Sankalp is a school for the children of migratory workers, rickshaw pullers, fruit/vegetable hawkers, domestic help, etc, that consitute the population living in the urban slums in Gurgaon, Haryana.
Purpose / Goals
Sushant lok, Gurgoan started being inhabited from early 1990's. It witnessed a lot of construction activity, due to which the number of unskilledlaborers in this area was very high. Since both their parents were working a large number of children were left unattended either at the Jhuggi or the work site. The children were whiling away their time. This led to some like minded public spirited individuals deciding to set up Sankalp Welfare Society with an objective of providing empowerment to this strata of the society.
Organization Description
The society, a non profit registered NGO based at Gurgaon as a first step started running a non formal school in association with Rotary Club, Delhi Cama Place for the children of unskilled migratory laborers to promote literacy under the National literacy programme. Sankalp, which literally means a pledge. A pledge to give opportunities to less fortunate.
The programme is being run free of cost since July 1996. The project is unique as it aims to provide nutrition and clothing besides education. That includes providing a mid day meal and medical facililities. Besides literacy the school also is trying to provide extra curricular activities. The school was started with 30 children in 1996 and now has over 200 children.
Initially the site of the school was the Vyapar Kendra's foyer (local shopping complex). It was started with 30 children, 3 volunteers which included Cmdr. Choudhary. From there the school kept moving places till they constructed a temporary shed on the government land in 1998. The shed was home to the school till 2004, when the local District Child Welfare council leased a primary School building to Sankalp.
Currently Sankalp has constructed its own school buildings and is operating from it in addition to satellite locations near slums in the area.
Here are some pictures of the Sankalp schools and the slums it serves, taken in July 2009:
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Here are some Youtube videos of the children:
reciting Sholkas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tU2aSpyxv0
Mealtime:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SankalpWelfare
School:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SankalpWelfare#p/a/u/0/qTEvlkL8VvY
http://www.youtube.com/user/SankalpWelfare#p/a/u/1/ZsKwgwnWrXA
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