GyanSetu Community Education Centres
India
Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) supports an impressive portfolio of initiatives aimed at educating and empowering underprivileged girls in urban and rural India. Since it began in 1994, SHEF has reached over 2,500,000 students through direct and indirect initiatives in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Many kids living in the very poor “slum” areas in cities or in remote villages never attend school. These one-room schools provide primary and early childhood education to marginalized children in city slums and poor rural villages to prepare them to transition to the public schools. They also provide critical training for mothers on health and hygiene, domestic violence, child marriage, and alcoholism and connects them to available community services.
We support the 120-200 children of 4 Gyan Setus. These primary schools are Kasawan, Laltapur, Mohammadpur, and Unai. located in urban slums around Lucknow, India where there is no access to clean water, sanitation, or education, and a family of 4 lives on less than $2/day.
86% of these children successfully transition to public school and have a fighting chance for a better life for themselves and their families.
Program Components:
Education
- Transitioning out of school children in slums to public school system
- In the first half of 2022, 204 children transitioned to mainstream schools
Program Components:
Community Development
- Adult education programs: 167 women enrolled in adult literacy program in 2022
- Counsellor services to support and educate parents in issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, and child marriage
What we do:
- Fund the construction and operation of 5 one-room classrooms
- Includes all costs for supplies, teacher-training, parent workshops, and community development initiatives
- Funded much-needed supplies including masks, food, sanitation supplies, and smartphones in response to COVID-19 pandemic
- The total annual operational costs for 1 Gyan Setu is $4000 Canadian