Sponsor educational expenses for a child from a poor family

Impact

Ruma Naiya is an 8 year old girl who lives with her parents in an urban slum near Bidhan Nagar. Her father Susanta works as a rickshaw puller and her mother works as a domestic help. Ruma used to go with her mother for work. **She had started working in houses to help her mom clean houses.**The volunteers of Turnstone Global conducted a survey in the colony. They identified Ruma during the survey. They counselled her parents to send her to school.However, there was an initial reluctance from her parents. **They refused saying that education was not important for Ruma as she is a girl. Furthermore, if she went to school, the income that she would earn as a domestic help would be lost to them**The volunteers did not lose hope. They continued to speak to her parents till they finally agreed to try it for a little while.Ruma was a quick learner and she enjoyed coming to school. In a short while she began to read and write. She soon was placed in class 2 in the Turnstone Global school. This change in her levels of growth and education has had a huge positive impact on her parents.Ruma's life changed when her parents who had once refused to send her to school, have decided that they will do anything for her to complete her education.**Her mother is determined that Ruma will grow up and work in an office and not work as a domestic help**like herself.**With a little help children like Ruma can break out of lives that force them into poverty.****Your help can make many more poor children like Ruma. You can donate so that they can get an education which can change their lives. You can give with confidence because every program listed is [GIVEASSURED](https://www.giveindia.org/giveassured).**

About The Program

Turnstone Global runs Vivekanandasahaj Path Vidyalaya, a non-formal primary school till class 8 for the children Donations to this program covers the cost of teachers' salary, snacks and educational supplies.Bashanti colony, adjacent to Ultadanga railway station, is one of the largest slums in Kolkata. Most men in the slum work as working either as rickshaw pullers or as daily wage laborers. The women work as maids in apartments and residential complexes in neighboring areas. Education was never a priority for the children of Bashanti Colony till Vivekanandasahaj Path Vidyalaya was opened. This school is situated inside the colony itself so that children do not have to travel. Children between the age group of 4 to 18 years are identified through a field survey conducted in the project area. The parents are then counselled to enroll their children in a formal school so that they complete their education. The session begins in March or April every year. The school operates from 2 pm to 6 pm for six days a week from Monday through Saturday. There are 132 children who are now enrolled in the program. The Vivekanandasahaj Path Vidyalaya has not had any child drop out of this programWhen you support this program you help a child with the foundation steps to his education.

About The NGO

Turnstone Global is a not for profit social enterprise working with relentless effort for the overall improvement of human lives, irrespective of age, gender, religious beliefs, cast, ethnic origin, birth place or disability status.The organisation started in 1952, for the betterment of the lives of the visually challenged. Turnstone Global is headed by Dr. Kanchan Gaba, a 100% visually impaired lady, who fought against all odds to obtain her PhD in International Law and established herself as a lecturer of Calcutta University. Today, apart from being a lecturer, she is a social activist.They work for the betterment of lives of the disabled, in particular, the visually impaired; to provide education, training with a view to rehabilitate them and improve their livelihood. A major focus area of the organisation is early intervention and prevention of blindness.The scale of operations of Turnstone Global spans across eleven states, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Mizoram, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, with more than two hundred gram Panchayats. They have touched the lives of more than one million in the past decade. At any given point of time eleven thousand beneficiaries are under their care. Several hundreds of them reside permanently with them.The organisation undertakes programmes and plans its activities based on field level in-depth analysis of the demography and socioeconomic condition of the project area. Their endeavour is to involve community based organisations directly in their project areas where they cater to project planning, phase to phase implementation, monitoring and constant evaluation.Turnstone Global has been creating impact with a force of 250 staff, more than 500 volunteers and networking partners working in 11 states, 24 cities and 200 Gram Panchayats in India, with its headquarter in Kolkata, through over 62 programs and community-based services.