| Champa Mahila Society | |||
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Support A School Deep in the forest areas of the luscious Sundarbans are a group of people fighting a battle against poverty. Basic amenities such as electricity, infrastructure is lacking. And the roots of this poverty, lies in lack of education. So urgent are their needs of sustenance that education is low priority in their lives. Introduction Sundarban is composed of 102 islands of which 40 are inhabited, the rest islands being reserve forest. The Royal Bengal tiger population is about 300. The other surviving wild life includes crocodiles, sharks, deer, wild boar, lizard, monkey, dolphin, fishing-cats, poisonous snakes & a wide variety of birds & reptiles. Due to poverty, a large number of people go to the rivers to catch fish & fish prawn or to the forest to collect wood & honey. Many of them are eaten by tiger in the forest and by shark & crocodile in the river. Every year many people die of snakebite also. People are leading a hard life near forest & river zone. In addition there is scarcity of drinking water in the area. Agriculture is the main source of earning for a majority of the people. But the islands are surrounded by saline water. The area is mono-cropped - hence people depend on fishing, rearing of animals & collection of forest products as source of income. The economic condition of the region can be improved through agriculture, fishing & animal resource development. Basanti Island Basanti is such an island of Sundarban surrounded by 3 main saline rivers like Bidhya, Matla & Hogol. The south part of the island, Jharkhali, is located near Sundarban forest zone. Sometimes Royal Bengal tigers come to the locality crossing Bidhya River. Champa Mahila Society Champa Mahila Society (CMS) has been working since the year 1979 with some illiterate children under a banyan tree. From that time they had taken this education program as a movement in the area. The society was established in 1984 in the Basanti area of the Sundarbans. Working among the financially under privileged community, this group aims at creating a self-reliant community and developing awareness and a feeling of cooperation with focus on women's groups. Right now they work in education (for younger and older children), health (both preventive and curative) and organize Self Help Groups (SHG) for women promoting micro-credit, kitchen garden and animal husbandry. They also run a hospital and a crèche. Championing a Unique Effort There are many creeks, canals & small rivers inside the island. The literacy rate is very low. A huge number of children & mainly girls are deprived of even primary education. Due to poverty & the fact that schools are not always close by the children do not go there. It is very difficult for small children to cross the creeks & canals to go to Government sponsored primary schools. During rainy season the road conditions worsen, hence school-going children also stop going. Champa Mahila Society (CMS) has championed an effort to bring the first schools their neighborhoods. They have created an environment of education in many school-less villages for non-going school children & dropout children of those school-less villages through more than 30 pre-primary schools for children in the age group 3-9. For these children, such a school is the 1st place, where they get introduced to an environment outside home. They come in the morning and sometime in the evenings to study. They learn alphabets, basic math, action-rhythms, games and stories. CMS provides them books, slates, a healthy meal and most importantly a caring teacher. From their eagerness it is clear that they enjoy all these activities. Are the teachers accomplished? All the teachers are from villages. They were all trained by Vikramshila - a well-known Kolkata based education resource group. They also attend follow up workshops. They are very dedicated, caring and always eager to learn. They have been instrumental in helping change the dreary lives of these children. After the 1st schools? Work does not stop with these schools. The teachers as well as village workers of CMS follows up on each graduating child to make sure s/he continues in the nearest primary school and after that. Once in secondary these children (almost teens) join a youth forum called Tarun Tirtha, which meets every weekend. There they learn drill, song, dance and poems. Tarun Tirtha also goes to camps organized by other youth clubs in Bengal and through this the young adults of Sundarbans get to see other parts of Bengal and meet and interact with other children from those places. The Wheel of Change Interestingly for CMS, these schools paved the way for getting the mothers together. This led to formation of SHG's among the village women. As a result they have become more aware, confident and empowered. Through SHG's CMS has brought in micro-credit and more importantly the concept of an ideal family - i.e. a small family with kitchen garden, animal husbandry, a smokeless oven & proper sanitation. As a result the demand for education has grown tremendously in the area. Villages with no such school yet are asking CMS to start them. In addition there has been great rise in demand for adult education also. In short, these schools started rolling the wheel of change in a positive direction leading to women's empowerment and a organized way of sustainable development to fight poverty - the main problem of this area. Pictures of children at these schools. Reports: Jul 2004 [CMS main page] |
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