Please check our website www.jagritikullu.org wherein we have posted the profiles of kids that need support. Pick up the kid and let us know. Once the child is picked up by the donor the profile will be deleted from the website and donor will be e mailed a more detailed history of the child.
For only Rs 3600 a year (Rs 10 a day) you can support a young child through school for one year.
High up in the Lag valley, hanging on to a precipitous hillock is the village of Dongkri in the Lag valley (Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh) . On top of the summit is a bright red temple, a testimony to their undying faith and hope. Fortunately, a motorable road reaches the village linking it to the outside world and through it to all of us.
This is a Scheduled Caste village, steeped in poverty. A Jagriti 1 survey finds 18 of the 25 households below the poverty line against only 2 households as poor under the Government’s Integrated Rural Development Programme, (IRDP). Tiny land holdings are rainfed and consist of narrow terraces on steep hillsides. The health of the people is very poor and disability rates high. Literacy levels are abysmal with only one girl attaining the 8 th class in school in (2006). The village economy is essentially propped up by irregular remittances from village men who find employment as migrant workers.
The seasonal work migration of able bodied persons (especially of men) increases women’s vulnerability to manage their household. High incidence of disability among children indicates severe prenatal malnutrition, possible genetic abnormalities and lack of awareness about timely immunization. Only five or six taps community taps supply untreated drinking water for the villagers.
In the dim electric lights that a few of the households can afford, the chances of children being able to study at night were equally dim. A cycle of early drop out, early marriage, teenage mothers and dependence on erratic daily wages holds the villagers in the grip of chronic poverty.
Based on a more detailed analysis of the socio-economic- disability profile and educational status of the village 2 , the need for constructive action is obvious. Unfortunately, Government schemes have been unable to reach Dongkri village for
variety of reasons.
A contribution of as little as Rs 10 a day or Rs 3600(80 USD approx.) a year will enable one Dongkri child to study through high school. If the children are able to complete matriculation they would become eligible for the thousands of vacant government jobs that stand reserved for Scheduled Castes but remain vacant for lack of sufficiently qualified candidates.
Jagriti will offer a range of interventions like support including purchasing books and school uniforms for children, helping the very poor with educational expenses and special coaching in subjects like English and Math, Jagriti, will also work with parents and local teachers to help empower these mountain people. Our sensitivity and commitments to sustain livelihood development is why we are working in villages like Dongkri.
Won’t you join us?
Contributors will be mailed an annual achievement report in April / May each year. Contributions, by demand draft in favour of JAGRITI, Kullu, HP may be sent to:
The Director,
Jagriti, # 341,
Ward 12, Shishamati,
Kullu 175001,
HP, India.
Tel/Fax: 91-1902-226537
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.jagritikullu.org
