Kerala Floods Rehabilitation - Education Support Program

Kerala has faced its worst natural disaster in the last 100 years and scores of individuals, organisations and corporates have come forward to support the victims through their donations and volunteering. The rescue and relief activities have almost come to an end and people have started returning to their homes, rebuilding their lives again. However, it is not easy. Thousands of children have lost all their school books, notebooks and other requirements and as one of the teachers shared, are now reluctant to go to school due to the lack of such basic requirements, leading to low attendance in spite of the floods receding and the schools being reopened. As per the initial official estimate, 379 schools have been damaged, including government and government aided schools, affecting more than 86,000 students.

Nirmaan has visited various flood affected areas and relief camps in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts in Kerala and talked to the teachers, parents and students, also visiting the student's homes. We have also met the honourable education minister, Mr. C. Raveendranath, and director of public instruction, Mr. MV Mohan Kumar, IAS and spoken about our education support program. They have welcomed it wholeheartedly and have extended their support.

Kerala, with its traditionally high emphasis on education, has already shown its commitment towards restoring education through printing of 36 lakh text books, promise of uniforms to students and reopening of schools within days of the disaster. In the first phase, we will compliment the efforts of the government by providing other school necessities such as notebooks, stationery, geometry box and sanitary napkins for girls as a part of 'educational kits' to support students across primary and secondary levels in the 2 districts of Thrissur and Ernakulam. The next step is to support infrastructure restoration of schools damaged by floods.

In the first phase, we are aiming to reach out to 3000 students in the two districts with educational kits and support them to return to schools with dignity.