The time since our last update continues to be a period of uncertainty for those living in our project area, as the plans to construct a new dam remain unclear. Our partners in India are working closely with the community to improve health and educational outcomes through a challenging time.
Community Health Outreach Work
The community health team continue to support pregnant women and children and the community’s health more widely through a mobile clinic service. We will continue to work with Rajasthan Bal Kalyan Samiti (RBKS) and the Global Hospital and Research Centre to deliver these programmes.
Since our last update in July, 101 women and 402 children have been supported by the safe motherhood and childhood programmes. The mobile clinic has visited the area 10 times, providing medical care and advice to 599 community members, 52% of which were female.
The Safe Motherhood Programme supports women through pregnancy by providing advice and accompanying women to antenatal checkups and vaccinations. The team encourage delivery to take place in a safe place. Since July, 78% of births took place with a skilled attendant present.
The Safe Childhood Programme supports parents and children up to the age of five to promote healthy development through identifying any challenges and ensuring full vaccination of children. 96% of children enrolled in the programme over the age of two have completed their recommended vaccinations.
“Ever since the mobile clinic started coming to the village there has been a lot of help in our health related problems. The medicine of the mobile clinic is very good. "
Community Member
Improving Secondary Education
Partnership with Kshamtalaya
We work with Kshamtalaya to support ~300 secondary school students across five year groups at at Mandwa and Jhed Secondary Schools. This programme has significantly improved educational outcomes in these two government schools as well as strengthening school systems, staffing and infrastructure by mobilising government resources.
In the last quarter, 315 children were enrolled in Mandwa and Jhed Secondary Schools. Attendance is still lower than hoped, however 84% attended over 50% of the time. The primary reason for not attending is that the students have been working in the fields helping their families, however there is also the continued issue of early marriage. Kshamtalaya team members are working closely with the community to overcome challenges and encourage attendance in school.
Just over half of students can read and write sentences and paragraphs, roughly 10% still find it difficult to read words. Around 60% of students can do multiplication and division, 36% are still struggling with additions and subtraction. Facilitators are working hard to improve foundational learning through interactive activities.
A key objective is to integrate digital literacy into the timetable, so that students know how to operate a computer, use Google to search the internet and can use programs such as Excel. A new computer lab has been promised to Jhed Secondary, following the example of the digital classroom already being enjoyed by Mandwa students.
Career guidance supports students to transition out of secondary school into further studies or into the workplace. Since the addition of this element to the programme, students have enjoyed talks from professionals as well as a visit to a nearby vocational college to explore the options available and pathways to reaching these.
Working closely with the community is vital to school and student success. Events within the school promote parental engagement in their children's education and parent-teacher meetings are being held closer to people's homes in the community, to increase attendance.
“I feel safe and happy in your class, I like to attend your Mathematics class.”
Secondary School Student
Dam Update
Following news of the plans to build a dam which will submerge the project area, we are currently considering the role of Educate for Life and our partners during the dam construction and beyond. Unfortunately we still do not have any official information regarding when construction or displacement will begin.
