A CHANCE TO CATCH UP ON THE YEARS LOST!
Nilesh’s father Dharamvijay had heard a lot about Mumbai – the city of dreams. He had studied upto class 10 back in his village in Khailabad, Uttar Pradesh (UP), but no employment opportunities were available to him. Like thousands of others living in rural UP, he too migrated into Mumbai looking for work. His basic education could find him no steady job, so he became a daily-waged porter – transporting goods on his back for a meagre income.
That was 11 years ago. Today, Dharamvijay lives in a kucha hutment in the slum community of Maharashtra Nagar, surrounded by Mumbai’s largest garbage dump, where 9000 metric tonnes of waste is dumped every day. His erratic income supports his wife, a homemaker, and their 4 children. The older three children study in municipal schools nearby. Little Nilesh, at 4 years old, never got to attend any school as the nearest affordable municipal schools start only from Class 1 for children aged 6 and above.
Poverty had robbed Nilesh of any kind of education in his crucial early years.
When Vision Rescue met Nilesh, he was in his neighbor’s house. His mother couldn’t believe it when we told her about our Beacon Learning Centre inside her slum community that could provide Nilesh with quality early childhood education for free. She enrolled him with us immediately.
But Nilesh?
He wasn’t as excited. He would often skip his classes and play on the streets with his friends. After days and weeks of counseling him and his family, Nilesh gained the confidence to attend classes with us regularly. He even scored good grades in his assessments! Your donations reached out to Nilesh with hearty nutritious meals every weekday, stationery, books, uniforms, backpack, health assessments, dental checkups and more.
Seeing her son blossom, Nilesh’s mother actively participated in our focus-group meetings for parents and went on to be trained as our Community Champion!
When the first wave of COVID-19 hit the country, over 90 million daily wage earners lost their jobs and Nilesh’s father was one among them. With no financial support, Nilesh’s father struggled to get food for his children. Before things could get worse, kind supporters like you stepped in to help Nilesh’s family with groceries every month and hearty nutritious meals for the children in partnership with The Breakfast Revolution. This support for Nilesh’s family has continued from April 2020 to date, through both the first and second waves of the pandemic in India.
With acute hunger no longer a threat, Nilesh was able to focus on his education, even though our classrooms were physically shut. Your donations enabled us to start online education, and Nilesh has completed an entire academic year with us at home!
