Premlata explained that Seva Mandir had created the Residential Learning Camp program to provide rural children, ages 6-12, who have never attended school, as well as those who had started but gave up their studies, an opportunity to spend a block of continuous time acquiring basic literacy, math and social skills in a setting devoted entirely to learning. Many of these children come from conditions of extreme economic hardship that require all family members, including the very young, to labor long hours, either at home or for meager wages, often in factories.  After 3 camp sessions of 60 days each, the average camp graduate qualifies for entrance into Class 5 in government schools, which many go on to attend. Over the past 12 years, Seva Mandir has run 35 camps, enrolling an average of 575 children every year at a cost of approximately 34,500 rupees or 600 dollars per student.


       One step inside a classroom and we were swept up in the joyful energy of a high functioning, child-centered, active learning environment that was filled with song and easy comaraderie, yet great seriousness of purpose and intensity of focus.  The teacher shared with us that she was studying early childhood education at the university level and considered her work with Seva Mandir to be a uniquely gratifying opportunity.  We also met a local young woman who was interning at the Camp in furtherance of her own goal to become an education professional.  And, as with so many of Seva Mandir’s endeavors, there appeared yet another facet of potential deeper connection in the form of a group of about a dozen high school students and their teachers visiting from London who were engaging with the children in a variety of hands-on learning activities.

 
    But it was in the faces of the children themselves--cheerful, confident, lit up with curiosity--that the evidence of something very special going on could be found. Upon entering the computer lab, we were struck by the broad smiles, excited whispers and jostling heads of students collaborating in front of screens that is so familiar to us from home but then we were bowled over with the realization of just how new this experience was for these children, many of whom may never have seen a computer before. Regardless of each of our individual points of view about technology and its overall merits, we had to acknowledge together in that room the immense power of digital access to expand the horizon for each of these young people.
 

A one minute film by Georgia Stockwell

       

     In fact, the camp, with its instruction in the norms of social behavior outside the family unit, in personal hygiene to promote optimal health, its provision of adequate nutrition, if only for 190 days in the life of each child, accomplishes so much more than can be captured in any data set on continued education outcomes. These children return to their families with a greater sense of ownership of their own experience and membership in a broader community built through friendships forged across tribal and geographic divides. Their relationships with teachers and other adults have inspired them with new dreams of what is possible. They have watched international news programs on the cafeteria TV and learned the importance of recycling disposable goods for the preservation of the planet. In other words, they have begun to feel both their citizenship and boundless futures. At Seva Mandir, it’s this simultaneous cultivation of a sense of social responsibility and personal freedom--to express, to strive, to achieve—that leads to true empowerment.  Camp graduates carry these seeds home and the harvest is immeasurable.