PETE India

Our project's goal is creating awareness for the reality of life in the slums of New Delhi by offering foreigners the opportunity to experience it first hand. In turn our organization aims to offer educational opportunities to the children who live in those slums so that they might break the circle of poverty and rise above it.

What is it?

An NGO based in New Delhi and working in the field of education, basing his philosophy on sustainable development and human rights declaration. With U.S. support, the NGO's strives to provide quality education in rural areas and suburbs, making learning something contagious and fascinating.

Why?

Often, the reason why the chain of poverty is not broken in the slums, generation after generation, is because children are required to work instead of going to school. The parents do not earn enough money with their jobs to support the family and/or they do not earn enough to provide the material needed for the children to attend school (proper clothes, books, etc.). We review data collected by social workers who operate in the slums to determine families that are in the greatest need of help to allow their children to attend school, then we offer this help by providing the children with the necessary tools and clothes, food and clean water, and a school that is near to their home (another reason why many slum dwelling children do not attend schools is because it is often the case that public schools are located far from the slums). We also provide after school assistance to children, helping them with homework and other learning needs, something that their parents are often unable to do because of their work situations and hours.

What do they do?

The overall goal is to create an educational system (primary school at the moment) that offers quality and affordable education to those who would otherwise not have an opportunity to attend school. In this system, in addition to standard subjects taught, we aim to promote values such as human rights and respect for nature and local culture (Ayurveda, Yoga, local crafts etc ...). There is also a special place reserved for artists to interact with the children and expose them to the powers of creativity. Another way we try to give back to the slum community is by hiring teachers who were born and raised in the slums and offering them this employment opportunity.

The Schools:

The NGO currently runs three schools, all located in the Kathputhli slum in West Delhi. One of the schools is a kindergarten for children ages 2-5 years old, the other is primary school for children ages 5-10, and the last school is a vocational school for girls aimed at offering skills they can use to become certified beauticians or seamstresses.


How do we survive?

In India, it’s very difficult to benefit from any state aid for NGOs. Waiting for that to change, we have several self-management strategies. Of course we welcome any and all donations we get through our website and other outreach programs we have set up, but in addition to this we have also organized a mutually beneficial way for foreigners to experience another side of India they would normally not experience.

Many people visiting India as well as local Indians would have no idea what life is like in a large city slum. We feel that by giving them the opportunity to experience this it raises their awareness and may have profound effects on how they view their own lives and what they can do to change the lives of those less fortunate. And so, we conduct occasional walks through the slums, guiding small groups of people through the intricate maze of small streets and giving them the opportunity to interact with the people who live there. We take them to visit our schools located in the slums and they can interact and play with the children, memories that are cherished by both the children and the walk participants. This is also a great opportunity for residents of the slums to interact with foreigners, an opportunity that they would otherwise rarely have.

The aim of the proposal is not to "visit" the slums, nor make poverty a "tourist tour" but to meet people and exchange experiences with them, taking a tea and chatting learning about each ones respective lives. The walk in the suburbs is much more than a walk, but an exchange, and a first step towards awareness, and who knows, a first step towards a volunteer ?

The Role of Women

Unfortunately women in India still face challenges in finding respectable jobs. We have created an opportunity for those women who reside in the slums without regular employment to participate in making crafts that we in turn sell at our project headquarters and in different stores in order to support the project, in India or abroad. Some of the benefits go to the NGO and supporting the schools. But a fixed price will be reserved for women.

Volunteer activities We have many exciting and important volunteer activities that you can take part in depending on your skills, interest and time. Below are some of the common activities our volunteers have been involved in: Assisting on Slum Walks You will attend and participate on Slum Walks by interacting with the guests and locals, describing our NGO's ongoing and future projects in the slums Promotion of Slum Walks in Delhi Spend some time speaking to travellers about Slum Walks, sharing your enthusiasm for the NGO and providing information about the projects we work on Office administration Some of your time will be spent assisting staff in our office with administration duties Producing fundraising and awareness materials If you have a creative streak you can assist us by updating / creating new fundraising and awareness materials such as posters and flyers Photography and video If you have a talent for photography or video production we would welcome you to utilise these skills by capturing new material and producing short films Social media and website updates Help us keep our Facebook page and website updated with news and activities Conservation and environmental work At our Commune we have a large ongoing project to re-landscape a piece of land which will involve activities such as building, landscaping and planning Teaching in our schools - Teach English and Art to the kids in our school in the Delhi slums - Teach Beauty, Stitching, Knitting and Embroidery in our Women’s Vocational School in the Delhi slums -Computer Class -Teaching kids abt basic computer knowledge and working with excel and word -Yoga-Earlier volunteers had teach yoga to our students for an hour everyday during volunteering if u have a yoga background we will love to have u Decoration of school buildings Help us decorate our schools and make them exciting and fun environments for the students Play with the kids in our Kindergarten Spend some time getting to know and playing with the kids in our Kindergarten in the Delhi slums. We also have activities like cooking classes , foodies walk and bicycle tours so will love to have cyclists, chefs and foodies to apply for volunteering it will be great opportunity to work with kids and to meet amazing people from different countries as well.