A school in Gurgaon

On Friday afternoon, the local team arranged for us to visit a primary school that is supported by Cargill. The aim of the school is to provide education for the children of migrant workers who wouldn’t ordinarily receive it. It was a modest building with three or four classrooms inside and one caged classroom out in the playground. (Caged to keep the local monkeys away from the children!)

I loved talking to one of the teachers and hearing the stories of how their organization grew over the past seven years. It was started by two elderly ladies in the village offering teaching under a tree to the children that they saw doing nothing. The work was recognised as being valuable by the local community and they gradually moved to outside classrooms with a few tables and chairs, and now to this school building. They provide a lunch to the children to guarantee at least one good meal per day.

One of the problems that the teachers explained is that once the children reach an age where they can work; their parents struggle to see the logic of education. “Why send my son to school when he can work and help to put food on the table?” So, although they don’t pay for the education, they are sacrificing the opportunity to support the family in the short-term. What an impossible choice.

Still, the work they do at the school is fantastic and all of the staff (most of which are volunteers) speak with a lot of passion about the school and the children. It’s heartening to work for an organisation that supports this kind of work.