the funds

1. Monthly Rent for community learning Center for a year
2. Basic Furniture
3. Stationery Materials
4. Library setup
5. Computers
6. Educational Trips
7. Awareness Campaign in the Community
9. Mentor/ Volunteer Orientation and capacity building
10. Projector
11. Miscellaneous

We are on a journey of making a difference!! A difference in lives of those who thought they will never get to be a part of any change. If you like us and you too believe that it is essential for children to develop holistically, you can contribute with a donation.
  •  “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

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