Palavpada Medical Checkup and Kaspada School Visit
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With the passage of time, we started realizing that the government has a very detailed well defined framework to promote education in the rural area. However, failure in executing the underlying procedures made the framework look extremely weak and ineffective. Rainy season is the right season to assess whether the infrastructure of the schools is in right shape or not. Our primary objective of the visit to assess the same at Bahirampada and Palavpada. Despite of having substantial grant, we could see the kitchens of both the schools in extremely pathetic stage (Leaking roof, walls covered with moss, broken windows..). Instead of waiting endlessly, we decided to at least support repair of the kitchen to make it safe, clean and hygienic.
Palavpada school is very small with less than 40 kids. We had received quite a few complaints about viral fever, cough and cold from this region. Hence, we decided to conduct the medical camp during our visit itself. We could see significant improvement in hygiene and cleanliness. However, the low immunity and constant ignorance of the diseases resulted in kids falling sick more often than not. We had started working with Palavpada school in July 2013. Some of the girls, who were in 3rd or 4th standard at that time, discontinued their studies and are involved in household activities in the absence of their parents (who are busy with farming or some other work). They are also responsible for taking care of their younger siblings, which is resulting in negligence towards the health of the kids in general. One can hardly expect kids to get even the basic meals on regular basis under these circumstances.
As a part of our program, we have decided to carry out the water project at Palavpada, wherein they would have motor operated submersible pump to extract and transfer the water to overhead tank and distribute the same to various areas in the school.
Kids from our catchment area speak warli language, which is quite different than Marathi. While kids can manage very basic communication in Marathi, they are not able to express themselves in various situations. To improve their vocabulary, improve their reading habit and increase their imagination, we had planned to give them of set of books from Navneet publication, which deal with mythology, short collection of stories, Panchtantra etc.. We could see drastic improvement since last year in their ability to read and speak. We added more and more books in their collection. We would have more sessions with the kids, wherein they can read out the stories from the books or build their own stories! The whole idea is to ensure that they are able to express themselves easily under any circumstances.
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