Category: India

Boys Town is preparing for the new academic year 2023-24 in June. The admission process has begun and we expect approximately forty five new boys this year. Out of the seventy one students who sat and passed their examinations in the previous year, we estimate that sixty two will continue with their studies and will return to Boys Town. We expect around one hundred and ten students to enrol in total. 

In the new academic year, we plan to focus on after-school educational initiatives and are planning extra-curricular sessions that will include: physical health checks; mental health wellbeing; careers guidance; maintaining hygienic environments and encouraging nutritious diets.

In the previous academic year 2022-23 only one student was eligible to sit the XIIth Std. examination. He has opted for higher education and is currently applying to get onto a B.Com. degree course at university.

From February to May 2023, we held twelve weekly sessions for the boys in literacy instruction, soft skills and confidence building. They were delivered by twenty volunteer students from Krea university. The boys were divided into ten groups and each group was managed by two volunteers.  A similar initiative will continue this year too.

After their final examinations, about fifty boys visited the famous Lord Balaji temple at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, which is around 200 km from Chennai. The boys really enjoyed the whole trip by bus and train.

The current academic year 2022-23 is nearing its end. The final board examinations dates for boys in the 10^th to 12^th Standards are from 6^th March to 10^th April followed by exams for boys in the 6^th to 9^th Standards during April. 

Out of the eight students who left Boys Town last year after completing the 12^th Standard, seven have opted for higher studies and are pursuing Bachelor degrees in different subjects – Botany, Computer Science, Chemistry, Commerce etc. and have been awarded scholarships by the Rotary Club of Madras. One student opted for a vocational course in Motor Mechanics at an Industrial Training Institute. 

Some of the special events that have taken place in the last three months are as follows:

In December, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department held an inter-school music festival competition between a few local villages. Fifteen students participated in this competition from Boys Town and ten of them were selected for the next round to participate in a District level schools’ competition. All the boys did well and received appreciation certificates.

On December 2^nd, an NGO, the Soragugal Foundation, organised a quiz competition for students in the 10^th Std. Two of our ICT sponsored boys won the first prize and each received an electronic tablet.

Also in December, as part of the special counselling programme run by Aarupadai Veedu Medical College, Pondicherry, an Outreach programme about meditation and environmental education was organised due to Rotary links with the college. At Boys Town, all the regular activities, such as yoga, music, physical training and tuition sessions, continue to run for promoting the physical and mental health of the students.

In January, the Pongal harvest festival in Tamil Nadu was celebrated at Boys Town to show gratitude to nature after the harvesting of crops such as rice, sugarcane and turmeric. On this auspicious day, a special sweet rice dish (Shakkar Pongal) was cooked in a clay pot. All the boys said prayers for strength and good health and then ate a delicious breakfast and lunch and enjoyed this seasonal festival.

This year an ecological club (ECO) was formed made up of twenty students who want to encourage a ‘greener’ world and actively participate in gardening activities. The group also includes four members of the ‘Interact’ club at Boys Town, founded by Rotary International and sponsored  by the Rotary Club of Madras.

On January 8^th, Rtn. Prem Abraham from the Rotary Club of Walnut Creek, California, USA visited Boys Town, accompanied by some members of the Rotary Club of Madras. He was appreciative of the efforts that have been made by the Club for conceiving the idea of Boys Town and the way in which it is organised. He spoke to some of the students and donated items for indoor and outdoor games.

In December 2022, shoes and socks were distributed to the twenty children supported by ICT at the Bhawani Tola village, Maner, Patna. It was a memorable day for the children because they had never worn shoes and socks before. Since it was winter in India, the children and the project leader felt that it was the right time to wear the shoes and they enjoyed the warmth and comfort that they provided. 

In December we celebrated ‘Human Rights Day’ by holding an advocacy meeting on children’s rights. This was attended by some of the children, their parents and siblings. We discussed the rights of every human being and how to better express opinions in order to gain access to local government services.

On the morning of October 16^th, a special annual excursion event for the children took place. We all travelled by bus to the zoo in Patna, which is 35km from their village. The visit took three hours and a parent and a community volunteer also accompanied us. This was the first visit to the zoo for the children and they enjoyed it very much and would have liked the whole trip to have been spread over two days.

The day continued with the children attending an annual advocacy meeting in Patna, to listen to children’s rights activists and child protection social workers. The children were encouraged to ask questions and were particularly keen to ensure that they receive a good standard of education in government schools. They asked for less school closures and increased attendance/participation by teachers, as they felt that their teachers were often called upon to do work for the government instead of teaching them. In November we will feed this information back to the schools.

After some lunch, the children took part in a health check up camp for 1.5 hours, organised by the Rotary Club of Chanakya. In the presence of a doctor and nurse, each child was examined one by one. There were no major issues with the children’s health but a few had dental problems. This was followed by a discussion about the importance of eating seasonal fruit and vegetables. The importance of milk in the diet was also highlighted with free packets of Horlicks, vitamins and mineral supplements distributed to the children to take home. This was monitored by the community volunteer, who also gave further information and advice to the parents and local doctors following the trip.

On the occasion of the ‘World Day Against Child Labour’, we celebrated the day to further raise awareness and sensitivity about the rights of children because the potential for child labour is our greatest concern for the group we have targeted.

We organised the day at our SARTHI Education Centre in Bhawani Tola, Maner, Patna. 

During the session, children spoke up and expressed their desire to advance their personal development through education. They also wanted to live in a community free of child labour and be supported in this by their parents, teachers, the community and various stakeholders.

We at SARTHI are conscious of the fact that in rural communities, the majority of children are malnourished and underdeveloped in comparison to others of the same age. For that reason, we also decided to celebrate ‘World Health Day’ with a view to raising awareness about the health of children and the role that parents can play through becoming more aware of the importance of a healthy diet and the appropriate nutrition.

The event was organised at Bhawani Tola and all our targeted children and their parents participated. Ward member, Mr. Sitaram Singh, presented information to encourage everyone to be more acquainted with different types of nutritious, seasonal food rather than using more expensive ‘fast’ food. He also made links between healthy diets and the benefits for children in terms of their physical and mental development.

All the boys in the VIth to XIIth Standards returned to Boys Town in the last week of January. There have been no new admissions due to the pandemic and so the enrolment number at Boys Town for the current academic year remains at 51. We expect the number to go up substantially in the academic year 2022-23. Final board examinations for XIIth Std. students are scheduled for May 2022. The state government permitted schools to restart physical education classes from 1^st February 2022 and all the regular activities at Boys Town resumed e.g. sport, yoga, bi-weekly music lessons and evening tuition sessions. All the essential COVID related safety protocols continue to be followed when students return from school and by anyone visiting Boys Town. 

Two technologically enhanced classrooms are now ready for additional classes, especially for the boys from the IXth to XIIth Standards.

Twelve boys have joined the ‘Interact Club’ under the aegis of the Rotary Club of Madras and Rotary International. This club aims to inspire and energise young people between the ages of 12 – 18 years through service and encouragement to become responsible global citizens.

In December 2021, a special two day camp for both mental and physical health check-ups  was organised for all the students and carried out by health professionals. In January, the harvest festival of ‘Pongal’ was celebrated by the boys with great enthusiasm.

This year, an external agency will be conducting a social impact assessment study of the  Boys Town Society.

With the support of their families, all twenty children on the project are currently attending school regularly as well as visiting our education centre for two hours a week extra tuition to enhance their learning and increase their commitment to education. On International Women’s Day, the children and their families attended an event around  the rights of the child, with a special focus on girls. Our guest speakers were Prof. Dinesh Kumar Singh and Ms. Meena Kumari, a worker at a government funded rural childcare centre. In the speeches there were many references to eminent women who are or who have been beacons for development and change in male-dominated societies. 

At the same time, we celebrated the inauguration of the SARTHI Training Centre which has been provided by the community. With support from the International Children’s Trust and the  Rotary Club of Coventry, SARTHI has been able to purchase two sewing machines for use in the training centre. Women and adolescent girls in the community have been asking for these for a long time and are delighted. An additional benefit is that the adolescent girls we have targeted are also on our education programme so they will receive training as well as their regular education.

It is our pleasure to announce that at the end of the academic year 2020-2021, eleven students  of the Rotary Club of Madras Boys Town Project progressed to university and college, some with support from the Rotary Club of Madras for their initial admission and tuition fees.

The subjects that they are studying are as follows: BSc in Computer Science (3), BSc in Computing (1), B.Commerce (2), BE in Agricultural Engineering (1), BE in Engineering (1), BE in Mechanical Engineering (1), Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (2nd Year) (1) and BSc in Chemistry (1).

After studying from home with support from their teachers for much of 2020-2021, all the remaining boys at Boys Town were able to progress to the next level for the academic year 2021-2022. 

This was scheduled to start in July 2021 but due to the pandemic was postponed until 15^th September for boys in the IX^th – XII^th Stds. Subsequently, the government gave permission for those in the VI^th – VIII^th Stds. to return on November 1^st. In total, 46 students have remained at Boys Town from the VI^th – XII^th Stds and we are waiting approval from the government to admit new students (especially in the VI^th and VII^th Stds. ) as soon as possible.

In the past year, the overall structure and facilities at Boys Town have been renovated and the main building has been freshly painted. In addition, two technology-enhanced learning classrooms for online studying (especially for students in the X^th – XII^th Stds) are currently being installed.
On the 19^th October, a group of students planted 118 saplings in the grounds of Boys Town, in honour of the ‘virtual’ visit of the Rotary International President Nominee (RIPN) Rtn. Gordon R. McInally.