In Gujarat, as in many areas in India, many families migrate in search of employment. Often, families follow a seasonal migration, leaving their home villages during the middle of the school year as their only means to secure a livelihood. The sons and daughters of migrant workers are forced to accompany their parents as they search for work away from their villages.  Children of these families are then deprived an education, fall behind their age groups in school, and are coerced into labor. This seasonal migration can continue unabated until the child, having fallen so far behind in school, has no hope of returning, and thus eventually becomes permanently entrenched in the informal economy with little recourse to seek other options.

The American India Foundation (AIF) combats this vicious cycle of poverty through the Learning and Migration program (LAMP). The program creates seasonal educational hostels in the students’ home villages that allow them to stay behind and continue their education while their parents leave to work. In LAMP hostels, AIF helps support children’s education and provides a 2,200 calorie-a-day nutrition program and health care, while partnering with the village to provide shelter. LAMP has provided more than 237,000 children with access to a continuous high-quality education, and evaluations have shown that students who participate in LAMP have significantly higher test scores than their peers. Indeed, LAMP students achieved a 98% pass rate in their 7th grade examinations and a 96% pass rate on their 10th grade examinations. Comparatively, the average pass rate for the 10th grade exam in LAMP regions is under 60%.

8-year old Mohan (in pink headdress) has been a part of the LAMP program  this hostel in Kutchh, Gujarat, for the past two years. Initially, Mohan’s mother opposed sending him to the hostel. She told Rumillaben, caretaker of the hostel, that Mohan was too young to live so far away from his family. When Mohan’s parents finally agreed to allow him to stay at the hostel, they told him that if he didn’t like it, all he had to do was call them and they would immediately come and take him back to the fields. Mohan speaks to his parents every month but has never once asked to leave.

 Mohan remembers living in the charcoal fields before he came to the hostel, although he didn’t yet work in the fields and spent his time just wandering around. He lacked nearly any education, and arrived to the hostel severely underweight with sunken cheeks. Yet when his mother visited Mohan a few months later, she was pleasantly surprised by how much weight he had gained. She told Rumillaben that it was very difficult to provide her children with nutritious meals in the charcoal fields. LAMP has enabled Mohan to learn, and he says, “I learned how to study, how to play games, how to write properly in my notebook, like numbers and letters.”  Rumillaben recalls how Mohan didn’t know how to do daily chores or even keep himself clean. He wouldn’t wash his hands or clean his utensils before he used them because this way of life wasn’t familiar to him. Now Mohan, along with all the other children, contributes to daily chores for the hostel.

Mohan’s teachers have seen an incredible improvement in his language skills. His Gujarati has improved considerably and he can now speak Hindi fluently. When Mohan recently spoke to his parents on the phone, he spoke in Hindi. His mother replied, “What are you saying, Mohan? I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying!”  He told his mother that he couldwrite his name and his father’s name, Paru bhai, in Hindi as well

A number of the children were too shy to speak or express their thoughts before they came to the hostel. Yet the student-centered learning that LAMP provides includes interactive group-based activities like theatre, which has empowered many children with the confidence to express themselves. In Mohan’s village, children have become local stars for the plays that they stage for the community, who come out to attend these inspiring and fun creative performances. The LAMP program not only builds the hope and confidence needed to continue with their education, it provides high-quality education with the support needed to nourish and empower these children. For the first time, these children can dream of continuing their education, attending college, and conceive of limitless possibilities for their lives.

THE AIF IMPACT – DID YOU KNOW?

•Over $60 million have been funded in AIF’s programs since 2001.

•Over 115 NGO’s in India are supported through these grants.

•DE has covered 24,000 teachers and 750,000 children in 2054  schools

•LAMP  has reached out to 237,504 children in migration prone geographies of India

• Rickshaw Sangh  has benefitted more than 7,600 Rickshaw drivers

•Under MAST, 45,535 youth have been trained with an average job placement rate of 71 per cent.

•265 Americans have worked with 115 Indian NGOs through the AIF Clinton Fellowship for Service.

FOR MORE INFO GOTO www.aif.org