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Schools and Apprenticeships
Basic education is the number one priority in our struggle against poverty which affects disadvantaged children from poor areas like those in the Indian countryside or shanty-towns in the big cities. All the children whom we support live in difficult conditions and have no means of pursuing studies. The school is our first priority in this struggle. Furthermore, living conditions in this environment are so deprived that support in the areas of nutrition, hygiene and healthcare are needed to complement our schooling efforts. It is with the aim of promoting these fundamental rights of children that we undertake our activities.
Regarding education, our first objective is to enable the maximum number of children to get into the official schooling system. For those who are unable to get in, we have to orient them towards decent professional activities. For this professional education, we need workshops for apprentices which we complement with basic schooling.
Schooling and apprenticeships are united as part of the same concept within the same global undertaking. In education, we seek to combat illiteracy which isolates children to the ghetto of poverty. We help to remove a number of them from a world of work which exposes them to deplorable conditions of hygiene, physical labour and submission. All our efforts would be ineffective if we were not able to provide help and support beyond the school. In order to maximise the efficiency of our work, we have been working for several years on three levels of support.
For children from the shanty-towns, we have set up a schooling structure for support which we call the “Follow-up Programme”. We take the place of parents and maintain contact with the various official schools in the city. Our aim is to stay close to our children right up to the end of their studies.
For children from the remote countryside villages, we have obtained recognition as an official school. Thus we can organise the entire school programme and follow students to the conclusion of their studies. Being responsible for their future direction, we also guide them in their subsequent professional or educational orientation.
For almost five years, we have been developing an infrastructure for the formation of apprentices. Young girls and women have been benefiting from training in the textile and handicraft sectors. Beyond this training, we expect to extend the possibilities for apprenticeships to other crafts. Our first centre for study and training was born in Bodhgaya, in the state of Bihar, at the beginning of 2005. The first workshops now offer opportunities to young men and women from this region. We will develop this programme in Bengal and Rajasthan.
