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The Schools & Skills Foundation is bringing hope and health to one of the poorest parts of rural India. 

Bihar is one of the very poorest Indian states. It is feudal. It has a high level of illiteracy. Of all its desperately poor districts Bodhgaya, where Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bohhi tree, is amongst the poorest. 

Bodhgaya is the focus of the activities of 
The Schools and Skills Foundation – India. 

Our dedicated and experienced local team is leading a range of very down to earth, practical initiatives that are bringing real hope and health and happiness to some desperately needy children and young women.

The Schools & Skills Foundation India provides:

  • Provision of clear drinking water
  • Provision of basic health care
  • Care of orphans
  • Nursery schools
  • Primary education
  • Non-formal education
  • Skills training for women
  • Health awareness training
  • Nutritional training
  • Sanitation and hygiene training
  • Micro finance (based on the Gamin Bank, Bankers to the Poor)

  • This is Chandon, he is three and a half years old. He has never walked. He suffers from rickets and malnutrition. His mother does not know how to feed him properly and he is dying. The Schools and Skills Foundation has adopted him and his mother.

    With intensive treatment with vitamins and minerals Chandon is recovering strength and putting on weight. His mother has been taught how to cook nutritious food and before too long Chandon will have learnt to walk and play with other children.

    Chandon

  • This is Renki, she is twelve years old, she cannot walk, she has polio. Her father is dead or has gone away. She lives in what can only be described as a mud hovel behind the main temple in Bodhgaya.

    She supports her mother, brothers and sister by begging. By including her mother in our skills training programme she will be able to make a living by sewing and knitting and Renki will become a student in one of our schools. Your support is crucial for the future of this family. 

    Renki

  • This is Manta, she is thirteen years old. She is a student at The Schools and Skills Foundation’s school near Bodhgaya. She is in class 6, her final year. She has learnt to read and write Hindi and English. She has also studied science, Sanskrit, drama, art and history.

    She has passed all the government exams but her parents cannot afford to pay for her to attend a government school to complete her secondary education.  With your help The Schools and Skills Foundation will open a school so that she can continue her education until she is eighteen.

    Manta

  • These three young women had never been to school before joining the Schools and Skills Foundation sewing school in Bapunager. They could neither read nor write and had no employment skills.

    Now after two years they can read and write, measure and cut cloth. Sew and knit. They have received basic training in health, hygiene, sanitation and nutrition. With these skills they are better equipped to improve their living standard and to pass on this knowledge to other village women.

    Village women

  • Her father is a  farmer and owns an acre of land. He grows rice, wheat and lentils and lives in a mud house shared with two buffalo and some hens..

    Her grandmother has tuberculosis and the family have not enough money to buy the appropriate medicine. There is no government school in the area and her only chance of any education is with  The Schools and Skills Foundation. She wants very much to go to school.

    Angelli Kumari

The Schools & Skills foundation : India