Support_Tribal Children_Education
Suresh Kumar
Dear Friends,
My name is Suresh. I'm part of an NGO called Samata in Vizag, Andhrapradesh.
Samata is a not-for-profit social organisation working for the protection of
the Eastern Ghats and assertion of adivasi people’s rights and cultures for the
last two decades. We are a social justice organization working for the rights
of the tribal (indigenous) people of Andhra Pradesh, and for the protection of
the natural resources and ecology of the Eastern Ghats. It started working in a
small tribal hamlet in 1987 with a group of tribal and rural youth and got
itself formally registered as a nongovernmental organization in 1990
What we do..
There are many issues that Samata handles in Tribal areas (Aruku, Borra,
Paderu, Chintapalli, East, West godavari...) that are funded by differant
funding agencies. We believe that education is an important vehicle of
self-assertion and social development. But many adivasi children have no access
to primary education, as they have to either walk long distances, crossing
streams and forests, only to rely on governmental education where teachers are
either absent or disrespectful of their culture and traditional knowledge,
while providing no vocational skills to help children in the long run. And so,
we conceived the Balamitra Resource Centre for Children (www.balamitra.org).
Through this centre, adivasi communities in 40 villages across Visakhapatnam
and Srikakulam districts run Balamitra Badis and ensure that more than 1200
children receive meaningful education.
Balamitra (Friends of children) Badis are thus small community schools for
adivasi children who live in the hills, forests and border villages of Andhra
Pradesh, where they are given a healthy education that can compete with any
mainstream school, while also helping them rediscover their roots.
At the Balamitra Resource Centre, we have a residential school and a research
and training facility where we focus on developing contextual education. Our
adivasi children and teachers are our primary researchers for documenting their
own languages, histories and sciences. We are also inspired by the
Waldorf-Steiner education model and we work closely with the teachers and
volunteers from the Waldorf community to develop strong linkages on education
for life skills.
Please visit our schools online at www.balamitra.org and to know more about
the program. face book - https://www.facebook.com/balamitranews
How You Could Help Us..
As part of your CSR/ Employee Pay role giving/ tax savings/ donations we appeal
to you to contribute to the education of these children. We would love to show
you around our Resource Centre and introduce you to our resident students and
teachers, so you can see what we do in person. Additionally, it would be
wonderful if you would like to contribute to our efforts in any other means,
either financially or in kind. Contributions are exempt from Income Tax under
Section 80G and 12A. Samata is also registered under the Foreign Contribution
Registration Act.
Please do let us know if we could set up a meeting with your team to discuss
this further. Feel free to contact us on 9989846698 (Suresh).
Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Suresh Kumar,
Samata,
D.No. 14-37-9, 1st Floor, Krishna Nagar
Maharanipeta, Visakhapatnam, AP, INDIA - 530002
Mobile: 9989846698
Tel: +91-891-2503876
Fax: +91-891-2737662
Email: csrsamata at gmail
www.samataindia.org
www.balamitra.org