Soliciting Support to Organize Summer Camp of Children of Wastepickers

Summer camps at Hasiru Dala are different. Yes, it’s a space for hundreds of children to come together to learn new skills and have fun, but at the same time it’s that time of the year when they make a promise. A promise they make to each other that they will stay in school, continue their education and will not drop out at any cost. A promise that will help them to build a better future for themselves; build a future with choices. You can help children make and keep this promise.

Children of waste pickers are one of the most marginalized populations of children under risk in the city. Many of them drop out of school very early and follow their parents to waste picking, making them prey not only to the vicious cycle of poverty, but also exposing them to life threatening health hazards. A few others last in schools till they are about fifteen and then drift away to do manual work. There are very few children whose parents persist and complete their schooling. Employment, of course, is another challenge. In some migrant communities, they prefer not to send their children to local school with a fear of not knowing the local language.

In most cases the children of waste pickers are first generation school goers and their parents struggle hard to send them to English Medium Private Schools, hoping for better quality education. Most of these mainstream schools, are academic growth oriented, and do little to encourage the overall development of the children.

Hasiru Dala, over the last three years has been providing loans and scholarships to hundreds of children, helping them stay in school, or get them admitted in boarding schools to learn and do well. The organization has organized and engaged the children in a Zero Drop Out campaign where during the yearly summer camp, the children take a pledge not only to stay in school, and make sure that their friends don’t drop out as well. To this end, the campaign has been successful, and there has been a steady decrease in the dropout rates.

We would like to solicit your support to organize this year’s summer camp for 500 children of wastepickers. We need INR 150,000 to cover all the costs of summer.

Summer Camp will include a visit to Freedom Park, storytelling sessions, theatre and craft workshop and a pledge taking ceremony, where children will commit that neither they nor their peers will drop out from school. The summer camp will complement the existing efforts of scholarships for children’s education and community library.

Do contribute, our account details are given as follows:

Account Name: Hasiru Dala

Bank: State Bank of Mysore

Account Number: 64132965349

IFSC: SBMY0040217

Please drop an email when you make a donation at this address: Kabir.postbox@gmail.com, you can also call on +919663427315