Mass Education

West Bengal-Chapter

Basic Education for All: Mass Education's mandateis to improve opportunities for disadvantage children, street and working children living in difficult circumstances. Children who are denied from their dignity, rights and equal opportunities from all spheres of life, their families and community they live in. This implies access of health care, education, social and economic justice, a sustainable natural environment and opportunities for self reliant of a child and his family as a whole.

School Support: In order to achieve the goal, Mass Education undertook to provide basic education, functional adult literacy skills to its group members and rendered educational facilities to their children through formal and non-formal primary & high schools.15000 children are enrolled through our integrated education project support. Teaching assistance and learning & play materials are supplied to all children.

Child Protection Activities: Mass Education is running a child protection center at Atasura for girls and boys. 500 children of age between 4-18 years are staying in this centre. They are all from the family of most vulnerable situation. Most of the children living in this center were from difficult circumstances, sexually harassed and abused, children from sex workers either without or single parents.

Child Sponsorship Programme: Child sponsorship benefits offered to the children to improve their Health, Nutrition, Education, Value Formation and special benefit to improve the livelihood of the targeted children and the community. Children under this programme were sponsored between ages 3 to 9 years and are part of the programme till they are 19 years old. Individual children or group of children may be sponsored by any person(s), organization.

Training & Exposure trip: Mass Education offers various human and skill development training to the rural and urban groups to build their capacity and raise their level of awareness so that they can become the active participants in their own community development. Regular courses are organized for enhancing the level of consciousness. Children and teachers together are exposed to do village survey, visit to natural forest, hills, sea sides, town or big city, development centers, industry and cultural centers etc. to gain broader knowledge about the society.

Technical training: Young children and adults are provided with skill training on various trades so that they can be independent to start on their own enterprise to combat poverty and be self-sustainable. Young children of different background are invited for 6 months training. The training has residential possibilities. The center is located 50 Km south of Kolkata equipped with various tools, lecture hall, library, playground and swimming pool.

Primary Teachers’ Training: Mass Education have developed an equipped teacher's training at Pathar Pratima, South of 24 Parganas of West Bengal where accommodation for 200 boys and girls students, lecture halls, library, computer room, laboratory, play ground and common room facilities available. The training Institute is affiliated by NCRT and west Bengal Government. Read More...

Sustainable Development: Education alone cannot bring changes unless there is sufficient scope for employment and income generation opportunities. Mass Education facilitated the self-employment process to make the poor men and women economically self-reliant and help them attain a respectable social standing. This programme was initiated with the help of micro-credit revolving fund both in urban and rural areas. Income generation activities includes agriculture, livestock, fisheries, sericulture, and apiculture, regeneration of environment through nursery, social forestry, small trading, cottage industry, hawking and many other nature of business, which generates income for the poor at the same time.
For empowerment of people's initiatives and organisation:
Mass Education encourages the poor to build basic groups of SHG's and network of SHG's at the block and district levels, so that they can fight united against the forces of under development and poverty. SHG groups are expanding from block to block and district to district with the support of NGO's. Mass Education also helped built a strong network of small NGO's, in order to strengthen the groups to undertake development activities. Member of the groups are provided with financial assistance and training on their desire interest so that livelihoods are improved.

Women's empowerment: In support to that, Generating income for the family, women played an important role, which Mass Education encourages to implement the programme successfully. Beside that, Mass Education works diligently to reduce gender disparity at its own home and in the society at large. In all spare of Mass Education activities women became the primary focus.

Livelihood business support: Mass Education provides micro-enterprise finance to several young entrepreneurs to start their own business/ trade and productive unite for their sustainability. Before providing financial support they are given training on the appropriate trade they wished to start. Funds are supported ranging from Rs. 10,000 to 25,000 depending upon the trade and the asset needs to be developed.

Rainwater harvest: The rain water harvesting project launched in the beginning of the year 2005 and families were helped in all together to excavate and re-excavate the pond for rainwater harvest in the Sundarbans region where water for any use is the major crisis. Not only for drinking but also for the use of agriculture, animal feeding and domestic uses. On the other hand, people are not aware of the water management or to store water for the various purposes. In this case Mass Education organized several awareness camp, seminar and have produced the reading materials on water management. Rainwater harvest activities have created employment, food security and other multifarious activities for the people to improve their livelihood. Activities like vegetable Cultivation, fishery, duckery, and plantation have brought the life in the family to generate income opportunities. Funds are provided by France Liberate and the Ministry of Sundarbans Development affairs.

Health & Environment improvement: Mass Education initiated health education, primary and secondary health care and health infrastructure development activities, such as conducting of health awareness campaign, running of clinics, hospitals, providing ambulance services, management of pulse-polio and routine immunization campaign and distribution of de-worming tablets to control intestinal parasite for children. Mass Education also works to provide low-cost latrines, clean and pucca roads, ponds, catch water dams and also general infrastructure development of villages, campaign against arsenic contamination, use of sanitary latrine and water management, were the key activities undertaken to support and good health campaign for the poor.

Access Water & Sanitation: Access to water & sanitation is the main problem in most of the areas in Sundarbans and other backwards districts of West Bengal because of salinity and other geological problem. Mass Education provides safe drinking water in the villages by sinking deep tube wells and excavation of tanks for storing rain water so that the water is available for domestic and other uses.Georg Fischer Foundation is funding to sink tube wells for clean water supplies.

Poor sanitation and lack of sanitary latrine are another big problem and challenges in the rural areas. 98% people use open field for the defecation, which are the major causes for fesses–to-mouth and other water bourn and communicable diseases. In order to prevent them Mass Education have started construction of latrines for each family. Awareness on use of sanitary latrine and health & hygiene has been created through wall writing, distribution of handouts and performances of street theater. This has resulted to better health & hygiene situation in the community. Mass Education ensures a latrine to each family. The project is assisted party by the district health & Sanitation department of the state.

Solid waste management & slum improvement: Though Mass Education's main thrust is rural development; it has also implemented urban environment improvement and poverty alleviation by conducting several activities in the city of Kolkata. Slum improvement and pavement dwellers and homeless people of Calcutta remain the primary target of (MEKUP) Mass Education Kolkata Urban Project. People who lived there are provided with employment generation activities along with education, health, sanitation and resettlement activities, and to improve the city environment condition solid waste management activities by Mass Education have created tremendous scope of job opportunity for the poor rag pickers of the urban poor. Mass Education becomes one of the major players in providing waste management services in and around Kolkata with the assistance from Kolkata Municipal corporation. Beside.

Forestation activities:Inorder to improve environment and generate job opportunities and food security Mass Education distributes each year thousands of nursery trees for fruits, timber and firewood among the rural families so that forest and food can be grown. A forestation also makes the region green and good for the ecological-balance, food security and ensures jobs for the landless people.

Ambulance Services: Mass Education is providing service to run 10 no. of Ambulances against nominal charges to provide emergency health services for the urban and rural poor. Ambulances are kept for services in the remote areas those who have no access to emergency services of health center. The need for this service is increasing. In Kolkata city Ambulance Services provided with assistance from Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Hospital and Clinics: Mass Education runs a self-supported Hospital for the people who are ready and can afford to pay the cost of secondary curative health services. The profit incurred from the Hospital is ploughed back for the primary and the most important community health activities. Even people who are not able to meet all the expenses they are given help for free treatment in the hospital. Beside that Mass Education regularly organizes health camps in the villages for general treatment.

Community Assistance and Relief:

School building: Each of the Mass Education School in the community is repaired before the monsoon and cyclone. New furniture's and fittings are supplied to several schools. Floors, doors and windows are repaired.

House repair: Mass Education helps the disaster affected families to repair and re-build their houses. Building materials are provided to repair the houses; some houses were made concrete with bricks. Many mud houses has been helped to make concrete floor to prevent damp, snake/rat holes, and resist cyclone etc. and keep the house clean.

Old age Support: Mass Education is running Homes for old age bedridden persons, provides daily mid-day lunch and occasionally toilet items, clothes, etc. to about 500 old persons who are denied of their rights to love and care by their families and the states as there is not much attention by the government on this issues. Mass Education creates the situation where old and child meet together and share their love and affection for peace and harmony.

Relief for cyclone & floods in West Bengal: Each year flood, cyclone, drought, epidemic and man-made disaster is becoming common problem in India. Natural calamities are becoming more and more regular phenomenon of the earth today. Heavy extraction of the natural resources is the cause of such disaster. Mass Education organizes relief camps during the heavy rain and cyclone. Building, food materials, clothes and medicines are distributed among the victims. During the Tsunami Relief & rehabilitation work has been done in Andaman & Andhra Pradesh besides in several districts of West Bengal.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands-Chapter:

Operational Frame: Mass Education with its set up objectives to cover all the affected villages in South and Middle Andaman to help children, women and youth groups through promotion of psychosocial education, community assistance and livelihood training and business grant to small and medium enterprise has been successfully done after the Tsunami.

Support to improve livelihood: Providing training in required skills in construction and repair, using government, private and NGO training providers. Providing facilities, training and support for the development of small business and the individual entrepreneur through small and medium business grant to set up own business to improve the livelihood. Designing comprehensive livelihood assessments at village level that look at both primary and secondary sources of income and subsistence and identifying vulnerable and socially and economically excluded groups.

Livelihood development Training: Mass Education has started livelihood training on the interest of the people. The training is going on for 3-6 months period. Type of training are provided Tailoring and Fashion Design, Toy making and Block printing, Computer, Manufacturing of Sanitary slabs, Manufacturing of whole block bricks, Entrepreneurship development training etc., to the young men and women.

Disaster management and Livelihood development: Several meetings with the community people, guardian and the authority were held to explain the project and coordinate the work between NGOs and administration so that duplication or overlapping could be avoided. Meeting with the children and the parents were fruitful because the discussion on the disaster management, livelihood development and improvement of education along with the cultural and sports activities encouraged every body to restore normalcy. Mass Education organizes seminar on disaster management and livelihood development. Many group discussions, seminars, workshops, cultural performances were held at the micro-level. Even children are taught about the different things "Do's & don’t" at the time of disaster.

Andhra Pradesh- Chapter : More than Three year after the tsunami hit the South East Indian coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands it has become clear that as well as causing major damage and livelihood losses in its own right, the disaster has highlighted and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities. Though there is evidence of a slow return to behavioral normalcy – for example, the community is again venturing further out to sea to fish – infrastructural damage has not always been repaired and the limitations of existing livelihoods have not been addressed. This means, in the case of schools, for example, that children’s access to education is worse than at the time before the tsunami struck, and there is no evidence of this being addressed at the political level. ME was alerted to the needs of coastal communities in AP soon after the tsunami in December 2004. Existing organizational commitments militated against an early intervention. It became clear by March of 2005 that little work was being done in AP despite the need. There are 46 Mandals in Nellore District of which 11 are tsunami affected and ME began o work in 4 of the 11 Mandals. Nellore Local Authority has identified each Mandal and village as being a priority area. In terms of infrastructural development our approach is to work with entire communities. We believe that this inclusive approach has the advantage of reinforcing mutuality and boosting social capital. However, we do believe that promoting entrepreneurialism can motivate individuals and heads of households into realizing their ideas, and that their success can motivate others, and drive forward local economies.

Activities in General: