This is a supporting campaign. Contributions made to this campaign will go towards the main campaign.

I am running to help children bring about change in their community

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In 2014 there was an intense research conducted on women’s literacy in the Ray Road area of Mumbai. The research found that most women had dropped out of school by the time they had reached the 2nd standard, due to which they barely knew how to read and write. The research stated that due to this, women in the community would get fleeced in the market because they wouldn’t know how to tally bills. They had to be overly dependent on another family member with regards to money because they were incapable of opening a bank account.

The group that conducted this research addressed this issue by executing a month-long workshop in the community, where they taught the women three things - how fill a bank form, how to sign their name and how to tally a bill. Quite good, right?

You might think all of this was conducted by a group of social researchers, or an NGO working in the area of literacy. But you are wrong, all of this was conducted by children aged 11 to 14 who were part of the local community school.

Apni Shala, the NGO that facilitated this entire programme, engages children in lightweight and interactive activities with the aim of building life skills. I am running the 2017 Mumbai Marathon and aim to raise INR 50,000 for Apni Shala. These funds will help fund the life skills education of 88 children from low-income communities.

If, like me, you too believe that children can benefit from life skills education programmes, please support my campaign with a donation.

What happens after you donate?

You'll thereafter be informed about how you helped made a difference
You get the chance to interact with the children you supported and accompany them during their projects
You will receive email updates on stories from the field about how the children worked on these very serious issues

Apni Shala in the News!

The Indian Express

The Times of India

Read their story in Your Story
The Better India
Youth ki Awaaz

Get in touch with Apni Shala

www.apnishala.org |contact@apnishala.org | +91 86554 90999|

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16th February 2017

Dear Supporters,

Thank you all for your generous contributions to Apni Shala. Through the funds raised, we are trying to assist our children (studying in the 7th and 8th grade) in coming up with feasible solutions and their take on various community issues through our three step process, i.e,

Brainstorming and understanding the community
Preparing questionnaires and observing the community with the help of experts.
Addressing the various issues taken up.

Some of the campaigns which are children have taken up in the past include Eve Teasing in their community, and based on their primary research and data collected, they were able to lodge a formal police complaint. The police found the data provided to be really useful in curbing eve teasing, as the kids were able to correctly identify the timelines during which these acts were prominent.

Another example being helping reduce the helplessness of uneducated women in their localities (who have only studied till the 2nd grade), by conducting a week long workshop where these women were taught how to fill a form, tally a bill and sign on documents, which greatly reduced the chances of such women being duped by vendors.

Currently, the children are in the data collection phase of the program and will be presenting on topics which they feel are important to them and their community in March.

Thank you for all your support in helping our children.

Apni Shala