Mahila Sworojgar Samiti - Project MUSKAN

Project Brief:
Project Type: Other (description)
Primary Focus: children with disabilities (description)

Secondary Focus: other

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: NYC/NJ
Status: Support ended.
Project Steward: Pawan Agarwal
Project Partner(s): Rekha Chauhan
Other Contacts:
Project Address: , Bairvan, Gangapur, ,Varanasi,UP,,
UTTAR PRADESH 
Tel: +91-941-525-6472, +91-941-521-
Stewarding Chapter: NYC/NJ
Aug 2011LondonUSD 9254
Mar 2011NYC/NJUSD 10000
Mar 2010NYC/NJUSD 9350
Jun 2009ToledoUSD 3600
Dec 2008ToledoUSD 4200

Total = $36404

Project Muskan is for the education of physically challenged children (mainly affected by polio) from villages around Varanasi. These children have never gone to school because of the long commute to go to Govt. school. Since these children didn't have formal education before, it is difficult for them to cope up in the government school directly. Mahila Swarojgar Samithi (MSS) runs a prep school to provide them basic education and health care so that after a period of time, the children can be sent to Govt. school. One of the main aims of MSS are providing Child Centre education classes: These are ‘bridge’ schools run by the ‘Samiti’ in three villages that prepare students of Class 1 for the transition to Class 2 (and beyond) in a local government school. The role of MSS is to ensure that the children get enrolled into government schools, get their mid-day meal at the centre and do not drop out of school.

1.To provide basic education and health care to children who are physically disabled.
2. To ensure that children are eventually enrolled into government schools due to the limitations of delivering full-time teaching through the centres. The role of the centre is to gear up the children for the formal schooling system and get them familiarised with the concept of school.
3.To conduct parent counselling (most of them belong to self help group run my MSS) and build up a strong network and ensure that the children do not drop out of the school.
Mahila Swarojgar Samiti works with women’s groups in villages in order to set up self-help groups and income augmentation programmes. The aim of the project is to empower women to take control of their lives. MSS also run education centres for pre-school children in the villages of Todapur, Chakrapanpur, and Harfos in rural Uttar Pradesh.