Tuition Centre: Kotla
Education - New Delhi
Kotla, Premnagar, Kotla Mubarakpur
Why
- Gadhia Lohars, an ancient Rajasthani tribe, have been living in Kotla slum for over 40 years. They had been issued voter IDs, ration cards and had been supplied with a water connection. On 12 January 2009, without any notice, their slum dwellings (jhuggis) were demolished overnight as part of a slum clearance policy to ready the city for the 2010 Commonwealth games.
- The slum is next to an underpass in South Delhi, with perpetual traffic noise, pollution, sub-standard living conditions and no water supply or sanitation. Dwellings are made of any available material. In parts of the slum, there is only space for a single person to pass between the jhuggis.
- The programme includes education and nutrition for children, a women's empowerment programme and legal aid for the community to enable them to receive compensation for being displaced.
- The children used spend their days on the streets, begging and picking up scrap. The tuition centre strives to provide whatever assistance is required to enable students to cope in mainstream schools, bearing in mind their struggle for daily existence. Their parents are mostly uneducated and are unable to assist with their homework. The kindergarten prepares children to be able to join the mainstream educational system from grade 1 at the correct age.
Kindergarten and Tuition Centre
- Provides a kindergarten and tuition for 120 students.
- Acts as a bridge by guiding students from basic forms of learning to more advanced techniques required by the formal education system.
- Teaches both basic and advanced learning techniques.
- Includes vocational training, talent spotting and creativity development.
- Provides classes in dance and arts and crafts.
- Organises field trips, functions and celebrations of festivals for confidence building through participation.
Services
- Provides nutritional snacks to address malnutrition.
- Distributes stationery, notebooks, schoolbags and winter clothing.
- Arranges medical camps/clinics for the community providing treatment and medicines.
- Carries out regular fogging with herbal pesticides for mosquito and pest control.
Vision
- To instil values, hope and the confidence to realise dreams.
- To create a thirst for knowledge, and nurture self-respect and respect for others.
- To alleviate poverty through empowerment.
- To create global citizens through breaking down barriers of nationality, religion, caste and creed and emphasising our shared humanity.
