Educo is a Registered Irish Charity (17147 - ), (www.educo.com) set up three years ago by volunteers in Ireland, to collect funds to bring children out of poverty through education. The charity has managed to collect and distribute some €600,000 to date, and to buy or start building four schools in Mumbai and Kolkata, through a variety of charity balls, marathon sponsorships, and celebrity dinners, as well as direct sponsorship. A fundamental policy is that any administrative costs are met by the founders/organizers, so that 100% of all contributions go directly to schools in India.
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Educo has provoked considerable interest in Ireland. There have been articles covering its activities in 'The Irish Tatler', as well as a slot on RTÉ's 'The Afternoon Show', and a (brief) mention in The Irish Times.
Educo Elders. A group of Educo supporters set up to help and support the main Educo effort. Educo Elders operates mainly as an ad-hoc fund-raising group, and focuses entirely on schools in the Mumbai area.
Ireland
(More to follow)
India
Project No 1
School no.1 (Jan 2008) was built to serve both poor and orphaned primary school children in Mumbai (Bombay). The school is based in Vesai, about an hour outside Mumbai metropolis. The school caters for 300 pupils. Once morning, afternoon and evening classes begin, there will be capacity to teach over 500 pupils. Classes are taught in "English Medium", as this facilitates the students getting better jobs later in life.
Those that can pay a nominal 150 rupees a month. The local community donations help cover the running costs.
Project No 2
School No. 2 (Feb 2008) was set up in central Kolkata (Calcutta) as an "Educentre" to teach vocational skills to teenage pupils. Many of the targeted pupils are streetchildren who, due to poverty, did not receive an education. Traditionally many of these children got by with proceeds from the sex trade. What the Educentre aims to do is to teach them Life Skills e.g. cooking, waitressing, computer skills, photography, dressmaking and so forth, as well as basic education. In this way, these teenagers can become self-sufficient in a long-term sustainable way.
Project No 3
School No. 3 (Dec 2008) in Sahar Village, Mumbai will be a purpose built school suitable for primary and secondary school pupils. Teaching will be provided by the Handmaids Of the Blessed Trinity, but will be multidenominational, allowing the large Hindu and Muslim minorities to integrate best with the local Christian majority, as well as the smaller numbers of Buddhist and Jain followers.
Project No 4
School No. 4 (Jan 2009) Address: Abhyudaya Nagar Secondary School, Saibaba Path in 'F' south ward of Mumbai Municipal Corporation Educo is taking over this dilapidated school in southern central Mumbai. The school is a 6 storey building, with capacity for 66 classrooms. However, due to previous lack of funding, it had fallen into almost complete disrepair. Educo aims to renovate this school in 2009 - re doing the plasterwork and paintwork. We will then aim to improve the classroom facilities, adding computers, broadband and introducing English medium teaching. Ultimately, when this project is fully rolled out over the coming 2 years, over 3,000 children will receive an education here.
Project No. 5 Books for Children
Kerala province in the South of India already has a good educational system, with relatively easy access to schooling. Rather than attempting to provide schooling Educo has put in place a simpler, cheaper way of encouraging children to read and learn for themselves.
Educo is getting reading books (in English and in Malayalam) published and distributed to 419 orphanages around Kerala. Each orphanage will have a small library/portable bookcase of books. These books will provide useful and enjoyable reading material for over 41,000(!) children from 6-16.