Photo: Students enrolled in our slum outreach program are happy to use new computers which aid their school work.
We are excited to share the good news that the computer lab at our Children’s Hope Center in Hyderabad, India, was recently refurbished to include 3 new computers, new desks and tables, and educational charts and videos. There are currently 48 students enrolled in our program, and the upgrades to the computer lab greatly benefit their studies after school. Our electricity connection is still working, which is a great improvement from our previous usage of lanterns and a small generator. This doesn’t solve everything, as electricity only flows a few hours a day, but the children are overjoyed to have access to technology which empowers their pursuit of education.
The model of our Children’s Hope Center is that of education assistance — a scholarship program and an after-school care program. We provide the children with everything they need to enroll in a local school: uniforms, shoes, backpacks, and school supplies. Then we pick them up from school, and our teacher helps them with their homework in a classroom setting at the Hope Center where they also have access to computer education. They leave each evening after eating a fresh-cooked meal with organic ingredients from our native-led farmland. It’s in this environment that our Children’s Hope Center is bringing just that — hope, to the children of these slum colonies.
The outreach, now in its fifth year of operation, is positioned right in the middle of Hyderabad’s largest slum colony on the edge of the city landfill. Our team works to convince parents or guardians to stop sending their children to collect recyclable materials in the trash dumps, demonstrating to them the benefits of enrolling their children in the center. But now that we’ve established a good reputation, there is less convincing to do, and a wait list continues to grow.
Our next goal for the center is a solar power solution. Our after-school care program often goes past sunset, and during the prolonged power outages, the only source of light is flashlights and lanterns. For the safety of the children we hope to provide the center with its own power source. Solar has proven extremely effective in the sunny environment of South India as evidenced at our solar powered orphanage and school facilities on our main campus.
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