INDIA – Project Mala Patehra School computer laboratory

Some thirty years ago, Project Mala Charitable Trust, (www.projectmala.org.uk), our NGO partner in India, set out to work towards the abolition of child labour in the hand-knotted carpet industry in India. Over the years, one thing led to another, and from that single aim has grown a network of some 18 schools providing quality education to the under-privileged children of Uttar Pradesh. Over the years more than 10,000 children have been given a chance to change their lives through a quality education.

Our project in Uttar Pradesh involves one of the schools.

Project Mala Patehra School is located in the small village of Patehra, about 45 kilometres from Mirzapur railway station in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1993 it now provides quality education for some 300 underprivileged children from pre-school through to class ten. It serves children from some 18 villages within a three-kilometre radius, most of the children walking to school each day. As well as an education, each child is provided with a cooked meal every day, as some of them get little else at home, and medical facilities are also provided when necessary. As well as spacious classrooms the school has a room set aside for extracurricular activities.

Our funding will support the provision of a basic computer laboratory at the school, equipped with a server, a dozen monitors and mice, together with the necessary furniture for the laboratory. Our funding will also cover the provision of an instructor. Patehra students will now be able to start their journey into the world of computers, learning skills that may well change their lives.