75+ students
Aged between 6 - 12, attending school daily.
2 schools
With 2 teachers full-time, 4 teachers part-time.
2 years
Of providing education, nourishment and councelling.
What We Do
Creating an Academic and Creative Atmoshphere
While children in urban areas of India are relatively privileged with access to schooling, quality education and extra-curriculars, the children of Atpukur are desolate. Children attend the only school in the area, managed by the government and local panchayat, to receive the mandatory midday meal. During the peak of the pandemic lockdown, students did not even receive the midday meal and were not able to get access to educational material due to the lack of digital infrastructure and skills in the area. Vidyadhori has established two schools in the area, accomodating 75 students, paid for two full-time teachers, established a comprehensive curriculum (covering Maths, Geography, English and Art), and incorporated the use of technology through projectors with part-time volunteers teaching classes through Zoom.
Raising Awareness Against Trafficking and Exploitation
The increasing effects of climate change have caused unpredictable weather patterns, cyclones, saline water contamination and significantly lowered crop yields. The area has been isolated economically, hit severely by the coronavirus pandemic, leading to exploitation by local mining companies with little regard for labour laws, forcing children and adults to work in treacherous conditions on slave wages. Further economic deprivation has led to an increase in trafficking; families have sold their children to prostitution or left them behind to fend for themselves while they pursue opportunities in urban areas.
Members of Vidyadhori actively engage with parents to prevent these forms of exploitation by providing seminars and provide a safe space for abandoned, traumatised children to get counsel.
Providing Economic Opportunity for Mothers
Ultimately, no matter what the quality of education the schools can provide, the children will be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation if their immediate economic situations are not improved. Currently, most of the mothers work in embroidery, earning approximately 200 Rupees for a month of work. Middlemen take advantage of the mothers' economic conditions and illiteracy and sell the same cloths for orders of magnitude of profit.
Vidyadhori is providing critical language and mathematical education for the children to end the cycle of poverty through exploitation. Furthermore, Vidyadhori has hosted handicraft training sessions to improve the skills such that the products can directly be sold to the market without the use of middlemen. Currently, a partnership is in the works with the government to provide certification for embroidery and handicrafts such that these products can be sold to eco-friendly and ethical retailers like ZeroWaste.
Future Plans
We believe in the fundamental right to an education for all who seek it. Therefore, we want to ensure that every child in the village of Atpukur can attend our schools. Currently, our curriculum covers pre-K to 4th-grade education. We want to expand to cover until an 8th-grade level such that students are capable of attending a high school to attain higher education. We want to make students digitally literate such that they are able to access information with ease and can compete with students from big cities for university places and jobs.
All of the above requires investment in additional infrastructure and staff. We need to renovate existing buildings to accommodate more students. We need to hire more teachers and counsellors to allow students to receive a rich academic experience. We need to invest in tablets, computers, projectors and technology services to provide the same quality experience that students in urban environments receive.
