Thank you for coming together to support Kamta’s education for an entire year.

Eight year old Kamta’s parents  migrate from Navada in Bihar to work in the brick kilns of Kanpur for six months every year. Kamta is, therefore, unable to attend a regular school.

Kamta is very happy that her parents work at a brick kiln where an Apna Skool centre is up and running. A student of Grade 1, Kamta loves spending time in her school where she gets to wear a school uniform. She meticulously keeps her uniform clean everyday.

She looks forward to the story telling sessions in her class and is now able to read short stories too. Kamta’s elder sister Hema also attends Apna Skool. Their living conditions are such that they are denied even very basic sanitation facilities and clean drinking water at the brick kilns.  Apna skool provides them a different world at least for a few hours of the day.

Kamta looks forward to 15th of August and 26th of January every year when the Independence Day and the Republic day celebrations are held at school,  especially because she gets to eat extra sweets on these days!

Thank you, Clare, Nat, Cindy and Utkarsha, for coming together to provide an entire year of comprehensive medical care to Kamta.

Thank you, RoseMarie, for your donation of one year of study materials to Kamta.

Thank you, Tony, for donating two sets of school uniforms to Kamta.

Thank you, Microsoft Employees and Don, for coming together to donate an entire year of school lunches to Kamta.

Your generosity will ensure that Kamta is able to rise to her full potential.

Ajay  is a student in a mainstream local school.  He was initially enrolled at an Apna Skool centre located in a brick kiln  where he studied till 5^th grade. Since his family showed keen interest in ensuring he got a good education, Jagriti helped get him enrolled in a mainstream school.

Ajay’s  father, Brijesh, and his mother, Savitri, migrated to  work in Brick kilns in Kanpur, U.P from a village in  Hamirpur district, 80 kms away. Ajay has been an  eager student and loves to spend  time at the school experimenting with the school’s  teaching aids.

Ajay has one elder sister and one younger brother. He understands that the purpose of  schooling is to help one become a good human being,  helpful and pleasant with everyone. Ajay can never be seen fighting or quarreling with anyone. He feels that ever since he became associated with the Apna Skool, he has developed an attitude of being reverential towards elders. He has also become diligent and  punctual. He enjoys reading story books and sharing his possessions with other children.

Thank you, Rosemarie, for donating a year of study materials to Ajay.

Thank you, Marc, for donating two sets of school uniforms to Ajay.

Thank you, Susan and Dennis, for coming together to donate a full year of medical care for Ajay.

Thank you, Employees of Microsoft for coming together to donate a full year of lunches to Ajay.

Your generosity will ensure that Ajay is able to rise to his full potential.

Manish has been associated with the Apna Skool since 2005. He has just completed Grade 5 and passed the NIOS (National Insititue for Open Schooling) certified Grade 5 examination and is now eligible to be admitted to Grade 6 program anywhere.

The Apna Skool education centres conduct examinations through the NIOS to enable children of migrant workers to be eligible for enrolment in any school once they go back to their villages.

His family consists of 7 members with two older brothers and two sisters, all having to pitch in to provide for family needs. It is tragic, however, that his eldest brother often gets drunk and becomes abusive.

Manish is a good swimmer and one occasion, while bathing in a canal in his village, he saved the life of a child from drowning. He loves sports such as badminton and swimming. He wants to  to join the Indian Army and serve the nation.

Thank you, Hudson, for donating a year of school lunches to Manish.

Thank you, Rosemarie, for donating a year of study materials to Manish.

Thank you, UBS, for providing a set of two uniforms to Manish.

Thank you, Srikanth, Don, Craig and Anjana for coming together to provide an entire year of medical care to Manish.

Your generosity will ensure that Manish is able to rise to his full potential.

Fourteen year old Sarvesh  is a student in a mainstream local school, Swami Vivekanand Vidyalaya at Lodhar.  He was initially enrolled at an Apna Skool centre and studied there till 5^th grade, but since his family showed that they were keen on ensuring he got a good education, Jagriti helped get him enrolled in a mainstream school.

Sarvesh’s father, Ram Sidhar, is a daily wage laborer and his mother, Manju, runs a vegetable shop on the roadside to augment the family income. The family migrated from a village in the Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh to Kanpur city, in search of work.  His elder brother, Shailesh, studies in Grade 6 in Jawaharlal Inter College and his younger brother, Neelesh, studies in Dhamikheda Apna Skool in Grade 5. His younger sister too has just started Grade 1 in Apna Skool. His elder brother has some chronic ailment that has not yet been diagnosed satisfactorily, resulting in his slow academic progress.

Sarvesh assists his mother in the shop both in the morning and the evening to relieve her to attend to cooking and other household duties.  Nowadays, after school,  he often spends time,  at his ex-school Dhamikheda Apna Skool,  demonstrating simple Science experiments sparking the curiosity of younger children. He thus reflects the pride and joy of learning on one hand and draws pleasure from sharing knowledge with the youngsters.

Sarvesh likes to play cricket, visit historic monuments and sites and compose poems in  Hindi. He wants to become a judge so that those who are corrupt and criminals are punished and thus save the country from criminals.

Thank you, Rosemarie, for donating a year of study materials to Sarvesh.

Thank you, Stacy, Rao, Joe and Karen, John, Molly, Bill and Colleen, Renee and Craig for coming together to provide a year of tuition for Sarvesh.

Your generosity will ensure that Sarvesh is able to rise to his full potential.

Jyoti’s family migrated from  Chhapra district in Bihar to Kanpur, UP in search of a stable livelihood. Her mother, Usha, works as a domestic help and her father, Harendra, works in a laundry shop.  She has two elder sisters and one younger brother. The eldest brother, Suraj, is handicapped, her other elder brother, Deepak, is a student of Grade 6 in a  local school,  and her younger brother attends Dhamikeda Apna Skool.

Having started in Grade 1 in  2007, 12 year old Jyoti has made steady progress in the primary classes, showing particular interest in Math. She is currently in Grade 5. Her favorite sport is kho-kho.

Jyoti is always eager to help her neighbors in any way she can. Her ambition is to increase the literacy level among those who do not get the opportunity to read and write. In her spare time, Jyoti loves to sing and wants to become a musician when she grows up!

Thank you, Don and Hardeep, for coming together to provide comprehensive medical care to Jyoti for an entire year.

Thank you, Ritesh, for providing two sets of school uniforms to Jyoti.

Thank you, RoseMarie, for providing a year of study materials to Jyoti.

Thank you, Cindy, Chris and Emily and Chris for coming together to provide a full year of school lunches to Jyoti.

Rani has 4 brothers and 2 sisters, and her nine member family has been coming to work in the Kalra Brick kilns in Kanpur, UP for the last three years. Her native place is in the Navada district, Bihar, and the family shuttles between the two locations every year. All her siblings work in theh brick kilns, and Rani is required to do all the house work, including cooking for the family.

Rani is fortunate to be a part of  Apna Skool for three years since her parents, Karu and Geeta have made it a point to return to Kalra kilns( where the education centre is operational) every year during the period October to June. This also ensures in maintaining a minimal level of continuity in her education. Although her progress has been slow due to the fact that she is deprived of school education when she goes back to her village, she is nevertheless keen on gaining as much as she can from the Apna Skool experience.

After being in Apna Skool, she wears clean clothes, which she washes everyday herself. She aspires to be a teacher and would like to teach children in her village.

Thank you, Julie, for donating a set of two school uniforms to Rani.

Thank you, Sterling and Melinda, Elizabeth and Rao for coming together to donate an entire year of comprehensive medical care to Rani.

Thank you, Bri, for donating a year of study materials to Rani.

Thank you, Sumeet,  for donating a year of lunches to Rani.

Your generosity will go a long way in ensuring that Rani is able to fight for a better future than that which her siblings are likely to have.

Thirteen year old Ajay Kumar is the second child in a family of three brothers and four sisters. Nobody in his father or mother’s generation in the family is literate. Since his parents, Rajo Manjhi and Reshma Devi didn’t have any land in their village of Dhanaul, Sekhpura in Bihar (an Indian state), the family migrated to Kanpur eight years back to find work at brick-kilns or construction sites and have stayed on in Kanpur, ever since then.

Ajay is currently studying in the fourth grade and is doing very well in academics, particularly in Hindi. Ajay is fond of reading poems, playing football and watching movies screened at the “Apna Skool” center at various occasions. His favorite game is ”Andar-Baahar” (in-out). He wants to become a doctor so that he can cure poor patients.

Thank you, Janice, for your donation of a year of study materials.

Thank you, Rob, for your donation of a set of uniforms.

Thank you, Venkat, for your donation of a full year of school lunches.

Thank you, George, for your donation of a full year of medical care.

Your support and generosity mean a lot to Ajay and his poor parents. Thank you for your wonderful gesture!

Thank you for coming together to send Santoshi to school for an entire year.

Santoshi is an orphan- her father passed away when she was three, and her mother died of cancer when she was ten. Both Santoshi’s brothers (18 and 16 years old) work as laborers at a construction site in Kanpur. She also has a sister who is one year younger. The sisters wake up before 5 AM, clean up the house and prepare meals for all before coming to School. Santoshi was enrolled at an Apna Skool education centre in Dhamikheda, Kanpurstudying from classes one to five. She was then admitted in a local mainstream school, currently studying in the 9^th grade. Last year she was the top ranked student of her class, a major achievement for a child in her circumstances

Apart from studies, she is well versed in vocational training activities of the Apna Skool project like tailoring, embroidery, Jewelries making , candle making. She does Tie & Dye and Tiles painting art work. Santoshi  is very quiet by nature and is a  lovable child. When Science fair is held at her School, one can find her most enthusiastic in trying out all activities. She dreams of becoming a doctor – with her mind still fresh with the demise of her mother and consequent loss of her own childhood in having to take care of the housekeeping; she hopes that she prevents such deprivation for other children by being a doctor.

Thank you for coming together to ensure that Santoshi gets one step closer to her dream.

Thank you for coming together to support Nirmala for three months.

Twenty seven year old Nirmala has been associated with the Apna Skool system for about six years and enjoys her activity at the School. Her husband has four brothers and none of them can be said as well read. In the family she finds it upsetting that there is a difference in treatment between boys and girls. Girls are often asked to do more domestic work, while boys are spared to allow them to study. The idea that both men and women could go out earn wages for the family has certainly not sunk in. The traditional view that women take care of the house and only men should be in need to go out and earn a livelihood appears  deeply grained, with the result girls have little exposure to the world around them. It is fortunate that Nirmala’s husband is different from the rest in the family and has encouraged her study beyond school, graduate with a postgraduate degree in commerce and get trained as a teacher. Nirmala finds her association with Apna Skool very rewarding and fulfilling. It has helped her gain confidence in herself.

Nirmala is interested in artwork, drawing and painting and enjoys teaching children a variety of fine arts.  She takes pride in keeping her neighbourhood neat and orderly and ensures that children inculcate such habits early on.

Apna Skool considers her among the more committed teachers, she being quick to learn and efficient in communicating the same.

Eleven year old Saleha is a student in a mainstream local school. She was initially enrolled at an Apna Skool centre located in a brick kiln and studied there till 5^th grade, but since her family showed that they were keen on ensuring she got a good education, Jagriti helped get her enrolled in a mainstream school.

Saleha’s father, Siddiqui Ali, and mother, Marjina, hailing  from Assam, make their living as rag-pickers in Kanpur City, UP. Having migrated from a distant land, the family faces a number of hardships in the form of language barriers and unfamiliar local habits and practices. As rag-pickers, they rummage through garbage dumps, recovering recyclable objects, take them to processing contractors, who provide them meager earnings in return. They start work very early in the morning at 4 AM and wind up by noon.

Saleha is the second child in the family. She has three brothers and two sisters. Until recently, Saleha and her brother were assisting their parents in rag-picking. Now, all the children are in school. Saleha goes to the primary school in the morning and attends Apna Skool education center in the afternoon and also has her meals at the center.

The children enthusiastically attend Apna Skool and look forward to becoming literate and skilled. Saleha is smart and very talented  in singing and Brigu (an Assamese folk dance). She enjoys writing poems, one of which was published in the July 2011 issue of the Chakmak, a monthly children’s magazine published by Ekalavya, Hoshangabad, MP. She is thrilled that her poems are being read by a nation-wide audience. As for her hobbies, she loves playing with the skipping rope and enjoys a good game of  ludo.

Saleha is truly an eager learner and aspires to become a teacher.

Thank you, Rosemarie, for donating a year of study materials to Saleha.

Thank you, UBS, for providing a set of two uniforms to Saleha.

Thank you, Natasha (three months) and Felix (six months) for coming together to provide a full year of school lunches to Saleha.

Thank you, Rao, Ivo and Joe and Karen, for coming together to provide a year of comprehensive medical care to Saleha.

Your generosity will ensure that Saleha is able to rise to her full potential.