My Next Challenge

Helping slum children to escape from poverty

Children from one of the "Building Blocks" group of free schools
for children living in the slums of Bangalore

Earlier this year I wrote about my visit to India, to Bangalore in the state of Karnataka, to the group of "Building Blocks" schools founded by James Ambat with his wife Hilda. You can read the story of my visit by clicking here.

Building Blocks has 7 schools, a staff of almost 80 teachers and helps around 700 children aged between three and six with a grounding in speaking and writing the English language and with core subjects like arithmetic and general knowledge. The purpose of starting English at such a young age is that English is the teaching medium in all the better schools right throughout India. 

The Kannada language has its own distinct script

The local vernacular language of Kannada is spoken by 51 million people in and around Karnataka, but this figure represents less than 5% of the population of India. 
The actual number of mother-tongue languages spoken in India is 1,652 and Kannada is one of India’s 22 distinct official languages, each with their own script.

The original proposal in the Indian constitution was that Hindi and English should jointly be the national languages of India for a period of 15 years from 1950 to 1965, after which the national language would be Hindi. However, when English was dropped, in January 1965, there was civil unrest in South India, and within a month English was reinstated as a national language alongside Hindi.

A country with so much diversity was simply not able to establish the Hindi language, which is spoken predominantly in North India, as its universal tongue. The benefit of this situation has been that Indians have a comparative edge over the citizens of many other countries because of the wide-spread use of English. As a result, educated Indians with basic skills and qualifications are able to seek employment almost anywhere in the world. Today, English is the chief language in the Indian education system, and while many infant schools teach in the local vernacular, English is the teaching medium for better schools through all age-groups.

The Challenge of Poverty

A Bangalore slum district

According to official statistics from the Karnataka Slum Development Board, the state has 2,796 slums housing over 4 million people. 
With the expansion of Bangalore, the slums have also increased, taking the official number of slum areas from 473 in 2003 to 597 in 2013. Officials say over 16% of the city’s population live in slums, but some experts put the figure much higher, at between 25% and 35%.

The urban poor are living on government, private and railway lands. Most slum dwellers work as drivers, domestic helpers, cooks, construction labourers, fruit and vegetable vendors and night watchmen. If there is to be any escape from this poverty, it must start in childhood

Much of a baby’s physical development is determined in its early weeks and months of growth, and much of an individual's intellectual development is similarly determined in their early weeks and months of schooling. 

Learning how to learn, and becoming familiar with language and communication skills, as well as basic literacy and numeracy, will equip children for continuing years of quality education that will set them up for a good life in adulthood.

Building Blocks gives 3-year-old children from impoverished backgrounds a high-quality start to their education.

In the seven schools currently run by Building Blocks, they learn Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, English and General Knowledge right through from admission till they enter mainstream education at the age of six.

The education is free of cost for these slum children who are provided with the best educational tools to learn.
‘At present, the school caters for children between the ages of 3 to 6. 
After a couple of years of schooling, we aim to get the children into good English-medium schools with the help of our sponsors.’

The children have a healthy, nutritious meal every day

Escaping from the poverty trap

The core principle behind Building Blocks is the belief that if underprivileged children have access to free education, meals and medical care, they can escape from slum existence and build a better life. Through Building Blocks, the children have excellent English-medium schooling for the first 2 years of their education. Then the scheme creates new challenges when they move on from pre-school after a celebration at their graduation ceremony.

Graduation Day at one of the Building Blocks schools

Placing children in primary schools with similarly high standards compared to the teaching they have received in their first two years learning with Building Blocks, requires scholarship funding. Hence Building Blocks' "Project+Ten," which sets out to raise sponsorships and scholarships to cover the next 10 years of a child's education.

When they move on, their new schools can be challenging, and some of these children need coaching and mentoring to ensure that they can keep up with children who come from less deprived family backgrounds. To address this, the team at Building Blocks supplies free afternoon coaching and tuition to children who have progressed from their pre-school and have now been sponsored into primary and secondary English-medium schooling. A scholarship to support a child for ten years, once they complete their time at pre-school costs approximately £3,000 including after-school coaching and mentoring. 

The visionary educationalist, behind Building Blocks

I was so impressed by what I saw in Bangalore that I returned to England determined to set up a fund-raising operation to support Building Blocks.

I located a UK-based charity that operates in the field of education in India, and we have come to an agreement whereby donations can be channelled through this charity to enable Gift Aid to be reclaimed.

My next step is to fly to Bangalore on November 1st and spend 2 weeks working on the practical organisation. 
I also want to ensure a good flow of information and promotional material.

But I cannot do this single-handedly 

I hate to admit that I am not as young as I used to be, but that is a simple fact. I need a team of volunteers, ideally located around the East Midlands, who will work with me and carry this on into the future. 
There are exciting challenges for people who are interested in coming together to develop and implement an effective strategy, both to support the pre-schools and to develop sponsorships for Project +10. For the moment I am funding the initial costs through my work in management training, and I have pledged my personal funding in Project +10 by sponsoring Chaitra, who graduated from Building Blocks' Azalea pre-school  earlier this year. 

Last Spring, I spent three months in Greece, working with volunteers confronted with the effects of the refugee crisis. That crisis continues. I am still involved with groups concerned with integrating refugees into British society and giving them the opportunity to build a better life.
The objective of my work in India is also about giving people a better life by creating new opportunities. You can follow the story here, and if you are interested in working with me to get the UK operation up and running, please contact me at mail@bobharvey.co.uk.