This campaign has now closed

These children live in one of the most extreme and isolated environments in the world: they have to cross miles of rugged mountainous terrain to reach schools that are often little more than sheds: poorly equipped, without heating, electricity or furniture, in sub-zero temperatures which affect the region for half the year. The project will enable over 13,000 children living in the Indian High Himalaya to have both better access to education and a more relevant educations, through 136 supplementary schools and 5 resource centres, teacher training, and skills training and awareness-raising with adults which will benefit indirectly around 150,000 people across more than 600 villages.

100%
Categories

  • Animals Animals
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage Arts/​Culture/​Heritage
  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Environment/Conservation Environment/​Conservation
  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Human Rights/Advocacy Human Rights/​Advocacy
  • Information/Advice Information/​Advice
  • Sports/Recreation Sports/​Recreation
  • Other Other
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other

    Situation

    Project Need: Children in the High Himalaya are hindered in getting a decent education by the lack of schools, poor quality of facilities, poverty, extremes of climate and terrain, and cultural, economic and political isolation. The ill-equipped unheated classrooms only accessible after long walks typically have an absentee teacher from plains-India who has been sent there on a ‘punishment posting’ and therefore is not motivated to teach. If the teacher does turn up the curriculum is based on examples from plains-India irrelevant to the children’s mountain lives, and is in Hindi or English rather than their mother-tongue. As a result literacy levels in the region range from between 0% to 40%, the drop-out rate is 48% at primary level alone, and the communities remain trapped in poverty. Project Aims: To enable high altitude Himalayan people to attain high literacy levels and life skills; all children to undergo primary education (girls in equal measure to boys); and the community to recognise the value of culturally relevant education that enhances their livelihood possibilities, hence reducing poverty. Activities: 1.Provide education to 13,219 educationally excluded children (an equal number of girls and boys) from disadvantaged groups in 7 high altitude districts across 5 states of the Indian Himalayas. 2. Establish 136 Supplementary Schools, 5 Resource Centres and 17 Resource Libraries for these children, and train 272 local teachers. 38 of the Supplementary Schools in the most remote villages without road access will be provided with solar energy technology to ensure heating and light. 3. Develop and share 12 vocational courses with children and young people from the target villages, and demonstrate alternative career possibilities by setting up 14 craft production, eco-tourism, and dairy processing centres. 4. Awareness-raising programmes about the importance of education at community, regional and state levels through a network of 136 community organisations and 7 district councils. Beneficiaries: The project will benefit directly 13,219 people, predominantly children and teenagers, and also indirectly will benefit 148,080 people across 617 villages through awareness-raising and through improved education and livelihoods contributing to increased wellbeing and standards of living.

    Solution

    100%
    Categories

  • Animals Animals
  • Arts/Culture/Heritage Arts/​Culture/​Heritage
  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Environment/Conservation Environment/​Conservation
  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Human Rights/Advocacy Human Rights/​Advocacy
  • Information/Advice Information/​Advice
  • Sports/Recreation Sports/​Recreation
  • Other Other
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other