Hello,

I am Himanshi Banthia and I am a fellow at Teach For India. I teach 20 amazing seventh graders in Government High Primary School(GHPS), Iblur, Bangalore.
My students come from low-income families where both the parents go to work and often leave all the house responsibilities to students, especially girls. A number of my students encounter hardships and observe domestic violence. Despite these odds, you will find that these students turn up to school everyday and try to give their best.

I have always found their approach to life inspirational and I hope to make a small difference by providing them with excellent education. There are 3 themes around which I have structured my crowdfunding campaign which I believe will create maximum impact in the lives of my students in the short to medium term.

Computer Lab

My students are filled with curiosity whenever they observe me working on a laptop. At their age, it is important to show them that learning to build something new using computers is easy and a fun activity. Steve Jobs began in his garage, my students don’t have one so a computer lab ought to do.

I intend to set a mini computer lab in my government school. Rather than teaching them Word or Paint, I want to introduce them to the fundamentals of programming. My curriculum will focus on teaching them MIT Scratch which will improve their critical thinking, problem solving and let them create their own magic!

Requirements: The school already has two desktops but one of them is often reserved for office use. I am planning to augment these with 4 laptops which will additionally help in solving for power and space constraints that we often face. I will require 4G dongles with appropriate top-ups. Printouts of curriculum material, worksheets, etc will supplement the learning in lab.

Field Trips

Educational excursions help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real world. Public schools like mine often lack the funding to organize such field trips for the students.

There are myriads of opportunities that exist in Bangalore ranging from Planetarium, Science Museum, HAL Museum, ice-cream factories(who says trips cannot be fun!) and so many more. I also intend to take my students to the office of one of the startups/MNC in Bangalore.

Trips like these broaden the minds of students and give them memories that act as a source of inspiration. I need your help to make this possible for my students at GHPS, Ibblur.

Requirements: I am looking at taking students to 2 field trips. It will cost around Rs. 500/child/trip.

Books

Reading quality books not only improve and expand their language skills but also opens for them a gateway to another world of imagination and creativity. This will enable me to foster a love for reading in my students.

Requirements: I want to provide them with books from three categories: Classics, biographies and course books. Tentatively, I am looking at getting a set of 15 books for Harry Potter Part 1, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Through my eyes and NCERT books for Math, Science and English

Cost Breakdown

Theme	Estimated Cost
Computer Lab Setup + Material	95000
Field Trips	25000
Books	20000

Every donation matters!

The inspiring story of Helen Keller, a deaf-blind whose life was transformed with education and who later became a prolific author is well known and inspirational in so many ways. What is a lesser known fact is that it was made possible by donations from other people who saw the potential and nurtured it.
 
As Helen Keller has aptly put, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”