Gamrau Village School
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One of the new Rotarians of the Dharamsala Rotary Club is Philip Adams. He is originaly from the UK, and came to Dharamsala a little over a year ago. He saw the very poor conditions of the kids here, and he decided to start a school for needy children. The Gamrau Village school openined in April 2004, and it is a project of the Community Growth Society that is now a registered Non Governmental Organization (NGO). Philip Adams created this NGO but the board members have to be all Indians, so they are leaders of the local community, most of them connected through the Rotary Club of Dharamsala. The wife of the Secretary of the Dharamsala Rotary Club is the headmistress of the school.
Primary and middle school education is compulsory in India and government schools do not charge school fees, but despite this only 50% of children between the age of six and fourteen actually attend school, although a far higher number are enrolled.
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Last March, Philip got a house in the Village of Gamrau, up from Dharamsala, and arranged it to accomodate 4 classrooms including a nursery.
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He spent 3 weeks visiting the local parents to tell about the school and select the children that would attend the school. He selected only kids whose families were in desperate financial need. Some of these families live in the kind of houses you see in the right, with 10 to 12 people in each room. The school was up and running within 6 weeks. The staff is made of 4 teachers, one cook, and a community liaison officer. The community liaison officer, Mohinder, is one of my students in the computer classes I give to the local community (see below).
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He originally planned the school for 56 kids, but he now has 65, and needs to do some planning for expansion. Maybe get another building nearby. The operating budget for the school is only $8,000 a year. That includes staff salaries, food, uniforms, and equipment. A warm lunch is provided to the kids, and they manage to feed 70 people for less than $4 a meal! I shared one of their meals when I visited the school. Not 3 stars, but better than what they get at home...
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Computer Training
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When I originally arranged to come back to India I had hoped that the matching grant for the computer vocational center would be operational, and that I could use these computers to do my training. Unfortunately, because of the hold on India projects, this did not happen in time. We now hope that they will get the computers within a couple of months. Without these computers, I have to arrange my training in Cybercafes, or in private homes. Fortunately there are quite a few cybercafes around, and they only charge 30 roupies an hour (65 cents). See Mohinder from the Gamrau Village School on the right.
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