Closed Doors ??? - N.B.T Nagar Govt School

The denial of a person’s right to education is equally a denial of his right to exist as a free and productive human being. For without education, the individual is condemned to the prison of his own ignorance, tortured over his lack of opportunities, and, more than likely, consigned to a life of poverty, underdevelopment, and oppression.

In most cases, however, it is not a matter of will but of resources. In the developing world, especially, many governments simply do not have the infrastructure to provide their young people with an adequate education but it is an entirely different matter when a government willfully seeks to deprive its people — or a group of its people — from receiving an education.
Sadly, this is the scenario at the Banjara Hills N.B.T Nagar Government School.

When team ~Pankhudi visited this place last week, what we heard was an awful fact. If you had an option to choose between Maruti and Mercedes which one would you choose? However, these school children have no option. All they have to do is wait…, wait till the government changes.

It’s not about cars, it’s about their education. There’s a new school building that was constructed for these children; huge and spacious when compared to the present building which accommodates nearly five grades in a single room. To their misfortune, these children are not being shifted to the new building just because the local people do not want the politician now in power to inaugurate the school. And for the politician to change, these pitiable kids have to wait until the govt changes; even unsure if it would actually do.

These are the pictures of the old and new school buliding. Imagine students from first to fifth standard studying in one single room waiting for their dream buliding to be inaugurated. Hope these politicians & people realise that the Future of their own kids is much highly valuable than the local politician or politics. I recollect a statement of Albert Einstein which said
“ I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn “

Cheers…

~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad

SIDUR - 11th Feb Visit

For all those who are new let me just give an intro what is SIDUR is all about?
SIDUR is a associate of Child Line (1098), where in they home orphans, street kids and run away kids, they do receive some corporate help. Pankhudi Hyd team is associated with SIDUR since a long time. All the previous visits which we have carried on actually for building a relationship between us and kids over there.

So we actually planned this visit for 3 main activities.
1. Permission for Clothes distribution for all the kids there from the funds whcih we pooled up.
2. Review the health of the kids there.
3. Assess their educational Levels as we were informed that few students there dropped out of school due to lack of funds.

We planned to be at the place by 10:30 in the morning. Ramesh along with his friends was the first to be there. I along with Prabhanjan and Jyostna joined a little later though.Initially we drafted all the kids names and their educational standards.
We were quite satisfied with their progress and we realized that the information that few kids had dropped out from school, was actually false.There was only one kid who dropped out from the school, who actually dropped out because he wanted to go back home.

Three others who have cleared their intermediate first year are working part time and plan to continue their studies next year, as they were more interested in a course which would earn them a job early.Many others are regular to school and are showing good progress.By the time our analysis was done, we managed to distribute some sweets and chocolates, which were brought by a friend of mine (Swetha) as it was her birthday and she wanted to distribute them to all the kids over there, she could mark here presence though.

Then we talked to the management there and got the permission to get a tailor and take measurements and get Clothes stitched for all the kids there.The management was quite responsive and very happy. Thanks to the management for a quick permission to go ahead.
Also, we enquired about the medical facilities and were told that a doctor visits them every Friday and he takes care of their regular Health.

So now, we were left with enough time to play with the kids. We encouraged Samba (the kid who dances really well) and he sprung into action again. Every body was charged up with his dance. Few kids also teamed up to sing a folk song, which we also plan to have properly recorded for a campaign to create awareness among the rural uneducated public.

We had spent some time teaming among ourselves and joining them and playing different games and when we thought we might have spent half an hour, to our surprise it was almost 4 hours that we were there and it was also time for their lunch.
Hence we closed our day’s session on a positive note that we actually got the permission to offer clothes to kids, which we assumed would me a mighty task.

P.S : And the immediate coming week, we had gone there with a Tailor and have taken all their measurements. The clothes shall be stitched and given to all those kids there sometime during Mid-March. We thank all those People who had contributed Monetarily, and Physically for this task.

Hoping to see such continued support and continued service to these kids….

Cheers…
~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad