Overview

"Life is sacred, Celebrate Life, Care for others and share whatever you have with those less fortunate than you. Broaden your vision for the whole world Belongs to you."
                                                     H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

In August 1936, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in the newspaper Harijan "India lives in her villages, not in her cities". This statement holds true even today. While India is poised to become one of the youngest nations in the world with great economic potential, its villages, rural areas and tribal communities remain impoverished and unempowered. For countries such as India, it is critical that each child - particularly outside of cities - be educated such that they can effectively contribute to the nation and the world.

The Challenge

India's population challenge is a good example of what is a trend amongst many developing nations. Unlike the major Western economies, with declining and aging populations, more than 28% of the Indian population is under the age of 15. Educating such a large number of children is a real challenge that is made more complex due to the largely rural population. With 68% of India's population considered rural and 8% classified as tribal, it is estimated that 60 million children or more are without access to education even at the elementary level.

Even for those who do have access to school, a child's participation is affected by the economic capacity of their parents. The average annual cost of education per child is $250, which is out of reach for many. Considering the average family has 4 children, parents would have to earn approximately $1000 a year for education alone. This falls far outside of the $800 annual income of the average family.

The Solution: Care For Children Schools

The Care for Children program primarily aims to bring a modern and holistic education to children that are outside the reach of other government or private programs. Schools under the Care for Children program fall into three categories: rural, tribal and slum schools.
Rural schools are established in villages close to a major city. They typically have some kind of road access and electricity.
Tribal schools are established in remote areas where neither roads nor electricity exist. In some cases these tribal schools are 30km away from main roads and the only access is through country roads. Slum schools are established in urban areas. The rural and slum schools follow a more conventional education program, while in the tribal schools the emphasis is more on providing a basic education platform with development of entrepreneurial and vocational skills that these children can build upon if they choose to. The Care for Children program also runs Heritage schools with emphasis on preserving India's Vedic tradition.

How it all began...

In 1981 during the construction of the Art of Living International Centre in in Udayapura village, Bangalore, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of 'The Art of Living Foundation' noticed that many small children were staying with their parents who were constructing the center. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar recognized the need to reach out to these children and thought 'something has to be done for them'. This led to the creation of Ved Vignan Maha Vidya Peeth, a school providing a combination of modern and holistic education to children from rural communities. From the first class of 30 children, the school has grown to more than 2000 students from over 45 surrounding villages who are bused to school every morning. The school caters to children who are the first in their families and communities to ever receive a formal education.

In the early 1990's, this vision expanded into setting up the Sri Sri Vidya Mandir tribal schools. The first tribal school was started in a jungle in 1999, in the Ghatsila Block of Singhbum district in Jharkhand, India, in an area where there is no electricity or paved roads. Today, there are 15 schools in Jharkhand with about 1200 children.

Where is the Care For Children program now

The Care for Children program has grown to include 71 schools in 13 states serving 5750 children in India. This includes 47 rural schools, 21 tribal schools and 3 slum schools. We have also adopted several schools in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South Africa.

These schools:

• Educate children up to the age of 15 years
• Supply uniforms, shoes, books, writing materials and mid day meals free of cost
• Provide outdoor medical facilities and mobile dispensary
• Train women in useful vocations, and give additional vocational training to unemployed youth in the community.
• Plant trees in tribal school areas, and teach organic farming techniques.

Both the rural and tribal schools build upon a sustainable model of local empowerment, where teachers are recruited from the local population. They are selected through a well-defined procedure, and go through a comprehensive teachers training program. Typically schools established in rural and tribal areas suffer from high student [and teacher] attrition rates. In Care for Children run schools, however this is not the case. Since our teachers are selected from, and serve their own local communities, the students feel at home, and thus the attendance in the schools is around 95% and 98% teacher retention?

The benefits of this program are numerous. Education itself opens new opportunities for the children, but the holistic approach uniquely offered by Care for Children creates wider community benefits. Basic hygiene education has reduced the incidence of diseases. Parents view the future of their children with home, and the increased self esteem and confidence felt by both the children and their parents. By sharing a classroom, and expanding their awareness through yoga and meditation,harmony among diverse groups cultural and ethnic groups is supported.

Future Plan for Tribal Schools

We are inspired by the success of our program, and are continually developing and expanding the scope of our services. Every day, we move closer towards achieving our dream commitment of providing a better life and creating a self-sustaining tribal community. We dream of providing an even better program in our existing schools and reaching out to more communities in the future. Imagine:

• Children's parks in each school
• Vocational Training Centers with each school
• A school dropout program for older children , and an adult literacy program for everyone
• Adding middle and then, high school, levels of education
• Teaching traditional farming techniques to Class V children

Future Plan for Rural and Slum Schools

By catering to the specific needs of each community, we can bring even greater opportunity to the children who benefit from our programs. In the rural schools, where access to electricity is available, we envision:

• Bringing computers and computer training to the children;
• Stocking the libraries with useful books; and
• Cultural events and field trips.

Future Plan for Heritage Schools

These schools, which focus on providing a Vedic education to those in the community who would benefit from this curriculum, are based only in Bangalore at this time. We believe that the opportunity for such an education is a rare one for those who are economically disadvantaged. Our dream is to:

• Expand the locations for this special program outside of the Bangalore area to three new communities a year based on community interest;
• Increase awareness of this program within India;
• Offer special adult education programs on topics such as Vedic Mathematics, Vaastu and Ayurveda.