Give food to a poor Dalit child, you will feed him for a day. Provide them with quality education and you will feed them forever. Even in the 21st century, the “Dalits” are considered “untouchable” and “contaminated” by birth by an entire population within India. The ones who are born to a Dalit parent are predestined to “outcast” occupations and are discriminated from access to quality education.
How to break the cycle of oppression against “Dalits”?
For most Dalit children, education is a distant dream. They are generally marginalized with respect to students belonging to other castes, and more than 70% of these students in grades 1-10 drop out of school. Training in the English language is especially lacking in a Dalit child’s education. In multilingual societies such as India, some languages enable greater access to privileges and social opportunities and others lead to deprivation and discrimination. There appears to be a direct correlation between lack of language development and poverty among the Dalit and tribal communities in India.
Ann Foundation is initiating online English classes in seven villages for Dalit children in Kathiramangalam, Thanjavur District, Tamilnadu, India. These English classes will help reduce barriers against Dalit children that are put in place through discrimination and educational deprivation.
In order to conduct these classes, we are fundraising to get 25 computers to be used in classrooms across five different villages. By conducting online English lessons, we hope to enlighten the Dalit children about the modern world and show them how pursuing education can provide them with future opportunities.
A detailed outline of costs:
20 Dell desktop computers: $8,440.00
20 Desktop USB speakers and mics: $300.00
20 computer tables: $1060.00
7 projectors - E Gate: Each $148.00: $ 1,036.00
7 LCD screens: Each :$30.00 : $210-00
With gratitude,
Ann Moideen and the Board members of Ann Foundation
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