Ahmed

FREE TO DREAM!

The first time we met Ahmed*, he was playing with his friends in a puddle on the streets of his slum community. We asked to meet his parents and enquired about his education. This was back in 2019.

“We are not aware of the school admission process,” said his parents.

Little Ahmed lives with his parents and siblings in one of the poorest slum communities in Mumbai’s M- East ward which is bordered by the city’s largest garbage dump. Due to the landfill, these wards are exposed to CO pollution and are also known as the most polluted areas in the city. Living in unauthorised settlements and abject poverty, people here struggle for basic necessities such as drinking water, electricity, and sanitation. A life of dignity is a struggle for most.

Like many others in the slum community, Ahmed’s family also draws electricity from illegal sources and pays a hefty amount to avail just enough water for drinking daily.

Our Community Case Officers sat down with Ahmed’s parents and talked to them about free education available for Ahmed at our Beacon Learning Centre. Most importantly they convinced his parents about the power of early childhood education. On explaining the enrollment process, they happily agreed to enroll Ahmed with us. In 2019, little Ahmed walked into our classrooms and along with quality education, your gifts reached out to him with nutritious midday meals every weekday, stationery, uniform, health checkups, dental assessments and much more.

Ahmed, who had never been to school before, began to miss playing on the streets with his friends. But with continuous counselling and attention from his teachers and case officer, Ahmed gradually began to attend his classes. Eventually, he surprised everyone by scoring great grades in his first assessments!

“Initially Ahmed struggled with his studies but gradually he began to grasp everything that we taught and also actively participates in every class activity,” says his teacher. Seeing Ahmed’s progress, our Case worker encouraged him to take extra tuitions and we’re so glad to see little Ahmed learn and grow.

In March 2020, when the first wave of COVID-19 hit the country, a nationwide lockdown was announced. Ahmed’s father couldn’t find daily-wage work anymore. The lockdowns shut our classrooms too; and we had to switch to online classes, starting with our very first online summer camp in May 2020. Ahmed’s parents struggled to operate their smartphone and little Ahmed missed his online classes often. But with proper telephonic guidance from our Community Case Officers, Community Champions and teachers, Ahmed started attending our online classes regularly.

Your support not only opened the doors of online education for Ahmed during the pandemic but it also reached out to Ahmed’s family with groceries each month of the pandemic. With our partner NGO (The Breakfast Revolution), we also provided high nutrition breakfast snacks to our children in the communities. Over 200 children like Ahmed have been beneficiaries of our interventions in Ahmed’s slum community. Over 1400 children, across 4 such impoverished communities across India.

All these services have helped little Ahmed and many other children like him sustain in education. There’s no doubt – their situations are dire. While they still struggle to access basic necessities, your gifts and the education Ahmed has received, has freed him to dream despite his circumstances. Ahmed dreams of becoming an Engineer when he grows up. Thank you for Reaching out with Love to Ahmed and his family.