Education

Virendra Kumar

Virendra Kumar, 10 years studying in class 5, hails from the state of Rajasthan and lives in Dhobi Basti with his parents, four brothers and one sister. His father works for a contractor as a daily wage labor. They live in an accommodation provided by the contractor. Two of his siblings are out of school don’t go to school, only he and two other siblings are fortunate enough to get to go to school.

Virendra is a bright lad who is punctual and disciplined. He likes to study and actively participates in the class. Virendra’s favorite subject is math. He aspires to become a teacher when he grows up. Before he started learning with DISHA in the alternative education classes, he was unable to do sums involving multiplication and division as he was weak in tables. After mastering the tables well now, he is able to solve such questions easily and is enjoying math even more

Mukesh

Mukesh is a 10 years old boy who lives with his parents and four brothers in Khazan Basti slum in Nangalraya area. His family of 7 is deprived of the basic needs of life. His father owns a chaat stall in the area.

After associating with Disha, Mukesh has taken on full time education. Mukesh is a bright boy and is one of the most regular students in class according to his instructor. He likes studies and his favorite subject is Hindi. His ambition is to be a doctor when he grows up.

Monu Sharma

Ms. Monu Sharma, instructor of the AECs located at B-85, Rewari Line slum taught 102 children studying in class 1 to 5. Monu hails from the state of Rajasthan and lives with her family in Nangal Raya area in New Delhi. Her father is a grocer and mother is a housewife. She has one sister who is in class IX while her brother helps in the shop. Monu has studied till class XII and is trained in stitching, applying Mehndi and has completed the six months course in beauty culture with DISHA.

DISHA supported her in establishing rapport with the community and ‘ShikshaMitra’ living in the slums. She participated in the training on learning classroom series, programmatic aspects, innovative pedagogy of storytelling and using the teaching learning materials. Monu has learned simple ways of reaching out to children and teaching them effectively. These trainings have enabled her students to learn well.

Her goal is to teach the children to excel in their class. She wants to undergo similar trainings so that she can handle multi age and multi grade children studying together in her alternative education centers to learn well. Monu is keen to help her family financially

Archana

9 years old Archana, always eager to come to school, neatly dressed, loves learning through poems and recites stories and is a creative machine when it comes to painting. Her eagerness for a good education truly justifies the struggle she had to bear at home.

Her father works as a mechanic in a workshop and earns 5000 per month. Their family lives in Aadarsh Nagar slum near Azadpur. Her mother keeps ill and most of the money goes off in her treatment. Considering feeding the family as a priority with the sum left, Archana’s education started seeming as a burden and her father decided that Archana should work as house hold assistance and her younger brother should continue studying. She was placed as an aid to an old aged woman who was fortunately a teacher. The woman spotted Archana’s eagerness for learning one day and started educating Archana about Written and Oral communication and primary education.

After some time Archana was asked to stay at home and assist her mother. She did not give up even after the struggle at home and borrowed books from her friends, would buy old books from scrap dealers in their colony. When Archana heard about Disha’s classes in their colony, she asked Disha faculty to convince her parents. Disha counseled Archana’s father about importance of girl child education. After 3 months of learning at Disha, Archana was later on enrolled in Mission Education centre run by Lepakshi Educational Society.

Archana is in 5th standard now. She is regular for her classes and even helps her mother in the household chores after classes. Archana wants to become a teacher in future. Archana and her parents are grateful to Disha for the opportunity that was given to her.

Neha

Neha, an 8 year old girl born in a family where both parents work to earn bread and butter for family. Both parents engaged as construction labours and a meagre income of 3000 per month. The family of 5 was living in a ramshackle house and under unhygienic conditions. Her parents were mostly entangled in meeting ensuring basic survival needs of the family and never thought of sending Neha to school.

Neha used to notice children of her age carrying bags and asked her father one day where do they go? TO her question her father answered they go to school. The question that followed moved his father. She asked why was she not eligible to go there? Her father felt helpless and could not answer her.

In search of a way to get Neha elementary education, he came across Disha’s learning centre in their colony. She attended classes regularly and showed promise. Her zeal for learning and outstanding performance got her admission in a primary school.

Neha is in Third standard now. She loves Hindi language and likes dancing and is called “a bag of questions” by her teachers.

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