The Academy for Working Children started by Humana People to People India is running classes for poor working children who do not attend school. The Academy provide the children with 3 – 4 hours of schooling a day.
The program also looks after the welfare of the children and their community and teaching children computer skills. The Academy was estabished in the 2005 in the in the comunity of Gurgaon.
Millions of children in India do not have access to any form of education due to family conditions. Their family is poor and they have to work to provide an income for themselves and their families. The children are mostly engaged in low-income labour. They collect garbage, shine shoes, sell utensils and salt, buy and sell second-hand clothes and sing and dance in small hotels.
95 students attend classes in the Academy for Working Children Gurgaon, and they come in two shifts. Out of the 95 children 81 are registered as students at the academy, the rest come on their own will. The academy has only one common classroom for all the children. The children are from Bengali families who are often marginalised because many of them do not speak Hindi, the main language of Guargon. The major change being felt is that some of the children have learnt the Hindi alphabet and are learning to speak and write the language.
On the 5th of September The Academy for Working Children was officially inaugurated. The academy was inaugurated by Mrs. Krishana Koli (General Manager of the Dupont India Company) who opened the academy by cutting the satin ribbon. The program was attended by the Chairperson of of HUMANA People to People-India Mrs. Padmawati, Karen Thorst General Manager Humana People to People-India and Khursheed Mohammad, partnership officer representative of Humana People People India. The children had organised a cultural program where the community members also participated.
http://humana.org
