India: Planned technical college for graduates, 6 new Children’s Hope Center after-school care centers to further help our children break the cycle of poverty

Image: We are happy to reveal this architectural sketch of our proposed India Technical College which will generate funds for our India programs while also providing scholarship seats for our graduating high school students.

An exciting project we are planning is a technical college that will serve our graduates and other young adults starting in June 2021. It will be located on land immediately adjacent to our existing campus which has a new, surrounding perimeter wall.

The technical college will have 2 buildings which will contain several classroom spaces, workshop spaces, administrative offices, a dining hall, and a kitchen for food service. We are expecting to enroll 208 paying students in 2021-2022, provide 32 scholarship seats for our orphan graduates while employing 8 instructors and 9 support staff.

We are optimistic about the success of the college because annually there are over 50,000 high school graduates from the district where our campus is located. And these graduates are seeking an affordable college education yet only about 900 seats are available to incoming freshmen in just 4 area technical colleges that serve this same population.

The students enrolled in the technical college will take various courses for 1-2 years and upon graduation, they will be able to apply for the following types of jobs (we will add more trades along the way as we specialize further):

Asst. Civil Engineer
Asst. Machinery Engineer
Electrician
Electronics Mechanic
Computer-Aided Fabric Designer
Desktop Publisher

Our field director reports on the forthcoming technical college:

We have a great passion to see impoverished orphans and youth empowered for their future. It is our vision to start such a technical college. We prayed for our young people, and especially we prayed for our children who completed high school — we want to start something for them so that they can settle in the future, and so that they can earn money for themselves as well as for their families in the future.

Our college will serve students who cannot afford larger 4-year institutions yet desire a marketable skill from an accredited college. After completion of these courses, they can get a government job or in the private industrial sector. Or they can start their own workshop if they have entrepreneurial desires. It really will be a blessing for our youth.

The great news is that, thanks to a generous donor, we have a matching challenge in place which will double any donations made toward the technical college, up to $50,000. We are on a tight deadline to get the college launched in time for strict government guidelines, so please consider making a contribution toward the fund before year-end using the link below.

We’re also excited to bring you an encouraging update from our primary education programs in India. We are happy to report that we currently have 48 children (ages 7-14) enrolled at our on-campus primary school. 14 of these students are orphans but are able to live at our boarding home on campus.

Their most recent semester started in June when they began studies in their native Telugu and Hindi languages, English, math, science, and social studies. They put in extra hours of study and received tutoring from our teachers and staff members in preparation for their end-of-semester exams this month.

All of the children did very well on their exams, and we are proud of their dedication to excellence in their education. To celebrate, our native team organized a Christmas party for the children last week where they played fun local games together and enjoyed a delicious meal of chicken Biryani, ice cream, and other festive treats. The children were happy and grateful to receive new clothes and winter blankets as Christmas gifts.

In other good news, we recently opened 6 Children’s Hope Centers in the region surrounding our main campus to benefit our orphan students living in foster care homes as well as children in the local community. 18 children (ages 7-14) are enrolled at each Hope Center, and each center also employs 1 teacher and one volunteer.

The centers also serve as food distribution points for our foster care families to make sure that they are supported with the nutrition needed for their foster child. At the Hope Centers, the children receive after-school tutoring, fresh-cooked meals and snacks, and fun recreation time with their friends.

The children go to school during the day and then come to the Hope Centers in the evening. The teacher reviews their school subjects, and if they did not understand anything in the classroom, the teacher helps the children by further explaining their lessons and what they learned. And if the children have any especially difficult questions, the teacher will work with them until they understand.

After the children have finished their tutoring sessions with the teacher, they receive delicious fresh-cooked meals such as various local curries & rice and chicken, and snacks such as biscuits, boiled grains, and other local favorites. Then the children enjoy fun games and outdoor activities such as jumping rope, ring tossing, and other local, native games.

Lastly, an update from our farmland: we planted our lentil crop in July and we are looking forward to a bountiful harvest of 3 tons of lentils in February. We will use some of the lentils in our children’s meals, but we will also sell the surplus of the yield at market, gaining a lucrative profit which will enable us to buy other food items for our children.

In January, we will plant new crops in our rooftop box gardens: okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, curry leaves, moringa trees, eggplants, and beans. We expect to harvest these valuable crops needed for meals at our residential boarding school at the end of February or the beginning of March.

In closing, a message from our field director to our faithful donors:

“I am so thankful to every donor for their sacrificial support for our children’s development. I am requesting that you pray for our future plans for the well being of our children, and our plans for the technical college. Please pray for us!”

Take Action: please contribute toward our year-end campaign which will help us launch the technical college | donate your virtual spare change to make real change — register with our RoundUp account

Take a Closer Look: view more photos from this project and others

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