Education and Development of Adolescents

Jatan believes that adolescents and young adults constitute a tremendous force for change and reconstruction. Therefore Jatan started a project for the youth of Railmagra-Block in Rajsamand-District reaching out to around 1000 boys and girls at age 11-20. The project aims provide education for them and to improve their livelihood skills .

The Project Area:

Many rural families of Rajsamand district are heavily dependent on migration to earn their livelihood. This also challenges adolescents since they face a future in semi-skilled labor niches. Furthermore they are facing other problems such as poor education, early marriages and pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, trafficking and sex work or the lack of participation in community activities or decisions.

Our Program:

After a study on the needs of adolescents and community mobilization, involving the formation of youth groups in the project area, Jatan concentrates on an integrated education of youth.

During two Residental Camps of four months duration a total of 360 adolescents will be taught intensively, concentrating on quality literacy-, numeracy,- and general life skills as well as awareness in topics like health, human rights, gender equity, civil and political education, legal literacy etc.

This primary education will enable the youths to transit to Government schools and the following support through learning camps gives them confidence to persist with their schooling. They are provided with opportunities to continue their learning at “Apna Jatan Kendras” which not only offer various learning materials, but also regulate further programs, such as Livelihood Skill Trainings and Need based trainings .

In 40 Forums on pachayat and block level, the adolescents also get the opportunity to discuss various issues and to work actively towards the development of their villages. The youths will be encouraged to participate and contribute to Gram Sabhas or take part in activities such as village-surveys, helping government health departments, monitoring public services or various campaigns.

A Communication team formed by adolescents, trained on communication skills, helps in getting positive support from the adult stakeholders. At the same time Workshops for PRI members are conducted to develop their understanding on issues related to adolescents and to advocate the activities of the engaged youth.

 

Apna Jatan Center

The main goal of the Apna Jatan Centers is to provide educational opportunities and overall support to the children from poor and undeveloped areas of Udaipur. Therefore alternative non-formal education and support in developing life skills for children up to the age of 14 as well as pre-school education and a creche for very young children are the key services.

 

At the moment the Apna Jatan Project runs two Centers in Udaipur. The first center was founded in October 2010 with help and guidance of Gebeco Reisen, Germany. After a survey on the developmental status it was decided, that the area of Neemach Kheda was the right place to start a school center. Only one year later in September 2011 a second center was started thanks to the effort and commitment of Phillip Loske who was an Intern at that time and did most of the work on the inauguration of a second center in a different part of the city, the Ram Nagar area.

The Project Area

The project area of the Apna Centers are slums in the city of Udaipur. Similar to the other parts of the country, the health and education status of the children in these areas depicts a bleak picture. The slums are characterized by poor living conditions with lack of basic housing and infrastructure facilities. The immediate consequences are an overall poor hygiene level and numerous gentle diseases which are not dealt with because either money is missing to afford health care or the hospital is located too far. The education status of the children also reveals an alarming situation with almost 80% of the children not going to school. Even if schooling is available, slum families tend to sacrifice the education of their children to meet the costs of food, rent and transportation. Children who are born in a sprawl of overcrowded shacks or tenement buildings start life on poverty’s front line. Difficult living conditions prematurely confronts them with adult responsibilities and deprives them of the learning processes and joys of childhood.

Services Of The Centers

By creating a non formal environment in our centers, we want to support the natural learning processes of the children and make learning more appropriate to them. The center is meant to be a place where children can be children instead of carrying the burden of grown-up responsibilities.

Our creche is a safe place for the children of working mothers during the day. For these very young children the center provides a playful environment and a form of preschool education.

In order to meet their nutritional needs and to fight malnutrition the center offers supplementary nutrition to all children who visit the center.

In addition the center supports the children and the community they live in with additional services. Regular Health Check-Ups support the children's overall development and their individual health situation. The community is also involved by parents meetings and Meetings with local adolescents in the centers. These meetings aim to raise awareness on the issues of health, nutrition and education. Furthermore the adolescents can be linked with counseling facilities and skill development programms.

Our experience with the youth in Apna Jatan Kendra and Youth Resource centers display that our interventions in the slum areas are fruitful in helping the children develop their learning skills and improve their overall education.

 

Educational Support Program

Due to financial problems, much agricultural workload, gender biasness, child marriage or social and family bounds, many young girls in the rural areas of Railmagra, do not get the opportunities to visit schools which ensure a future-orientated training in classical subjects as well as life-skill education. This also influences the status of women empowerment in these villages and directly refers to the later life of the girls and the whole community.

Keeping this in mind, Jatan enrolled an “Educational Support Program”, sponsored by John Deere Officials and the project “Give to Asia”. In this program the daughters of 7 beneficiary families out of 3 villages are sent to quality education. This means that they get involved in Private schools and get special trainings in subjects like Computer, English or life-skill-education. The aim is to help them to develop a strong character and a wide-spread knowledge with which they can become leaders of change in their communities. .