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For a school of 50 students, Kamlahan-Khadarawan has some far-reaching goals: to eradicate bonded labor from 11 villages in Uttar Pradesh, to fund 11 schools for the children of the villages, and to gradually change local perceptions of debt bondage. For now, the Kamlahan-Khadarawan school has removed some of the children from bonded labor, and has committed itself to educating them, and their families. Kamlahan-Khadarawan places a strong emphasis on community empowerment. But the main goal: to prepare it’s students for the 5th grade level official examination so they can enter state schools, and escape bondage.
Kamlahan-Khadarawan is determined to pin down the basics: its main goal is to provide students with a basic, 5th grade level education, so that they can “graduate” into state schools. But in many ways it goes far beyond the basic: it teaches a unique Human Rights curriculum in addition to the standard government-mandated curriculum. And, it educates the larger local community: it provides local villagers with legal literacy programs, it unites the community, allowing its members to better assert their rights, it generates employment through SHG training, production and marketing, and it educates locals on HIV-AIDS prevention.
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