Life was not a bed of roses for four-year-old Nilanjana. For the toddler, a pile of filth became her playground and stray dogs her best buddies. While her parents struggled to make ends meet, one could only wonder if she would ever survive the gruesome realities of the world...
Today, Nilanjana is a straight-A student and aspires to become a doctor. In India, there are several children, residing in slums, who are deprived of basic education. With relatively low attention being paid to issues of poverty, slum dwellers have to constantly bear the brunt of indifference from the government as well as the citizens.
But there are still some people amongst us who are willing to make a difference to the lives of impoverished citizens. “Through Building Blocks Schools, we aim to provide basic education to all slum children that includes learning to read in English, motor skill development and character building. Well, the main goal is to give them all round education. We have five schools -- Azalea, Bluebells, Carnations, Daisy and Edelweiss -- that are located in various slum neighbourhoods,” said James Suresh Ambat, founder of Building Blocks Schools.
The location of these schools makes it easier for the parents to drop off their wards every morning. These schools provide free education to all the slum children. However, only kindergarten programmes are being offered right now. “Our organisation is just six years old. We have around 350 students enrolled in our schools right now. We are gradually planning to expand our programmes as well as branches all over the city. Our sponsors range from multinational companies in USA, young entrepreneurs to an event management company in Amsterdam. Our location for the next branch will either be Wilson Garden or D G Halli,” added James who is also planning to open a centralised school in order to monitor and facilitate the transfer of students to primary schools.
When at home, most of these children have no access to electricity, water or even proper sanitation facilities. For them, everything in the school has become a learning experience. “They look at books that have colourful pictures and use crayons for the first time. They also celebrate their birthdays with friends by cutting a cake. It is a wonderful new world for them,” he said.
Echoing similar sentiments, B N S Reddy Joint Commissioner of Police, said that it is extremely important for us to safeguard children’s future and we need to constantly renew our approach. “With respect to education, the situation is still grim today. Basic education is a fundamental right of every child. We, at Indiranagar Club, constantly strive to make a difference to their lives by organising charity events on a regular basis. In fact, we invited 350 students from these schools to our club where they got the opportunity to interact with Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Recently, the club donated Rs 100,000 to Building Blocks Schools. We also conduct health camps for underprivileged children on a regular basis. I think it is important that people do their bit to improve the conditions of these children,” said Reddy.
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