Including the parents in the activities

We have always believed that the parents of the children need to be ‘educated’ about the values of education also. This is often a missing link in the whole system, as many times we hear that the parents are least concerned about the education of the child. They believe that their duty ends at ensuring that the child goes to the schools.One of the initiatives of the Happy Horizons Trust, is to conduct open meetings and discussion sessions once a month at least, with the parents and guardians of the children. This is to happen in the villages itself. These are organised by the manager and the champions under guidance from the chief coordinator. The champions conduct this session and in return get trained themselves on social leadership and really connecting with the masses.

We recently did one such session at the Navsrijit Vidyalaya, Simri Bakhtiarpur on the 10th of July.  This is a community of the Mahadalits, and the children from this area, go to the oldest school that we have been working with (since 2008). The school has around 60-70 students. This being the rainy season, we ‘educated’ the parents about the benefits of cleanliness and the need to ensure that the students also maintain cleanliness when they come to school.

In the discussions we also got to know about the different problems being faced by the families. Many have also requested for bleaching powder to keep track of the water logging and safety from the mosquitoes. We will be providing them these in the next visit to the area.

It is our endeavor that we get more parents to be involved in the education of their children. They are very important stakeholder in our whole system and due to a lack of education themselves, they have been unaware about how they can help for their children. We hope to be there to guide them on that.