About NGO:

Door Step School is a registered voluntary organization working for the education of the urban poor for over a decade and a half now. It was founded in 1988, with the aim of eradicating illiteracy and improving the quality of learning at the primary level. The group was convinced that if the problem of illiteracy was to be tackled effectively the beginning has to be made with children and hence the children between 3 and 18 years of age were targeted. Today we reach out to over 25,000 children in and out of school in selected areas of Mumbai.

Fund Usage:

We intend to use the funds generated via the marathon towards the running expenses of one School on Wheels (SoW) Total Budget of this project : Rs. 15,00,000/-

A SoW is a bus designed as a mobile class room. It is a strategy to reach out to the most unreached groups of out-of-school children i.e. street children and pavement dwellers. It also acts as an emergency class room where space is a constraint.

Street children in the cities have absolutely no opportunity to go to school. They come into the city with their parents who are in search of work. As they have no address to call their own and no documents to prove their existence, even if the parents are so inclined, they cannot get admission in school. That is where the non formal education class is needed, to enable these children to grow as literate Indians. However, in pavement communities, where out of school children are identified, there is generally no place to conduct class. Door Step School's very objective of making literate every child in the geographical area we have chosen to work in would be far from fulfilled without some means of reaching out to this rather marginalized group of children. The SoW addresses just this need.

Door Step School is a pioneer in Mumbai, initiating our first SoW 1998. We now run 4, one in South Mumbai, 2 in Reay Road & Darukhana area, and one in Kandivali

Impact:

Asif Sattar Shaikh, 12years old, stays with his parents and sister in rented house. The mother is a domestic servant and father is a cart puller. The father is an alcoholic and the house runs on the mother's earning. Asif is in 2nd standard in Urdu medium. He started bunking classes, stopped listening to his mother and had finally left school. His mother then brought him to School on Wheels, but he was shy and didn't want to go to a school in the bus.

The teacher started involving him in class. She would ask him to distribute materials in class and made him the leader. This increased his interest in coming to the class. Now, Asif has become a regular. His behavior improved and his mother is very happy. He gave his exams for the 2nd standard. His mother shows a lot of interest when he does not come to class she finds him and sends him to class.

Page Url :
http://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/ngo59_door_step_school.htm

Founded Year: 1989

Cause category: Education

Our Supporters

• Aseem