A school kit distribution drive was organised by Ability Aids India International, a charitable trust, for the children of Poonthura recently.
V.S. Sivakumar, MLA, presided. Job Kurien, playback singer, and Connie Newton, executive director, Ability Aids, were present.
Back to School is a campaign by the organisation to motivate the children of Poonthura to study and empower themselves. It focusses on education as a key driver of change in the area, where poverty, starvation, unemployment, and dropout levels are high.
Towards this end, 318 students will be provided with quality schoolbags, notebooks, geometry boxes, stationery, and art supplies.
The campaign will kickstart the organisation’s holistic development project. It aims at helping the community by providing quality education to the children and motivating them, so that they become agents of change for the area and become part of the nation building process.
In the first stage, it will be implemented for children studying in classes 5 to 7 and later extended to entire classes. World Health Organisation-prescribed life skill classes, English classes, counselling, health interventions, all will be made available to the children. As the environment in households is often not conductive to education, children will be provided with space for studying under supervision. They will also be given food.
On June 5, World Environment Day, the organisation will encourage and help the community clear a waste dump.
Ability Aids has launched online crowd funding on www.milaap.org/campaigns
/Back-To-School
