Asha for Education

Project Brief: Gram Vikas Trust known as GVT is a non-profit organization established in the year 1999.. Asha Dallas is evaluating to support Balwadi education at Dahej and Kadodara.
Project Type: Pre-Primary (description)
Primary Focus: children of migrant workers (description)

Secondary Focus: to go to formal school

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Dallas

Status: CURRENT
Project Steward: Dhwanil Shukla
Co-Steward: Anuradha Bulusu
Project Partner(s): Ramesh Kasondra
Project Address: Gram Vikas Trust
A-18 Pushpadhan Bungalows
Link Road Near HFDC Bank
Bharuch, Gujarat 392001
Tel: 011-91-9662006293
Stewarding Chapter: Dallas

The main goal of Gram Vikas Trust is to help improve the social and economic conditions of the population in drought prone Bharuch and Narmada districts of Gujarat. They believe that their goal can be achieved mainly through education which creates awareness and enhances self development, action and empowerment.

The population predominantly consists of farmers. The area is extremely drought prone and the soil quality is also very poor. The ground water levels are too low. Under such extreme environmental conditions the farmers end up growing only one crop a year. This again depends entirely on the yearly monsoons as there are no other sources of irrigation. When there is no farming possible the farmers are forced to work for wages by migrating to nearby mines and factories. Such situations have led to very low literacy rates and high drop outs from schools in this region.

Gram Vikas Trust is slowly changing this scenario and one of their focuses is building balwadis in many villages and encouraging children to go to school.

<b>Self sustenance:</b> The government usually takes over and supports these balwadis after three years of operation. All the initial effort is done by GVT, as the government is not ready to take up the initiative for such an approach.

<b>Support a Child program:</b> GVT also chooses children based on need and merit and provide them with scholarships from Asha’s Support a Child program. A committee consisting of the village leader, teachers, school principal and a representative from GVT choose children based on the following for the program:

1. He/She should be from Below Poverty Line Family (BPL) whose income is not more than 3000Rs per year.
2. The attendance of the children in school should be more than 80 %.
3. The students rank is from 1st to 10th in the class.
4. The committee will decide the selection of adoption and that is final.
There is no caste involved.

The students are from the villages of Vagra block of Bharuch district and most of the villages are within a radius of 15 to 20 KM.

Check out some of the photos of the Balwadis and primary schools.



Since 2012, Asha Sheffield has become co-steward of the project supporting one school under "Sikshana" project of Gram Vikas Trust for various activities including education materials, parateachers, scholarships, TLMs, mentoring and monitoring. From 2015 onwards, Sheffield chapter has started supporting two schools under "Sikshana" project. Please contact Sachin Prabhu (s.prabhu AT sheffield DOT ac DOT uk) for any questions regarding this aspect of the project.