The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. – Helen Keller
The issue of child labour looms large over India. Meager earnings and basic needs often force slum children into hazardous labour in order to support the survival of their families ,depriving them of their childhood, education and health. Earn N learn is an afterschool program that provides children with an opportunity to work for a few hours a day in a safe loving environment and earn and learn simultaneously.
According to international labor organization child labor is defined as work that deprives children their childhood, their potential and their dignity and work that is harmful to physical and mental development. And yet in developing countries child labour is a complex problem that arises from poverty. Many families spend most of their income on basic food and depend on the income earned by their children for survival. In response to these realities Earn N Learn helps children contribute towards the welfare of their family with a larger focus on the child’s development and education.
Earn N Learn is a stepping stone and not a means to the end. Though often seen as vocational training, the project and the craft is actually a medium through which we can impart values to the children and encourage their learning. Through the process, children learn and practice cleanliness and hygiene, honesty, responsibility, how to help others, how to work together, and the importance of supporting their families. They develop their self-confidence, creativity and awareness. The children also receive exposure to people from all walks of life from around the world, gain real life education and get to participate in field trips and workshops.
The Earn N Learn team strengthens relationships with the children’s families and creates awareness to ensure they do not pull their child out of the program in order to send them into full time work.
Based in Gandhi Ashram itself, Earn N Learn is one of Manav Sadhnas longest running program and engages deeply with each participating child. The program serves vulnerable children by supporting their education(learning) while providing the platform of arts and crafts to help them earn by working for a few hours in a day in a healthy and loving environment. This supplements the income of the child’s family and prevents the parents from sending them out from work and which would require them to drop out from school.
Our Earn N Learn family consists of more than 50 brothers and sisters. We range from 12 to 16 years old. Each of us must attend a formal school to be part of Earn N Learn. If we have dropped out, Earn N Learn helps put us back in school. Our mentors visit our homes regularly, spend time with our families and are always there for us.
After attending school in the mornings and doing our share of the household chores, we come to Manav Sadhna. During the four hours we spend at the Ashram, we do an all-religion prayer, enjoy a nutritional snack such as fruit, chana (spiced chickpeas) or kichadi (a lentil and rice dish) and attend an hour-long tutorial class to strengthen our education. We spend the rest of the time cutting, pasting, creating, joking, working together and learning from one another. We celebrate every festival and go on lots of field trips, like camping at Mt Abu or trekking through forests in the Dangs. Sometimes a guest will come and run an interesting workshop like how to build a portable solar cooker out of paper! International volunteers teach us sports like soccer and Frisbee and help us with basic English. We have even collaborated with an international designer to create beautiful paper lamps. We love what we do and who we do it with!
When a child first joins Earn N Learn, they go through a 10-20 day training process. They first learn how to make paper bags from old newspapers. Then they move onto cutting basic shapes. From here, senior children will teach the newer ones how to paste. With time and practice, they are ready to work on their own.
Earn N Learn is a stepping stone and not a means to the end. Though often seen as vocational training, the project and the craft is actually a medium through which we can impart values to the children and encourage their learning. Through the process, children learn and practice cleanliness and hygiene, honesty, responsibility, how to help others, how to work together, the importance of supporting their families. They develop their self-confidence, creativity and awareness. The children also receive exposure to people from all walks of life from around the world, gain real-life education and get to participate in field trips and workshops.
The Earn N Learn teams spends a lot of time forging relationships with the families and creating awareness to ensure they do not pull their child out of the program in order to send them into full time work.
According to the International Labour Organization,child labor is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and work that is harmful to physical and mental development. And yet, in developing countries child labor is a complex problem that arises from poverty. Many families spend most of their income on basic food and depend on the income earned by their children for survival. In response to these realities, Earn N Learn helps children contribute towards the welfare of their family, with the larger focus on the child’s development and education. The children spend a couple of hours each day crafting beautiful handmade paper products in an open, relaxed and sunny ambience, staying out of harm’s way.