Sambhav

We started working almost three years back. In the beginning, we didn’t have a clear idea as to how and where to start from. Our mentors asked us to think about some activities which can be initiated in the college. After some days, we met a few people; one of them was Dakxin Bajrange (co-founder of Budhan Theatre group). He told us about a basti in Maninagar, Ahmedabad and asked us to visit it some day. It was a place where people from the Denotified Tribes (DNT) live. We planned our visit and went there. When we reached there we saw a number of people sitting under a bridge like a one big family. That was our first interaction with our workplace – Maninagar basti.

After visiting the place we thought about various activities that can be started there and considering the need for education in the basti, we decided to start with an informal education program. The main aim of this program was to introduce education in the basti, bring the children living there to the level of mainstream children and finally transferring them to the regular schools. With these ideas and objectives in mind we started visiting the basti on weekends. We prepared a schedule and curriculum for the classes and implemented it.

Initially, we got a very good response from the people living there. A good number of children, 20 to 25, started attending our classes regularly. But then, slowly, they started losing interest and the numbers started to decline. There were times when we used to get just 3 to 4 students! We thought that this was the end of our education program, but we decided to continue our classes hoping some day the people would understand the importance of education and schooling.

After a dedicated effort of 1 year we were finally able to win the confidence of the people and were accepted in the basti. The change in performance and habits of their children forced them to rethink about their education. That was the time when they started sending their children to our classes enthusiastically. This elevated our hopes and we continued with our activities.

After completion of 2 years of our program, we thought it was time to transfer some of the students to the schools. We visited several schools in the vicinity and finalised two schools for our students. We admitted around 18 students in these schools. For a long time their parents, despite their minimal incomes, regularly paid the school fee. But after some time their education was becoming a burden for them and due to this some of them pulled out their children from the schools. This was a setback for us as many of our talented students were pulled out just because of non-availability of funds. But without giving up we talked with the parents and requested them to re-admit their children to the schools. We took the financial responsibility of these students.

Many parents are still paying their school fee regularly but there are still a lot of students who need financial help in order to complete their schooling. We are financing five students but our funds are limited and cannot cover all the students. It is impossible for their parents to fund their education as education is like a luxury which they cannot afford with their negligible income.

Through this article we want to request you to support us and these children in continuing their education. Your generous contributions would help our students to complete their education and move towards a better life.

We have created profiles (click) of our students with the details of their fee and background and attached some of them below for your reference. You may visit our website for the complete profiles of our students. For making any contribution or to know more about our activities you may contact our members.  [Home]