Many families in the area lack basic education and skills, and suffer from various cultural and social problems, which keep them locked in a continuous cycle of poverty. (Read More)
Growth: Formed in 2003, PYDS grew rapidly and now has 213 children under its care. Accommodation has moved from the Swamy’s house, through use of cattle sheds and into our custom built school campus in 2005.
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In 2003, The Purkal Youth Development Society was formed to embrace the growing number of children. By then there were 38 children. With the help of four other teachers, Mr Swamy continued to house the program until there was simply not enough space. While the society grew, so did the children. Their grades at school improved impressively and they expressed a newfound confidence in their self.
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In 2004, the "school" was being held partially in two cattle sheds and an unfinished building. One class was in the cowshed and the rest were held in this primitive building, which then was blackboards, desks, tables and chairs were transported wherever they were needed and the best was made of the limited resources. On the first floor there were no lights, so when it became dark the classes were re-housed downstairs.
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In 2005, PYDS moved all its classes into an unfurnished house after creating temporary classrooms with tarpaulin and tin sheets. Nine areas were created for classrooms. An electricity line was brought in to provide adequate lighting. Folding chairs and tables, and a portable blackboard made up the classroom. The education program began to grow and the teachers became full-time in early 2006. They were employed for a full working day where they spent time organizing lesson plans and preparing for classes
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Thanks to the generosity of friends, PYDS managed to commence building of a permanent facility in 2006. This marked the christening of the “Yuva Shakti” project, and its being designated as a Division of PYDS. These developments made it possible for the society to handle 56 students and begin to grow in terms of teaching staff, students and facilities. The new building housed nine classrooms, a library, a computer room, a science laboratory, a yoga hall, a kitchen and an office. Games facilities were built, including basketball and volleyball courts, a badminton court and a Table Tennis room. The main problem at this stage was the ratio of teachers to students. Since class sizes were small, it wasn’t possible to fund enough teachers to oversee each class. After the new building, the society became more organized and funding grew. In 2007, the class sizes were increased to 16 or 17 and a full teaching staff became possible
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By December 2006, The Society was able to complete the construction of its own Learning Center and moved into it. The organization of the activities in the new center took nearly 12 months to stabilize and in March 2008 there were more than 140 young men/women taking advantage of the programs and looking forward to a better future. Until December 2007 the Society bused its students to the School with the help of two buses managed by two identified entrepreneurs from the village under an agreement. In December 2007 with the commencement of the BTTP Programme (see next paragraph) a new bus was bought and managed by the Society. At about the same time a Tata Winger was acquired to replace a Maruti Van that was being used to help the teachers commute from the City. The bus and the Winger also help transport women to the Stree Shakti program.
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In January of 2008, Yuva Shakti began a new education scheme called ‘Bus Them to Purkal’. The programme takes very poor children from remote villages with no access to basic education, and literally buses them to Purkal to join our learning centre. The first group is composed of 23 students, who spend their day from 9.30am to 5pm with our teacher/mentors learning the foundations of English, Mathematics, Hindi and Science in a student-centred and interactive way. The focus of this programme was on the girl-child, who is often left behind when it comes to education and seen as a second-class citizen.
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In December 2008 we began the second BTTP group, having learned from our experiences and improved as many aspects of the programme as possible. This group of 20 students are now a part of the Yuva Shakti family too and are relishing the experience and reaping the benefits of being with us on a daily basis.
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In 2010 we took the first steps in moving towardsa primary School, a secondary school and a senior secondary school that implements our idea of holistic development of the child.
