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.