Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
~Revered Sri Rabindranath Tagore
Project Profile: ALAMB – Education and vocational training for slum girls, New Delhi
Project Status: Ongoing
Location: Plot No 13, Block-A, Om Vihar Phase-5
Near Holy International School
Haspatalwada Road, Uttam Nagar
West Delhi District, 110064
National Capital Territory of Delhi
Organization: ALAMB
Beneficiaries : 1000 children
ALAMB was established in 1992 by a group of experienced professionals with the main aim of the organization being to improve quality of life and develop resources to aid disadvantaged people, with a specific target group being women and children of socio – economically weaker sections of society. These women and children come from all parts of the country, and live in slums around the affluent colonies of Delhi. Their main source of income is based on the services they provide to the folk residing in these posh colonies.
“ ALAMB foresees and wishes to reach the vision of an exploitation free society wherein equality, social justice and sustainability exists. Empowering the developmentally deprived groups in a manner that they not only become self-reliant but also collectively work towards exploitation free social structures is the mission of ALAMB.” Institutions for handicapped, adult literacy, vocational skill developments, empowering community health, are some of the program directives of the organization.
Vibha’s support since 2003 to this project benefits about a 1000 young girls, through vocational and non- formal education, comprising of basic reading, writing and math. This initiative is aimed at helping disadvantaged girls in realizing independence by providing a path to enable them to take an active part in the management of their future livelihood. It provides awareness about their rights to education, good health and self-respect.
Vibha mainly funds the ‘girl child education and vocational training’ program which covers non-formal education for children who have either dropped out of school or have never been to school. This program consists of the following:
- Non formal education: This focuses on children from 5 to 14 years who have never been to any formal schools. ALAMB trains these children so that they can attend the mainstream government schools.
- Remedial education: These are after school tutoring classes for children (5 -14 yrs) who are enrolled in government schools but have uneducated parents who are unable to assist them with their studies.
- Vocational training: This component focuses on older children (from 14-18 yrs) who have received basic education but now want to become earning members of their family and ultimately stand on their own feet. The vocational training includes tailoring and embroidery, beautician and computer training.
- Health Checks: This component works hand in hand with the education and vocational training, where in ALAMB believes that in order to achieve positive results in education, a child must have access to basic health checkups. This component covers regular visits by the doctor and serves not only the enrolled children but their families as well.
The children are taught income generating skills such as tailoring, embroidery and basic cosmetology, which provides them with the opportunity to help them stand on their own feet and break the cycle of poverty. These at risk children would otherwise have to turn to more desperate measures for a livelihood. Self-determination and the road to self-sustenance and empowerment for these impoverished young girls is possible and attainable only through the continued support of generous donors and their ongoing support of the dedicated volunteers on the ground.
Through donor support, and various fund-raising efforts, Vibha donated over $22,000 to this project last year. It is this support and effort that will help this generation and, in its turn, our future generations, stand tall and walk with confidence shoulder to shoulder with their peers in society.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46Zm_XKE1k&feature=relmfu]
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~Rabindranath Tagore