School Development Project of the Month
Belphari School, West Bengal
This small school has over 70 primary children on its roll and 7 residential students staying in a small hostel, yet its physical condition is extremely poor. The hostel roof is damaged and leaks in the rainy season, as do the 2 unplastered outer walls of the building. This needs immediate attention in order to prevent serious structural damage. On top of that, a long hall housing 3 classes as well as a smaller classroom are also completely unplastered, have no ceiling and no fans, with the result that the whole school becomes as hot as a furnace when the summer sun beats down on the tin roof of the school. Besides these problems, the lack of partitions between the classes, paint on the wooden shutters and the absence of a boundary wall seem minor issues, even though the school is situated next to a cremation ground, where bad boys come in the night to drink and smoke, posing a security problem for the school.
Cost of repairs to the roof, plastering of the walls and classrooms, plus ceilings and painting of the shutters: Around US $1500
Would you like to help? Contact and donations for this project
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Other School Development Projects
Shillong School, Meghalaya
The
school is located at Nonmynsong, a poor tribal area on the edge of town,
has 120 pupils in six classes. Nine orphans reside in a small orphanage
attached to the school. The school is running well and is popular with
the local people as the fees are minimal, yet the standard of education
is high.
Problems: Part of the school is built on land owned by the school and part is rented. The owner of the rented section which includes four classrooms, the school office and a vegetable garden, is selling his land. The single large classroom owned by the school houses 3 classes. It is very old and the roof leaks. The school urgently needs to pull it down and build several classrooms on two floors in its place to accommodate all the school children.
Amount fundraised so far: Rs. 130,000.
Amount still needed: Rs. 1,070,000 or US $ 27,000.
Would you like to help? Contact and donations for this project
Bhunt Village School
Bhunt
village school near Bhadrak, Orissa is currently just a kindergarten
really with only 20 children studying there at the moment, but it would
like to develop and provide a better service to the many poor children
of the community. To do that we need to first improve the school
environment. This mud building needs its roof changing, the walls
washing with a cowdung and mud mixture to seal holes in the walls and
make them smooth, seats for the children who are suffering sitting on
the cold floor, and a couple more blackboards as well as charts. On top
of that we need an electric connection, and roof and doors for the
outside toilets which are only built up to shoulder level, so that
falling leaves keep blocking them up. Partitions are also needed to
separate the classes.
Total cost of all this: only US $ 700.
After that we hope to start a free school for the poorest children of
the community and will need sponsors for the teachers'
salaries....around $25 per month.
Would you like to help? Contact and donations for this project
Samuktala School
The school is located in North Bengal in a village half an hour from Alipooduar and one hour from Cooch Behar. The school has 149 children most of them the offspring of labourers in the tea gardens nearby. They are all crammed into 6 classes in 2 large rooms, one in a bamboo hut with a brick base and tin roof and the other made of tin.
Problems: The school urgently needs a wall to prevent the tin
classroom from sliding into the quarry next to the compound. Cost Rs.
10,000. (US $ 250)
It also needs a second classroom costing Rs. 50,000. (US $1,300).
Would you like to help? Contact and donations for this project
Vellore School and Orphanage
Vellore
school is located in Shenbakkam, a poor semi-rural area of Vellore,
Tamil Nadu, needs help to plaster its verandah which is used as a
classroom for the local poor kids. A fledgling orphanage has 5 children.
Before the school and orphanage can increase their service to the
community a lot of renovation work is needed:
Problems: The large verandah needs its walls plastering and its floor
cementing.
Cost: Rs. 30,000 or US $ 750
The staircase needs plastering and a railing putting in. Rs. 10,000 or
US $ 250
The house needs 8 windows Rs. 19,000 or US $475
4 doors Rs. 8000 or US $ 210
A ventilator Rs. 1000 or US $ 26
The roof needs repairing Rs. 15,000 or US $ 380
Would you like to help? Contact and donations for this project
Education in India
It is estimated that every year poverty prevents some 170 out of every 1,000 children from attending primary school. And for the children who do manage to continue to secondary school, at least 10 out of every 1,000 fail to complete their secondary education.
We believe that education is the birthright of every child, yet each year poverty prevents thousands of children from attending school. For those children who are initially able to attend school, it is likely that, due to poverty, they will be unable to complete their education.
Many children at the schools we support study free of charge or pay a minimal fee. Yet, the reality is that unless the students pay fees, the school will not have the income to pay the teachers’ salaries. As a result, the more qualified teachers leave in search of better jobs.
We
at POOR want to give these people hope for a brighter tomorrow.