Thanks for what you've made possible. We are loving it!

There are just 3 days to go for you to make your end of tax year donation. We continue to need and appreciate your ongoing help.

Over the past few weeks we have done some significant things. We thank our sponsors and supporters worldwide for all that you have made possible. It’s amazing that we have achieved so much.

Just this month we have started our new village school - bringing education for the first time ever to 50 children. Look at the kids loving their new games and equipment - especially the brand new cricket set, something the kids have never had before.

We have moved premises to open a beautiful new Disability Centre in the slums of Kotdwara. This larger, safer and better equipped space will improve the quality of student experience and the support they receive. We have been able to employ a qualified teacher who brings vision, passion and experience.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for bringing smiles, safety, purpose, joy and happiness to all of these beautiful kids. Each one has a precious story.

We hope you enjoy the photos below. Please scroll to the very end where you will see the DONATE button on the orange box. Your donation is tax deductible.

We love our new space. There’s even room to grow a garden and to play outside.

The kids are so happy and grateful. We have brought hope and purpose to their lives.

“I’ve never played this before!”

World Refugee Day 2022

At ‘Project Help India’ we are committed to respond to the needs of those who are displaced, like the family whose house is shown in the photo above. I (Doug) took this photo a few years ago in the North Indian city of Haridwar. You are looking at a home made out of rubbish, located in a car park, 100 metres from the “mighty” Ganges River. I was embarrassed to take this photo but I could not believe what I was looking at. It was a heart breaking and sobering moment to stand there, and to imagine the life and circumstances of this incredibly poor family. 

On the day of taking this photo I was a guest speaker at a roadside gathering of children and parents as part of ‘Operation Freedom’, a Uttarakhand Police program which aimed to get kid beggars off the streets and enrolled into schools. Many of the kids who would beg for money would live in slums and places like this.

Look again at the photo …imagine if this was your home. What hopes would you have for your future? If you were the father, what dignity and sense of worth would you have as you thought about your ability to provide and care for your family. If you were the mother, what confidence, what fears would you have for the health, education and safety of your children? These thoughts, feelings and fears are the reality for hundreds of millions of refugees around the world today.

Statistics tell us that there were over 5 million internally displaced people in India due to climate change and natural disasters. You can easily stretch this number if you consider the countless millions who are displaced and constantly relocating due to the vicious cycle of poverty (recently made worse by COVID). Many are forced to move from their rural village home to relocate and look for work in the city. Many of these people, including children, live on the streets or in slums with little or no access to adequate sanitation, emergency health care, education and advocacy.  Because of the caste system in India, these people are ostracised, vulnerable, targeted and easily exploited. 

At ‘Project Help India’ we work alongside these most vulnerable people, providing schooling, nutritious meals, crisis aid and interventions, counselling and delivering short courses to up-skill young people for employment. These are the slum people, the Dalits, who we have worked with for 10 years now. Amit, our Director writes;

They settle mostly besides rivers and railway tracks, and have houses made of plastic and wood (Kuccha House). They hope to accumulate money through jobs like labours and hawkers, and be able to live satisfactory life. But even after their migration they are unable to achieve anything they hoped for. They need to do extremely hard work in order to even be able to afford food for their family. These people are mainly labours (both male and female), hawkers who sell cheap utensils (both male and female), and garbage collectors (mostly women and children). They must work hard in the chilling cold as well as in the hot and humid climate of Uttarakhand to support their family. Their houses do not provide them with necessities like electricity, clean drinking water, urinal facilities, etc. Also during floods, the people living near rivers suffer the most. Along with lack of basic human needs they also lack sanitation making them prone to diseases. The children are unable to go schools due to the meagre wage of parents and hence have to do jobs like labour and garbage collector to support the family. These refugees are also not able to prove the ownership of their land and their citizenship as there are no documents of them being born here in Uttarakhand. Hence the government is also not able to help them in any way possible. They are also not able to get government ration due to this. By opening our Slums Educational Center here, the people in these area are given new hope to survival.

Vulnerable to trafficking

Our parenting awareness programs teach mothers and fathers about the very real dangers of their children being exploited into labour, particularly being trafficked. These most vulnerable children often disappear or have been sold by their parents promised that their child would have a better future rather than endure their present circumstances. It’s very sad…but with your help we are making a difference, and bringing love, dignity and purpose to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. 

This ‘World Refugee Day’ we can have awareness, empathy, compassion and make a difference. Your donation to ‘Project Help India’ will be used to advocate for and help some beautiful families who are displaced, and who live a life that is so terribly different from all of our Western comforts. 

Please donate to our cause by the end of this financial year

With the Australian tax-year finishing in 10 days, your donation is tax deductible…it’s a perfect time to help us. Click the DONATE button located on this page.

A home renovation like no other!

We thank our Australian supporters for your generosity and kindness. Thank you to our team in India for your hard work in making this possible. This transformation of Sunita’s house, we think, is nothing short of miraculous!

This is a powerful story of compassion - responding to an urgent need, and bringing love, hope, dignity and purpose to a very poor family. Our world needs more of this.

Today on 24/05/2022, the Project Help India team visited the Bijnor, Slum Centre to inaugurate the reconstructed house of Mrs. Sunita.

Mrs. Sunita lost her house due to heavy rainfall, and lived in a derelict space with mud covered walls with plastic sheets, no roof and no bathroom.

Sunita lives with her 2 daughters one of which suffers from Polio, a son and an old mother-in-law. Their miserable condition was brought to the attention of our Community Facilitator. Hence, in February 2022, the Project Help India partners Mr. Doug and Mrs. Rowena Thomas and Mr. Amit (Director, Project Help India) and Mrs. Daisy Samuel visited the family, and came forward to assist in reconstruction of the house.

Mr. Doug Thomas and Mrs. Rowena Thomas gathered the support for the reconstruction, from their Australian friends and with the help of Project Help India the construction proceeded. As a first step the mud walls and floor were replaced with concrete walls and floor, and sheet roof was constructed. Next, a bathroom with concrete walls and proper door was constructed next to the house.

The official inauguration was done on 24/05/2022, in presence of Mr. Amit Samuel (Director), Mrs. Shalini Singh (Field Coordinator) and Miss. Arunima Bisht (Office Coordinator), Mrs. Iris Thomas (Community Facilitator), Mrs. Vaishali (Assistant Teacher) and the family of Mrs. Sunita.

The family had tears of joy to see their house. They thanked and blessed Mr. Doug and Mrs. Rowena Thomas Mr. Amit and Mrs. Daisy Samuel, and the Australian families who not only gave them their home but also new hope of living.

The daughters when interviewed could be seen enthusiastic about their future. Neha wishes to find a job and start earning. On further talking with her, she agreed to be part of Project Help India and work for differently abled children as a teachers support in the new Disability Centre as soon as it starts. Kajal the younger daughter wishes to pursue career in Nursing and hopes to raise the funds to go to College.

The family is eternally grateful.

EDUCATION = the most powerful weapon

Some of our City Centre students getting their hands dirty, potting seedlings while learning about World Environment Day 2022.

A child’s education brings purpose for their today and hope for their tomorrow. Through their learning and the safe and supportive environment that a school brings, we are transforming one precious life at a time. If we consider the impact of all teachers and schools globally there is incredible collective transformative power found in education. As Nelson Mandela famously said [1]; 

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ...The power of education extends beyond the development of skills we need for economic success. It can contribute to nation-building and reconciliation.”

 At ‘Project Help India’ we recognise the privilege that we have in educating the now 315 children who come to our centres 5 days a week to learn and receive a nutritious meal.

 “To come to school is the biggest gift that I’ve been given.”[2]

The kids who attend our schools do so with enthusiasm. They are respectful, cooperative and committed to their learning. They are also grateful knowing how lucky they are, because for most there is no other school to attend.

The mountain locations where Project Help works are remote, with many communities further isolated from town centres due to the mountainous terrain, poor roads, frequent landslides, extreme summer heat, monsoon flooding and dense jungle. The cost of fuel makes the daily motorbike ride into town prohibitive for most poverty-stricken families. If the school is within walking distance the kids, especially girls, are often unable to walk there for fear of animal attacks or being raped. There are similar challenges faced by the slum kids in urban areas too. Many boys and girls are unable to attend school because their parents are unemployed, requiring them to undertake labour and household chores, some are married at an early age, there is much family dysfunction, parent illiteracy, a fear of education, not to mention many are impacted by drug and alcohol addictions. To make matters worse, across 2020 and 2012 COVID forced the closure of many small schools, with teachers continuing to leave their jobs in large numbers.

• From the data [3] we can source 5% of all primary aged children, and 6-7% secondary aged children in India have no access to a school education - this is approximately 5 million children.

• In the surrounding areas where Project Help works, we estimate that there are approximately 50 small villages (with a population of less than 300) where there is no local school for the children.

• Additionally, in these same areas of the 2250 local government schools, approximately 5% have less than 10 students, and most of these have closed down because of COVID. That’s 112 schools no longer in operation.

Source United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 [4]

The impact of your donation

We are thrilled to report that across 2020 and 2021, our students were well cared for during the pandemic. Our Director reports;

In midst of everything, Project Help India played an important role in providing education during pandemic situations. When the children were forced to sit down at home, children from Project Help India assisted in community help programs. They assisted in ration packaging and distribution done by Project Help India to help poor and needy people which stopped many of them dying of hunger.  Due to the negligence of many parents during this online period, the children across India have become addicted to phone, online games and social media and majorly pornography. This was also dealt in an orderly manner by Project Help India, by constantly providing them with interesting extracurricular work, teaching art and craft work, competition programs i.e. food cooking competitions, dance and song practice. We taught our students about their emotions and feelings, and also about the harmful affects of device addiction, pornography. We taught their parents about the need for constant monitoring of them. We also taught our slum kids about the dangers of the Kotdwara slum mafia and kept them safe from gangs, drugs and other harmful behaviours. Our community workers and teachers visited homes, monitored their lessons and welfare, keeping a constant watchful eye over them all.

All these activities have helped students to grow, socially interact, and remain in touch with their learning during the pandemic period. As all of our students belong to poor socio-economic groups, it can be duly noted that the loss of skills and learning due to pandemic is more at risk in our children than compared to others. Yet many of our students scored great results in their online and offline exams during the period of pandemic with the assistance of the teachers in our Project Help India.

With our New Centre at Village Dalernaga opening this week, Project Help is changing lives one community and 50 kids at a time. Check out our previous blog for this exciting story.

[1] This line is from a speech commemorating the launch of ‘Mindset Network’, a group working to improve education and health in South Africa, July 16, 2003.

[2] Bijnor Student Quote – ‘Happy’s Story’

[3] 2011 National Census of India (2021 Census cancelled due to COVID)

[4] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/

Making Wonderful Things Happen - The first ever school for 50 kids and their community

“Their parents told us that how grateful they are that finally their children would be able to read and write and will not remain in the darkness of illiteracy like them.”

Celebrating the opening of our new Village Dalernagar Centre

Even after Independence, India is still way behind in providing education to its children. One among the many cases, is an area deep in the jungles of Dalernagar. After much planning, today on 20th May the team of Project Help India, visited the village and started to put everything in place for the new centre that will educate the 50 children residing in Dalernagar.

All of these 50 children, young children to teenagers, have never attended a school before this day.

This village is quite near to our Kadarganj Education Centre. Project Help India is the first organisation that has bought a ray of hope into lives of these people, who belong to Gujjar Community. The people from the community mostly live in the jungle and have no source of education. The surrounding area has everything from dense jungle to wild animals that opposes the way of children from accessing education. But despite of the hardships and many obstacles, Project Help India has made this possible. This progress is possible because it is well supported by our Australian sponsors and we pay our gratitude to them.

Thankful parents

At the new centre, Mr. Amit Sameul (Director Project Help India), Mrs. Shalini Singh (Field Coordinator) and Miss. Arunima Bisht (Office Coordinator) met our 50 new students and their parents asking them questions about the hopes they have.

The parents are all very thrilled and excited and told us that how grateful they are that finally their children would be able to read and write and will not remain in the darkness of illiteracy like them. They also thanked us for being the first ever organisation that has bought hope for the future of their children, when even the government failed to do so.

Some of the kids’ parents

The children and parents hold high expectations from Project Help India and pay them gratitude for thinking about their children and bringing the light of education into their lives.

Mr. Dilshad who will be our teacher and community facilitator is the only educated person in the entire village of 250 families. He is currently studying in 12th class and put his hand up for the job. He feels glad to finally find the right support and guidance through Project Help India to help him achieve his aim. He has spent the past month training alongside the other Project help teachers. He will continue to be trained and supported The children will be taught in a large eco-friendly room made by the community. Mrs. Shalini Singh our Field Coordinator talked to the kids and parents and explained them about the works of Project Help India, its rules and regulations. In the middle of all the interaction a local ice-cream vendor visited the village and our director Mr. Amit Samuel bought ice-creams for all the children…another wonderful treat.

While looking around the area we found there was no shop, no bakery or any form of modern convenience for the children -but there were all very happy. Their simple living can be well appreciated, but with the modernisation and digitisation of India it will be hard for these kids to survive in the world outside their community and area, especially if they are illiterate. Hence it becomes very important that they are not only provided with a quality education but make them updated about living in the current world and to teach them about their rights. With all these aims  in mind we are determined to do our best and to work very hard for these children and their education. 

A teacher - proud and excited

The boys were happy

The girls were happy

There were lots of photos taken to celebrate this happy occasion as well as an impromptu ice-cream treat.

And there was dancing

Happy is his name

Happy - true to his name!

Happy is a student at our centre in the city of Bijnor, in Project Help India. He is a bright kid with a great interest in sports and extra-curricular activities. His family lives in poverty, barely able to afford life’s most basic of necessities. He is a tall 14 year old, yet he attends third grade at school, mostly with 8 year-old kids. Like most local government schools, the quality of the education is poor, the classrooms have no resources and they are overcrowded. Without the additional support he receives at Project Help he is sure to leave school soon, and required to start working to support the family. With guidance from our team Happy’s parents, however, have learnt the importance of education, they value his studies and are committed to seeing him succeed.

Happy has attended our Bijnor Centre from the day it first started in 2018. He is with us every afternoon without fail making the most of every opportunity to learn and participate. He cares for the younger kids and is truly a leader – his teacher brings out the best in him.

Happy’s father, Mr. Sunil, is a labour and works as a decorator in wedding halls. His mother, Mrs. Anita, is a hawker and helps her husband to support the family. Happy is the youngest of three brothers, Abhishek, Jitin and Dishaant. His eldest brother Dishaant also studies at the same school with his brother and is in 5th class. The other brothers have stopped going to school and instead they both work as labours.

Happy considers himself very lucky to be able to study in such an organisation where not only the teachers of the centre aid him in study but also encourage him to do extra-curricular activities like singing, dancing, sports, etc. His parents thank Project Help India from the bottom of their hearts.

Our prayer for Happy is that his education and the nurture he receives at Project help will take him way beyond the cruel pathway that poverty has overwise has destined for him. 

EDUCATION = passion

The passion of a teacher

Mrs. Sushila Charles is a graduate teacher at the Project Help Slum Centre. She is a very hardworking lady and an inspiring teacher. Her dedication towards her work is undeniable and can be seen very clearly by everyone in the community . She gives her all so that her students can face the challenges of their lives and society. Her teaching methods are also very unique and amazing, and the other teachers learn a lot from her too.

Sushila was our first teacher when Project Help started in 2012, but due to the unhealthy environment of the building she got a severe infection in her body. So she worked with us for just one year. She returned in 2018 and now works as a permanent teacher again in our Kotdwara Slums Centre.

Sushila is married to Mr. Sanjay Charles. He is a daily wage driver by profession. If there is no driving work he does not get paid. They have two kids, Anubhav (15 years) and Samarth (5 years). The family of four lives in a single room with a small kitchen. It’s Sushila’s income that sustains her family. Her husband’s work is inconsistent and the little he earns is spent on his personal interests and pursuits, and because of this here has been a great deal of conflict and tension in the past. During the COVID lockdown the family suffered greatly as there was no work for Sunjay. The only money earned was by Sushila (all of our teachers continued to get paid throughout the lockdown) and this was used to pay the children’s school fees. All of their food and essential supplies were provided by the distribution of Project Help ration packs. Therefore during the entire pandemic the family was totally dependent upon Project Help.

Sushila’s family count Project Help as their guardian angel and thank God for it. Sushila says she always prays for the organisation and their beloved sponsors. She says that she has received many blessings by working for Project Help. She also prays for her beautiful students and has the dearest hope that they may achieve their goals in the future. She says this is why she works hard. The students love her dearly and some say that she is a perfect teacher.

Doug and Rowena Thomas (from Australia) with some of the Project Help staff visiting Sushila and the cook at the Slums Centre (in February, 2022).

EDUCATION = impact

This boy has a heartbreaking story - his education is transforming his life and is bringing hope for his future.

Education impacts one life at a time

Since 2012 there have been hundreds of children who have attended a ‘Project Help India’ school. In our 3 jungle village schools, because of their remote and dangerous location, the majority of students, especially the girls, only have access to a Project Help education. Our village centres provide the one and only opportunity for the kids to be educated, nurtured and cared for in a school setting.

Many (but not all) of our students in the cities of Kotdwara and Bijnor will attend a local government school during the day. Many of these schools are overcrowded, and provide poor and inconsistent levels of academic tuition and generally no wellbeing programs. After school our students then head straight to one of our 3 Project Help centres where they will receive 2.5 hours of tuition as well as a free healthy meal. For our students this meal is better than they would receive at home. The kids go home at around 6pm.

In the city all of our students are slum kids and each has a challenging, often desperate home life. As we hear the story of each child we get a glimpse into some heartbreaking circumstances that are impacted and compounded by the vicious cycle of poverty. We provide our students and their families with ongoing counselling, social work support, advocacy and if needed, emergency aid (for example feeding the entire family during the COVID lockdowns in 2020 and 2021).

Priyanshu’s Story

Priyanshu Kumar, is 13 years old and is in Grade 7. He is from a very poor family from the Kotdwara slums. Last year his father died during the COVID pandemic. Soon after this, his younger brother also caught COVID and tragically died as well. The grief of this situation impacted Priyanshu greatly and he became incredibly lonely. The pain of missing his brother resulted in him becoming withdrawn, selective mute and socially anxious. His school grades declined and he received no support or counselling for the trauma that he was experiencing.

Priyanshu’s mother is a house maid and works in many homes trying to earn enough to support herself and her son. For fear for her son’s safety, she would lock him in the house after school (he also attends a government school during the day) and into the late hours of the night, whenever she could get work. This compounded the situation making Priyanshu fearful of others and refusing to speak to anyone.

Priyanshu’s teacher describes the situation;

Priyanshu says that he was really sad to stay at home but he understands his mother's concerns and that's why never threw a tantrum for this and quietly obeys her. After the death of his father all the responsibilities of a family were transferred to his mother and hence he never disobeyed his mother as he understood the burden she was carrying. His mother was also worried for him getting worse but was bound by her own conditions. When she came to know about the ‘Project Help City Centre’, she contacted the Director, Mr. Amit Samuel, and the General Secretary, Mrs. Daisy Samuel, about her conditions and her misfortune. Priyanshu was given admission and at first, he was very shy and apprehensive. However, he now attends the classes enthusiastically and also is trying to mix with the other children. He comes to the tuition on time and with neat and clean clothes which shows that he is dedicated towards his studies. While he takes time to understand his work, he shows great determination to learn.

Priyanshu and his mother both are immensely thankful to Project Help India. We are all very confident that he will reach new heights.

We are so excited that after being with us for just 2 months, Priyanshu is making many friends. He is learning and making good academic progress. The consistency of school routines and the nurture and kindness of his teacher makes him feel safe. We are excited for his future and count it a privilege to educate and care for him.

What we need for this to happen

None of our students pay to attend a Project Help Centre. It is thanks to our supporters, who make all of this possible. Currently, it costs approximately $30 a month to pay for a child’s education and meals, and approximately $40 a month to pay for a child’s education and meals at our Slum Disability Centre in Kotdwara. This is why we need your ongoing support. Would you consider making an annual tax deductible donation of $360 or $480 to cover the costs associated with a child’s education?

Your donation has big impact.