SERVICE IS JOY
Works of education are works of peace and development. We have imparted elementary education to 53,000 children and have set up 3 secondary schools with the focus on pedagogy - its quality, not numbers - and its access and effectiveness on the ground. YMWS is also involved in rural renewal projects in 46 villages in 3 blocks of South Bengal with an emphasis on the well-being of women, the provision of potable drinking water and a greener environment.
Pre-primary education in India and West Bengal has traditionally been the responsibility of the anganwadis – rural child care centres which provide basic health care including pre-school activities. However, studies show that ‘despite forty years of grassroots level implementation of the ICDS...the pre-school component of the scheme has been unable to provide high quality care and education’ (www.icdswb.in).
As a result, a large number of children are not ready for school at the age of 6 years. Poor levels of learning are made worse by an unhealthy teacher-student ratio, poor quality teaching and absenteeism, all of which lead to a high incidence of dropouts in primary and elementary schools. Those unable to afford private nurseries or kindergartens are forced to stay out of the school system altogether. The lack of quality early childhood education and care has a long lasting adverse impact on the lives of the children. It is this lacuna that the Young Men’s Welfare Society (YMWS) is trying to fill. Our schools are the nucleus from which various initiatives pertaining to nutrition, health and hygiene, social advocacy and community development have evolved.
CHILDREN FIRST
Our main objective is to provide pre-primary and primary education to children between the ages of 3 yrs and 9 yrs from poor and marginalised communities. We work among the urban poor in Kolkata and in 3 blocks in the district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India
Pre primary & Primary Education
With a combination of affordability and support we hope to make a difference in the
future of the rural children for whom education is the only ladder to climb out of the
abyss of poverty.
Food and Nutrition
The programme aims to provide a tasty, healthy and safe power breakfast to rural
school children to improve their nutritional levels and enhance enrolment and
retention.
Health - A New Prescription
Annual health check-ups for the rural children helped us to identify and address
health issues such as cough & cold, abdominal pain, nausea, head ache, skin
problems, iron deficiency, acute worm problems and dental caries.
Fit India – Physical Training
Rural children are given opportunities to enhance their observation,
concentration and interpersonal skills through Annual Physical Training Camps and
Meditation practices.
Water - Essence of Life
YMWS has installed 148 tube wells in as many as 136 villages with an aim to
provide clean drinking water to the villagers and to help prevent children from
constantly falling ill due to water-borne diseases.
Banking on Women
The Self Help Group project extends financial services to women to
engage in self-employment initiatives. This enables them to generate an income, to
save, and in many cases to exit poverty. Around 863 women have participated in this
venture.
PROFITS FOR COMMUNITY
“It is a question of the liberty or the freedom of the rich and the lack of freedom of the poor.” — Paulo Freire (PEDAGOGIES FOR THE NON-POOR)
There is a paramount need to work with decision makers, adults and students who belong to the dominant class — the non-poor. Children from the middle and upper strata of society need to be sensitized about the plight of the poor and the basic causes of poverty. YMWS is increasingly collaborating with educational and management institutions to help them look beyond their boundaries and to engage students in meaningful dialogue on global issues and out – of – class interactive engagements with the under-privileged. There is a fountain of goodwill waiting to be tapped.
In 2006, Ms. Mitra Sen a Canadian filmmaker collaborated with YMWS to produce a short documentary ‘A Handful of Rice’ to highlight the discrimination that is prevalent in society.
To ensure sustainability, YMWS has developed a self-sustainable model of functioning. We have set up 2 high schools in the city of Kolkata – Young Horizons School and Children’s Foundation School – both affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi. The schools together have a roll-strength of 2,700 students who pay fees. As a matter of policy, as much as 10% of the annual turnover of these two schools is pledged towards supporting the YMWS projects.
Reverence for Life
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Reverence for life should find reflection in all our practices in everyday life.
Love will have a new meaning in the 21st century if it embraces compassion, tolerance, understanding and affirmative action to stand on the right side of the poor. We have to protect the sanctity and dignity of the poor and the marginalised.
May we, through our reverence for life, raise our existence to its highest level and offer it to create a world where we illuminate the hearts and minds of our children, enrich the confluence of culture and religion among our people and recognize the oneness of humanity.
Shourabh Mukerji – Founder President
Future of the Future
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The past suddenly seems obsolete. The present distraught and uncertain. The future alone, though somewhat uncharted, still remains unaffected. For it dwells in the realm of hope. It is designed in our dreams. The pandemic has taught us to pause and think, rather to rethink.
We contemplate over the past. We ignore the present. But we invariably invest in the future. Future is the last hope for the dispossessed. Life in spite of every odd can never be goal-less. There is always a horizon to look forward to. A destination to reach. A missed milestone is merely a pitfall, it doesn't malign the whole journey. The whole is always much bigger than its component parts. The myopic man fails to see beyond. He thinks even less. But the future has its own course. A barrage or more may merely stall it for a while. In the long run, however, it is bound to generate power. The future thus belongs to the future. The Indian nation, once ancient and primitive, is now dwelt by the youth. Fifty five percent of the present population are very young. They belong to the future. They should be invested in.
Western values teach exclusivity. Plain and simple selfishness. The y-generation learn to earn and burn. They earn more and burn to extinction. This has to be aborted by all means. The youth have to learn instead to share and survive. Life is not merely for living. Life is celebration. And celebration can never be an individual commitment. The Covid has no doubt introduced physical distancing but it has also demonstrated the need for combined rescue to recovery. Immunity to empathy is self-destructive.
The blueprint for the future has to be audacious and original. But nature ought not to be overtaken. One has to have a thorough understanding of the circumstances first and thereafter dare to shape it. We do have to be ahead of others, in fact ahead of time itself - in patience, compassion and inclusiveness. In the name of artificial intelligence we can never welcome or invite discrimination. Quality education and sustainable development should be made available to all those seeking them. We must not only be far-seeing but fair-seeing too. For that has always been the tradition with us. Thus the future we envision will create and recreate incredible volunteers of time who would courageously carry forward the mission of love and service in the wider environment of mistrust and hatred. We may not extinguish completely, but douse we can. For the future is always an undying phoenix.
