Prologue
The Work Between the Lines of Policy
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
— Derek Bok
Policy documents have all the good intentions in the world. Universal enrollment. Education, free and compulsory. Education for all, printed in thick government dossiers with a confident hand. But take a stroll through any Indian city, and you will come across children who live outside the promise of those well-meaning documents.
That’s where the NGOs come in.
Pehchaan The Street School can be seen as a sort of middleman here, filling up the space between what the government promises and what the children living on the streets actually get.
Instead of waiting for the needy to come to them, the volunteers of Pehchaan The Street School bring education to the children, a makeshift class in a patch of land near a metro station and a blackboard held by a volunteer for two hours every Saturday.
That’s how an NGO can start bridging the gap: by being in the middleman and reaching out to those who cannot reach the other end.
But there’s another, perhaps more important way in which NGOs bridge the gap: through education awareness.
Education about education, in other words. Handing out pamphlets and organizing campaigns helps, but what helps more is when volunteers show up, regularly, until some parents come around and decide that, yes, perhaps, education would be a good idea after all. Community education is the kind that is achieved little by little, on the ground, by talking to people and making them understand why education is important for their children.
In addition, NGOs often provide what traditional schools do not: namely, education about hygiene, mental health, self-confidence, or simply asking the children what they want to grow up to be. While they may teach kids to read and write, Pehchaan The Street School also teaches them that they can grow up to be doctors or IAS officers, which may be even more important for their continued education.
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This kind of grassroots activism, however, requires volunteers who spend their weekends teaching street children. It requires interns to support them, funding to buy notebooks, and donations to feed the children so that they show up to learn. Child education on a broad scale is not the work of one NGO, but many, all working together with volunteers’ time as well as donations of money, food, or supplies.
The chasm between the promises of the government and the reality of the streets cannot be bridged solely with good intentions. It takes volunteers, donors, and collaboration to bring education to the doorstep of those who need it most, little by little, until it becomes normal for a child to finish primary school.
Education can change countless lives, but it takes a united effort. Help Pehchaan The Street School bridge the gap by volunteering, interning, donating, or simply spreading the word.
Join us in our mission by commenting “Interested” or through this link.
Know more about us: https://lnkd.in/dXcEeqjE
Visit us:
Pehchaan — The Street School (Trust) Indraprastha Metro Station, Delhi — 110001
+91 97117 18972
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