Eureka! perspective on education

At AID-INDIA, we believe that schools can be places where children learn to think and to observe. Where children develop confidence in themselves, learn to respect themselves, their knowledge and their cultural heritage. Where children learn to question authority. Such schools can inspire social change - that is the kind of education we are working towards through our programs. One such program is Eureka Child.
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Bhasha's Adivasi Academy - a unique university

Although meant primarily for the local communities, the Tejgadh Adivasi Academy provides the rest of the world with an exposure to the Adivasi cultures and their struggles. Academy graduates who return to their villages help realize the goals of promoting the values of Adivasi culture, leading to its preservation.
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Alternative rural secondary schooling in West Bengal

More than 20 million children drop out of schools every year, and are seen as "failures".  Swanirvar's Kishor Kishori Bahini program is an attempt to develop an alternative rural secondary school curriculum. The goal is to make learning real, fun, contextual and relevant to the children’s lives. Children gain useful social and livelihood skills rooted in their locality, and socially useful work is integrated into various subjects.  [Read more...]

Science is fun

Most school children do not see science as real or relevant, let alone interesting. Ariviyal Anandnam  means Science is Fun in Tamizh. AID India has developed kits containing dozens of low-cost visually stunning science experiments to invoke excitement and curiousity in the children. The goal is to make learning science more activity-based, locally relevant, and built on hands-on experimentation and dialogues. [Read more...]

Integrating education with empowerment
 
Apart from learning standard subjects like the alphabet and arithmetic, the students, and the community as a whole, must build the capacity to use the skills of modern knowledge to question authority and the causes of poverty and oppression.   Read about efforts in two districts of West Bengal to integrate education with community empowerment.
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Apna Skool

Kanpur sees an influx of migrant laborers who come to work at brick kilns and construction sites. Children of these laborers get left behind in the education system. Jagriti realized these children need access to free education, in a non-formal and hands-on way to make it interesting and understandable. Thus was born the Apna Skool, literally, 'our school'.
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Children's Libraries
 
An education system that fails to engage its most critical partners, the children, and a lack of good quality supplemental materials have been identified as primary reasons for illiteracy in India. Find out how AID volunteers in the U.S, along with their local community are working with the Eureka Initiative to come up with innovative educational material for schools in India.
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Wow! What's that sound?
 
Functional knowledge of English, necessary for many forms of employment in India's growing global economy, remains inaccessible to the urban and rural poor. Eureka Child's Ready to Read program uses phonics to improve the English comprehension and reading skills in Tamil-medium primary schools.  The program taps into the innate acting skills of local primary schoolers cast as funny fairy tale characters introducing English sounds, reading activities, new vocabulary and original songs. [Read more...]

Support peaceful Padyatra in Dantewada
 
Please join hundreds in signing the letter requesting the Dantewada district administration to allow and not scuttle the peaceful padyatra in the Gandhian tradition planned by the Vanavasi Chetana Ashram to bring normalcy back to the region. [Read more...]

What will be your ONE be?
 

Its the season for giving! With the goal of raising $250,000 to support AID's initiatives in 2010, the One For India campaign goes live with a brand new campaign website and the promise of making your ONE donation count.
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Meet the Saathi: Shweta Narayan
 

As part of the Meet the Saathi series, AID volunteers participated in a telephone conversation with Saathi Shweta Narayan, who works with pollution-impacted communities primarily in Cuddalore and also in Mettur, Kodaikanal and Trichy, in Tamil Nadu. Linking with pollution-affected communities in Bhopal, Jadugoda, Cuddalore, Mettur, Shweta facilitates discussions and action with communities throughout India.
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Saathi Revathy Shares Organic Techniques with Survivors of Cyclone Aila
 
In the days following Aila, there had been many speculations by people and institutions that agriculture would not be possible in the Sunderbans for at least 3 years. With her modest yet  powerful techniques, Revathy has quietly proven them to be wrong.
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AID volunteers learn about Non-Violent Direct Action
 
Day two began with a practical demonstration where we observed how it was difficult to force a palm into a bowl full of corn dough when full thrust was applied, but if laid gently on the dough, the hand just sinks in. This was a very innovative way of demonstrating that brute force doesn't always work.
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Volunteer recounts visit to Purulia, West Bengal
 
My visit to Purulia opened my eyes to the life and struggles of people facing exploitation, deprivation, and prejudice.  One tool which people are using to break through the exploitative system is the Right to Information Act.
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Boise chapter hosts India Nite!

AID Boise successfully hosted a year-end fundraiser that mirrored two equally significant faces of India, driving home the unavoidable fact that alongside the culturally diverse and prosperous face of India lies the face of India that is still creased with the worry-lines of poverty, illiteracy, poor healthcare, and human rights violations. 
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Running for a cause

Ideally on a Saturday morning at 6:00, running 15 to 20 miles for three hours is not what I would have wanted to do.   Determination, patience and persistence - this is what long distance running is about.
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Order your calendar today!
 
Want a beautiful, effective calendar that also triples up as  a means to stay in touch with social initiatives in India, and support sustainable, just development in India?

Here is your chance to take home Makaan - A Place called Home, the third in AID's calendar trilogy series!
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