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What do we do?

LakshWorking with the Laksh Foundation, Haryana.

Ten years ago, the Laksh Foundation in Haryana, India, began an ambitious project.

As a small NGO, organic farm and women’s sewing co-operative, it also began to offer free education to the children of local farm workers, offering them a way to improve their futures - and we were there to help.

We’ve worked with the Foundation since the beginning and have helped to shape their teaching programmes over time.

Back then it was just three Warwick students volunteering in one newly established teaching centre; now twelve students volunteer for a month each across the five schools, and we have ambitious goals for the future. We offer extra-curricular classes in maths and English to over 1000 students aged between 3-18, and we train the local teachers in new ways of leading classrooms too.

Education, confidence, and motivation

Traditionally many local children in rural communities end up dropping out of state schools without gaining any qualifications, usually because they need to help their families. The Laksh Foundation's schools welcome local children from the poorest of backgrounds, aged between three to eighteen years old, and puts them in flexible classes based on their academic ability rather than age.

Meanwhile we train the strongest candidates from Warwick to work with the Foundation every summer. Our goal is to motivate the children and make sure that teachers can meet their needs. Our volunteers work hard to improve the confidence of local teachers in, focusing on their spoken and written English skills. By demonstrating new ways of teaching to make lessons educational and fun too, and by encouraging active learning, we can help bring the curriculum alive.

Helping Warwick students

This programme offers Warwick students a meaningful international experience which gives them an advantage in their future careers, and a valuable insight into another culture and schooling system too. Returning volunteers have said the experience vastly improved their leadership, communication and organisation skills, and helped them find a deeper sense of global responsibility and the value of volunteering.

Our Impact

Warwick has strengthed our efforts to put in long-term systems that are easily applicable to the conditions in these villages. The Warwick Volunteers provide essential inspiration and encouragement for the teachers with regards to creativity and original lesson planning. They've been amazing: planning, working and teaching in these challenging conditions
What never fails to overwhelm me is the eagerness with which our students arrive for their tuitions, just for the learning, because that learning seems to promise a better future for them.
Ila Lumba
Laksh Foundation Founder & President

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Read our previous Volunteer's own blogs: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
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