GOONJ....
J- 93 Sarita Vihar,
New Delhi - 110076.

Tel. -  2697 2351, 4140-1216


E- Mail :-

anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in
anshugoonj24@gmail.com

IDEA -

‘School to School’ (S2S) is a simple concept of turning someone’s wastage into a resource for another. It’s a unique solution to a problem faced by thousands of remote village & slum schools, that of lack of infrastructure and basic facilities critical for a child to experience schooling. ‘S2S’ is a practical, cost effective and easily replicable concept, based on prevalent practices in urban schools.

A small village/slum school’s needs are very basic. Normally students don’t even have a pencil or copy to write on, a bag, school uniform, shoes, table and chair are a distant dream. The focus is on sensitizing the urban school children and their parents to the needs of their counterparts on the streets and villages.

HOW DOES 'SCHOOL TO SCHOOL' WORK -

GOONJ.. helps establish a long-term relationship between an urban and rural schools. An urban school with an average strength of about 1,500-2000 students can support 4 to 5 rural/slum schools with 100-200 kids. Year after year. an urban school without investing or spending any money, just by generating awareness and motivating its students, can be a part of this nationwide programme.

PRESENT SCENARIO -

A lot is being done on paper to encourage children from poor families to get education. But the basic infrastructure in these small schools is quite abysmal. A child has to walk many kilometers to reach school.

Due to limited resources most schools only have a black board in the name of infrastructure, regular supply of stationery and other basic material is certainly a distant dream.

In the city schools the condition is the exact opposite. Infrastructure and resources are in abundance and the urban children are largely ignorant of the realities of their counterpart in the rest of the country.

GOONJ’s INTERVENTION -

‘School to School’ aims to bridge this gap of resources moving it from where it’s a waste to where it is precious. The concept is simple yet powerful in influencing education trends in rural/slum India. Imagine the impact of this material in a country where thousands of children are motivated to join school to have the mid-day meal on which the government spends hardly two rupees per child.

S2S does not require either the city school, the children or their parents to go out of their way to support. All that we ask for is their waste material, which they were going to discard anyway.

LONG TERM BENEFITS -

‘S2S’ offers a cost-effective outlet for huge quantities of material discarded by urban schools every year and the same material has a big motivating effect on children in rural & slum schools. GOONJ.. as a central coordinating agency, ensures long term implementation and reduced logistical responsibility on partner urban schools.

A city school student, who understands the relevance and feels motivated by S2S, will continue to provide material for the entire span of his schooling. As a result a student’s needs will be taken care for a span of atleast 7-8 years bringing uniformity and close linkage.

ACTIVITY CENTRES -

We are also developing activity centers with the help of discarded toys and story books. The idea is to have a place full of indoor and outdoor educational toys, good informative charts and a small library of good story books so that children start using their time more constructively and learn in the process.We firmly believe that lakhs of village/slum children also have the right to play with better things than old tyres, used torch batteries, empty match boxes or the covers of cigarette packets which are their only toys.

INITIAL TARGET -

200 rural/slum schools & education initiatives in different parts of the country, benefiting about 30,000 kids .

SUCCESS STORIES -

GOONJ.. started ‘S2S’ by supporting a number of temporary schools in Ahmedabad after the riots in 2002. S2S was formally launched in the beginning of 2004 and a number of prestigious schools have been actively participating since then.

Hundreds of children of Kuththambakam (Tamilnadu), Bafliaz (Kashmir) & Nagni (Uttaranchal), Glass industry child labour’s non formal education centers in Firozabad, quarry workers’ NFEs in Tamilnadu, Mushari kids , NFEs in Bihar are our regular beneficiaries.

• About 500 students of three schools of Kuthambakam (Tamilnadu) now wear uniforms, collected from various school to school partners schools in Delhi and a number of them wear shoes, carry school bags instead of polythene bags and have better toys to play with.
• A school in Sunderban Delta (West Bengal) now has an activity center with lots of toys and games. The students spend much better and quality time in the school where the lack of a teacher has always been a problem.
• In Nagni, Uttaranchal in two schools almost all the children now have sweaters or coats for winters. Students have a mat to sit on, made of useless clothes by GOONJ.. and they have copies and other stationary
• The best example to show how even the most useless items lying idle in cities can make a big difference, is of 32 plates given by a corporate and we reached it to a small primary school in Uttranchal. Earlier for the midday meals half the students used to wait for the rest to finish their meals, as there weren't enough plates. This was really tough as most students walked almost six kilometers not only for studies but also for the midday meal, a dream for them in view of their financial conditions.
  
  SUSTAINABILITY -
  
  As per our costing on the entire project, just in a small cost of Rs. 51/- (Cost of management, collection, sorting, communication and transportation) a child in a remote village or in the slum can get all the basic material like uniform, bag, stationery etc. not once but as this is a relationship programme it’s an assurance for many years.
  

WIN - WIN SITUATION FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS -

• Participating Urban schools & Management: ‘S2S’ helps get this material across to a segment, which needs it badly. For an associating urban school management it offers image enhancement as a role model among their patrons, parents, other schools and students, without any financial or logistical burden.
  
• Students: They are the biggest beneficiaries. This programme helps solve an urban problem where each year thousands of urban school students replace all their school material, with no clear channel for disposing off last year’s material. More importantly, cut off as they are from the realities of children in Indian slums & villages, they get first hand exposure and have a sense of ownership for making a difference in the lives of their counterparts.
  
• Partner NGO/ Panchayat or local body: A chance to establish a better relationship with the community they work for and a chance to work without much financial involvement.
  
• Beneficiary School Students : A lot of changes in their ideas and impressions about learning and going to school. An identity, a resource and not only uniform but in the shape of uniform a pair of clothes too. An important aspect is also the motivational effect this has on children to come to study.
  
• Parents (of the donor school students) : a chance to serve and get rid of something they can’t use for anything else. For Parents of beneficiary school students)- a moment to feel good and a chance to redirect their meager resource to some other basic needs.
  
• Environment friendliness is an important aspect : As the entire concept is based on recycling, it enables use of every single item (in the case of schools more of plastic items) for many years instead of using it once and throwing away in the garbage...
  
  

STEPS FOR ORGANISING A SCHOOL-TO-SCHOOL CAMPAIGN