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PROJECT WHY
Project WHY is an initiative to improve the lives of
disadvantaged children living in slums in New Delhi. The project
came into being as an answer to a simple question: why do slum
children perform poorly in school. It all began in 2000 with a tiny
class of 20 kids willing to learn spoken English. Today it reaches
out to over 600 children in different locations.
The main objective of Project WHY is to enhance school
performance, contain dropout rates, and ensure access to secondary
schools. The centre seeks to educate not only differently abled
children, but also to help regular school going children from
economically poor families find a foothold in society.
The initiatives undertaken by the project include:
- Early education programme for children in the age group of 6
months to 5 years. From 9 am to 4 pm the kids are involved in
various activities like drawing, colouring, writing alphabets,
numbers, singing, dancing, playing with blocks etc.
- Primary and Secondary school outreach programmes, which are
meant to supplement formal education. In the primary and secondary
section the children from class first to fifth and that from class
sixth to class twelfth come after school for English speaking
classes and also to take tuitions in different subjects. The
secondary section also provides vocational training to the
students in artificial flower making, paper bags etc.
- Project WHY runs a day care centre meant for diffeerntly abled
children where they are taught basic living skills. The nature of
disability of these children includes cerebral palsy, mental
retardation, down syndrome, autism and hearing impairment. The
children are involved in various tasks and skill learning as per
their understanding level and potential. The activities include
computer skills, stitching, gardening, drawing, learning shapes,
counting with the help of objects etc.
- The project has a computer centre that provides basic skills
in MS Office, Photoshop etc to the children.
To ensure that one day Project WHY becomes independent and
autonomous, the majority of the resources are drawn from within the
community, hence all staff members come from the slum itself. The
project provides over 40 jobs, and in many cases it is the only
salary of the household.
Project WHY has a dream to some day enable and empower the
community to fund its own developmental activities. The 'just one
rupee a day' programme is a funding option that is open to anyone,
even the poorest person. One rupee can easily be set aside each day
and that rupee becomes an incredible tool that can be utolised for
social empowerment.
Sri Ram Goburdhun Charitable Trust
E-mail: anuradha.bakshi@gmail.com
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