Since 2002, the Aasra Seva Sansthan has been trying to bring real economic and social uplift to backward and outcast communities(Musahars) in Varanasi, in chief through improved access to education. In addition to the schools it helps run, the organization has also been trying to assist the Mushahars and other marginalized communities in awareness of and availing their rights, such as ration cards, medical checkups and bank accounts.
The focus here is on bringing the students to a level where they can successfully transition to a formal school, working on all basic skills like reading, writing and health. Rather than use evaluation measures like exams, the teachers here encourage the students using innovative methods like song and play, and personal retelling of books read from the library. That most of the teachers it trains are from the same communities as the students themselves also helps secure a more enduring solution.
In the public schools where Aasra Seva Sansthan provides teachers, the focus is on promoting the quality of education provided and encouraging a more inclusive and learning environment, especially for children from ostracized communities like the Mushahars.
Your contribution to Aasra Seva Sansthan will support its annual operating budget.
More on Aasra
Fully operates two Non-formal education(NFE) preparatory schools, provides one teacher each to two local government primary schools.
Also runs a self-sustaining vocational (sewing) school in the area.
Around 60 students at both NFEs combined, and 80-85 each at the government schools.
Mainly serves extremely backward rural communities, especially outcasts like the Musahars, who make their living through making selling leaf plates.
NFEs aimed towards children, mostly from these communities, who cannot or do not want, for fear of discrimination and even violence, to go to government primary schools, with the ultimate goal of their integration of these people into mainstream society
Aid to local schools aimed at improving quality of education.
The NFEs run by the Aasra Seva Sansthan are popular, seeing 75-80 new students every year. Aasra has also been successful in gaining the trust of the local communities among which it operates, helping them get aware and take advantage of government schemes like Indra Avaas Yojana and NREGA, besides availing other basic rights like food and education through ration cards, RTI applications etc.
With its operational expenses taken care of by WAH ’09, Aasra can focus on bringing more local children into the educational system. Another area they want to work on is keeping the children in school, as a lot of students dropout during the course of the academic year. Currently, Aasra spends around Rs. 770 ($16) annually on each child at any of their NFEs – your support can directly impact the number of lives they can touch.
