Keeping children in school builds them as responsible children


My brother,Ramu (name changed) has become a man says a 9 year old girl about her  14 year old brother. When we asked how do you say that she expressed “he knows to smoke and even drinks and plays cards with his friends”
This is the condition of the boy and girl who had lost their parents when they were small and looked after by their aged aunt and uncle. The boy was stopped from school by his aunt when he was 12 years to support the income of the family. In spite of persuasion from our end to encourage him to go to school, his aunt was very firm about the decision. Now after 2 years though ramu is still a child has become independent in making his choice over drinking and smoking and even becoming violent against his aunt.

Currently of the 200 children we reach through Buds of Christ, 25 are children without both parents and about 90 are living with their widowed mother. In this condition many families struggle hard to send the children to school. It is to such families, Buds of Christ provides support through school bags, note books, uniforms and study guides to encourage children to be in school and prevent situation as that of Ramu.

On 23rd of June at Buds of Christ, Tiruchengode, about 70 children of the center have been distributed with note books and uniforms this year primarily focusing on girl children and semi-orphan children from very difficult circumstances. The support has built in confidence among children in pursuing higher goals and not limited by their family circumstances.

Popular posts from this blog

Nothing is impossible for those that BELIEVE – Bharathi has scored 408 in 10th public exams amidst difficult circumstances

Image
It is another joyous moment to share that our children have excelled in their 10 th public exams and going beyond the limitations and challenges once again. The experiences of these children, especially widow headed households face the pressures of early marriages; or stopping education and sent for work to support the family income. In addition if they are the most backward caste in the community, they are often discriminated by other members in the community. Bharathi has put her dream path, possible challenges and how she would overcome them  Bharathi is from the most backward community and living with her widowed mother. She has one elder sister who eloped and got married to a boy from the neighbouring village. Bearing the stigma of run-away sister, widowed mother’s daughter and the caste discrimination, along with severe power cuts that lasted up to 12 hours in a day, Bharathi as young as 14 years took these obstacles as milestones to prove her capacity and bring a grea
Read more

EDUCATE GIRL CHILDREN | END GIRL CHILD MARRIAGES

Image
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8 th , we at Buds of Christ took this as an opportunity to assess the status of young girls from families affected by HIV and AIDS. It has been observed that most of the mothers who are currently living with HIV were stopped education at an early age and married as early as 14 years of age. Almost all the women have contracted infections through marriage and many have been widowed at very early shouldering the burden of being bread winners and bringing up their children. In such conditions, the girls from these families are also stopped from studies and married early in easing the burden thus repeating the same situation of the mothers. Buds of Christ in partnership with Positive Women Network, Chennai organised a program to help women realize the need to prevent girl child marriages and educate girl children.  The workshop started with an activity where women were made to realise the vulnerabilities and the stru
Read more