WAH Campaign is now closed. To make a donation to this project please click here and hit Donate

Project History and Mission

SWIRD is a social development NGO working for the last 20 years (established in 1991) to uplift the quality of life of the disadvantaged women and children in a remote rural belt in West Bengal (in the Eastern part of India). SWIRD is running ten pre-primary schools (Balwadi Centers) to support elementary education for low-income children in this community. Asha San Francisco has been involved with SWIRD since 2009.

The SWIRD project runs ten schools located in ten different villages and caters to at least 3000 families. Prior to collaboration with Asha San Francisco, 1081 students had gone through SWIRD’s program. During the last year under Asha sponsorship, SWIRD’s annual enrollment increased from 340 to 411. Over the last year, 100 children have passed from SWIRD’s schools. All of the children who have graduated in the last year are currently studying in local government primary schools. Many of the students from previous years are now studying in high schools. We hope that the children will continue their education in future.

The project caters to an area in the state of West Bengal which not only suffers economically but also lacks proper educational facilities. Problems of school dropout and child labor are prevalent in these areas. These Balwadis provide elementary education to children in the age group of 3 to 5 years. The children come from families that are mostly landless laborers, with some involved in floriculture. SWIRD motivates the parents in these communities to send their children, especially girls, to these schools to give them a start for education. SWIRD prepares these children for admission to the primary schools and considers the Balwadi program for providing these children a steppingstone of education.

Arun Barman - Arun is a second year BA student at the Panskura Banamili College. He was born and brought up in a fisherman family. His parents are illiterate and in their joint family Arun is the first generation learner of formal school education. In 1994, at the age of 3, he was taken to Bardabar Sitala Balwadi Center of SWIRD. The continuation of his education was closely monitored and supported by SWIRD social workers. Another positive outcome is that his siblings and cousins are also attending schools.

Jagannath Ojha – Currently Jagannath is a successful businessman in the flower market of his area. He studied up to the 12th standard and started his business. His father is an uneducated rickshaw puller. In his childhood he was taken to Tahala Matangini Balwadi Center of SWIRD. His parents were not committed to Jagannath continuing his education and wanted him to start working. However due to close guidance of SWIRD social workers to ensure he did not discontinue his studies, and he attended school up to the higher secondary level. Unfortunately due to the poor financial situation of his family he did not continue on to the college level and had to start working. However, because of his education he was able to diversify from his father’s profession and start another business. He has been able to improve the financial condition of his family.

Jharna Pal – School education of girls was unthinkable in Jharna’s family. She was born and brought up in a poor family which was engaged in the earthen pottery business. Jharna’s mother became the member of SWIRD and put Jharna in Kodalia Gandhiburi Balwadi School in 1992. Despite significant opposition of the other family members, Jharna did not dropout and completed her education and passed her board exam. Now she is the wife of a government employee and a proud mother of two sons. The elder son is studying in 2nd standard, and her younger son is in kindergarten.

The SWIRD project serves a region of West Bengal where the socio-economic background is very poor. 21 % of the population in this area belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Overall community health is very poor, and children and women are the worst sufferers. Literacy rate is very low especially among the women. Malnutrition among the children is a common characteristic.

The biggest challenges SWIRD faces are keeping the schools financially sustainable and preventing children from dropping out to become potential child laborers. The growth of these schools suffer due to poor infrastructure of all the schools. There were several years when the schools had to close due to lack of funds. But due to public demand SWIRD reopened the schools by raising funds from the locality and outside. Asha’s support of SWIRD has provided a more stable flow of funds. Since the children attending SWIRD’s programs are first generation learners of formal education, school attendance of the children has not been a priority to their parents unless the child is very interested in attending school. Many parents of our children are illiterate and initially were not eager to send their children to SWIRD’s schools in the pre-primary level. SWIRD’s teachers have inculcated the interest among the children through joyful learning for them. Initially the parents were not very interested in continuing their children’s education to the next level, but due to continuous awareness-building and counseling of teachers and staff, there are very few children dropping out of the program or later education. SWIRD has a strong relationship with the families as many SWIRD staff have faced the same financial and cultural challenges as the parents.

Since Asha has been working with SWIRD, they have been able to increase their annual enrollment from 340 to 411 students. SWIRD has also been able to provide school uniforms and medical care to students.

In order to serve more students, SWIRD has future plans to increase number of centers in some more villages and to engage teachers accordingly. SWIRD does not plan on increasing the number of students in the existing schools because each school has one room and one teacher. Their goal is to cover a greater number of remote villages where children are really deprived from the scope of proper education. In terms of services, in the future SWIRD would like to also provide a daily mid-day nutritional meal. However, the SWIRD Balwadi project is donor-driven (the local government does not support schools run by local NGOs). SWIRD can offer additional programs and services to their beneficiaries only when they receive assurance of funds from our donors. Because their programs support low-income families, they do not expect any support from those families.