After School Programme for Underserved Children

Dear Maitri Friends,

I write to you today to express our deepest gratitude for your contributions to the Maitrigram Afterschool Program and our students. To recap the last three months at Maitrigram, we are pleased to announce that ten deserving students were able to receive an annual scholarship.

Maitrigram has been working toward creating a holistic supportive education, which means that along with academics, we are teaching important life-skills and complementary education such as safety, environmental awareness, health and hygiene, etc. We have collaborated with other Delhi NGOs to host many fun and informative sessions for the students such as a traffic safety, environmental action and awareness, and menstruation health and hygiene for adolescent girls.

With freshly painted classroom desks and chairs, the students have been preparing for their end of year exams for many long and exhausting hours with the help of their After School Program teachers. With the burden of studying and preparing for nearly two months for these exams, we thought it would be helpful to take some time away from the books to teach the students the life-skill of coping with stress. We also thought that a change of scenery might help, so we organized for the kids to have a few sports activities and play, and have some fun.

Finally, with all hands on deck the teachers, volunteers, and interns are working hard to develop an individual education plan for each student to ensure that each child enrolled in the programme receives the support that they need to be successful. These assessments go beyond assessing just academic performance, and will help to identify the strengths that each child has and their areas of interests and skills that can be honed further. By creating IEPs for each student, we can effectively give them the support that they need to excel in school and become young leaders of their communities.

I want to share with you a short story of one of the scholarship recipients.

Diksha is a 13-year-old girl now in 8^th grade, very bright, always cheerful, and makes others around her smile. Diksha first came to Maitri when she was in 3^rd grade. She loves mathematics and hopes to be a teacher one day. Behind her smiling face is a young girl who has undergone more adversity than many her age. Her father struggles with alcohol and abusive behavior and her mother, a domestic servant, struggles to make ends meet for her and her 3 other siblings. With family tension and an unstable home environment, it is difficult for Diksha to make schoolwork a priority. Despite the difficulty, she puts in extra effort and has shown impressive growth in her academics. She has received this annual scholarship for 3 years now. To her, the scholarship means that her mother can spend her salary on food and other basic necessities rather than struggling to provide for Diksha’s education. Because of this scholarship, Diksha has been able to take responsibility for her own education and that is something that she really treasures because she is determined to chart her own path.  

Fun and play is a big part of growing up. Young children put a lot of hard work, emotion, intellect and imagination into games they play. Because they are driven from within, it helps them understand and learn powerful lessons through play. In last quarter, Maitrigram children had opportunity to learn valuable lessons as they played.

With your support Maitri is able to run After-School-Programme at three slum communities located in South Delhi. About 100 children enrolled with the program benefit from the supplementary education, nutrition and recreational activities offered by the programme.

The first event was an Inter NGO Sports Event in November 2015. Maitri participated along with seven other NGOs in the event. Twenty-two children from Maitri participated in the sports. They had the enthusiasm and wide smiles to go with for the sports day, which made up for the lack of sports outfits and sports shoes. The event had fun races such as Dressing Up Relay Race, Red Letter Race, Lemon Spoon Race and Obstacle Race etc. Amid a lot of cheers and excitement, children participated in all the sporting games. Six children from Maitri’s After School Program won prizes for securing first, second and third places in different race competitions. They were proud to have participated and happily showed off the prizes they had won and the certificates they had received. The event gave the children an opportunity to not only display their talent and confidence but exposed them to a school life, which they can aspire for. It was also an opportunityto interact with children from Modern School, which always motivates them to do better and aim for education in a private school.

Secondly, Celebrating the Festive Season. In November, Maitrigram children celebrated Diwali with joyous spirit. They decorated their classroom and the surrounding area with colours and lights and dressed up in colourful outfits. After a brief pooja (worship), children danced to popular Bollywood songs and the little ones sang and danced to music. The celebration was complete with distribution of sweets and snacks. This kind of celebration helps foster a sense of brotherhood and community among children. In December, children celebrated Christmas. They had their own little Christmas Tree and Santa caps. The teachers talked to them about Jesus and explained what the festival is about. Maitrigram children love celebrations, mostly because it also means they have an opportunity to dress elaborately, sing and dance and of course, they look forward to receivinggifts and lots of sweets. Maitri hopes to instil in them respect and sensibility towards all faiths and use every festival to spread love and joy.

The recent activity was a Two-day Session on Life Skills. Maitri invited Project Khel, an NGO that teaches children valuable lessons through play and fun to conduct the session for about 45 children from all three centres. On the first day, children gathered in an open ground at a park. Each game had embedded lessons on personal, cognitive and social skills development. The trainer allowed children to apply their own knowledge and skills in solving the game, forming teams, working out their team strategies and naming their teams while guiding them whenever needed. Post each game, children were engaged in a lively discussion on the lessons learned. After few activities were over, changes in the behaviour of children were already visible. They became less individualistic and aggressive and more of a team player and strategic thinker during rest of the activities.

On the second day, girls between ages 11 to 16 were invited for an indoor session. The trainer spoke to them about menstruation and inappropriate behaviour of adults with children.  They were taught about basic awareness such as good and bad touch and accidental touch etc. Few teens were given a space to talk about attraction to boys in another private conversation. These kinds of sessions are particularly helpful to children growing up with parents who are mostly illiterate and traditional.

Through these fun activities, Children learn to push their imagination and creativity while developing personal, social and cognitive skills. Thank you for donating to Maitri’s After School Programme and helping 100 children have essential educational and developmental benefits they could otherwise not afford.

Impact Story

Fourteen-year-old Shiksha studies in class nine and goes to a semi-government school in Delhi. In a year she will complete class ten, which is a major milestone for underprivileged girls like her in India. Statistics say ‎School Dropout Rate amongst adolescent girls in India is as high as 63.5 percent.

"I had no interest in studies before. I used to watch a lot of television and hangout with girls but after I joined Maitrigram I began taking interest in studies, mainly because I was made to understand the value of education.”

In class eight, Shiksha received scholarship from Maitrigram to encourage her and motivate her towards higher education. "With the scholarship money, my parents bought me new books, stationaries and rest my mom used for buying food for the family".

Shiksha's mom works as a housemaid and her father as a daily-wage-laborer. Together, they strive to educate their four children. A little help from Maitrigram goes a long way in encouraging the family.

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