The Plan.

The plan is to work with children from different backgrounds - class, caste, religion etc. and bring them together in a single event. We discussed with many schools and efforts and finally things were agreed upon with three efforts in bangalore - (Sita School, Ananya and Prakriya) and continuing support with Thulir in Dharmapuri.

You can read about each of these efforts here - http://www.runnershigh.in/education.php

Each school caters to communities from varying backgrounds. Sita School caters to a rural population in the outskirts of Bangalore, Ananya works with Slum children from various locations in Bangalore, Thulir is situated in a remote tribal village in Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu and Prakriya caters to the privileged sections of society, but to children with varied and different learning abilities.

Sita School and Ananya are very happy to take us in the fold! They wanted us to spend as much time as we can give for the children. A lot of freedom with the right amount of guidance and mentorship was discussed. This is very exciting for us! It was agreed that this will be a learning experience for everyone. In Sita School, right from the start the science teacher was involved and we discussed the curriculum. We decided that we would work with about 20 elder children in Sita school and as many kids as interested (total strength - 60) in Ananya.

With Thulir, because of the distance and our inability to make frequent visits, a concrete plan could not be made. But, we are hopeful of continuing our earlier efforts. Some of the children had also come for the Team Asha run organized in the month of June.

Prakriya school is very interested in trying out the new ideas. But, were constrained by the need to stick to a syllabus, parental and teachers' pressure for time etc. To their credit, we were not hopeful of any school with their background and parental pressure to partner with us! After discussions, it was decided to take the weekly games periods and work with the children once a week.