DODDANNA NAGAR: Education is still a distant dream for millions of young kids in India. Although education is a fundamental right, millions of children remain uneducated. That is where HOPE Foundation steps in to make a difference, to help destitute children and provide them with enough help to make their dreams come true. It was in 1994, that HOPE Foundation set up a school in Doddanna Nagar, Kaval Byrasandra.
This is a squalid area full of impoverished families where boys are sent off to work as coolies, mechanics or carpenters, while the girls help their mothers as maids.
HOPE foundation School as the name suggests, brought hope to people living in the area. The school was started in a tiny rented room in a colony with 30 children and has today become a model for other schools. It has expanded and has a building of its own with 22 staff members and more than 400 kids getting quality education under one roof.
And this school is smart too as the campus is WiFi enabled and also has a smart classroom. The students at the school use Read-to-Me software to learn English, iLearning Hotspot to practise Math and IT Wizard to learn how to navigate technology.
The kids are also provided with gadgets to make learning more appealing. The school has 30 security cameras around the campus to monitor the kids.
The school takes a minimal fee from the children and also has mid-day meal programme. Cooper & Ella, a fashion brand, has been sponsoring the mid-day meal to the children. The school has a library too that was set up by Hippocampus.
Ian Correa, CEO of HOPE Foundation says, “200 million children don’t make it from school to college. But our school takes enough care to ensure that the children don’t drop out midway. We make sure that the children get well settled in their career. These days, the young generation wants to give back to the society and when an organisation like ours comes up, people voluntarily walk up to us and do whatever they can. Accenture and Goldman Sachs have been providing many facilities to the school.”
Speaking about the technology available in the school, he says, “A lot of schools don’t have the technology required to make the learning livelier. But technology alone is no solution. When technology is combined with good teachers, then it becomes efficient. Our school has been doing this. The children at our school have access to the technology which Bill Gates’s kids had as students!”
The children at the school are very enthusiastic about the computers and technology used in their class room. English and computers are the favorite subjects among the children. Zaya Clouds, a software-aided class which seeks to develop an all-encompassing education learning solution using adaptive software, assessment, curated content, and training, is used extensively.
Pratap, a student from Class 3 says, “I love Zaya Clouds. It teaches me spellings, sounds and my teacher also shows me videos of how not to be bad. It makes me improve my handwriting, study well. When I grow up, I want to join the military and become a good person”.
The HOPE foundation School has kept the hopes of hundreds of parents alive. Many people in the locality are very happy and satisfied with the kind of service the school has been providing to the locality.
Lakshmi, a proud parent shares, “We come from a very poor family. I had never in my dreams thought that my children would become educated. I am very thankful to the school. They have helped me at every step. All my three children are educated today. My first kid Usha is now working at EMC2. Another kid of mine, Ramki has done engineering. I don’t even know what is engineering. He is now being trained for a job. My last kid is still doing his degree. I owe everything to the school.”
“I didn’t have a job. The school taught me how to handle kids, how to take care of them and they employed me as a care-taker. Now I cook the mid-day meal for the children,” she adds.
More information at https://www.hopefoundation.org.in