Informal Education

Children facing a dismal future

• The rural Ganges River region of north India ranks alongside parts of Africa as some of the worst illiteracy in the world. Children of impoverished parents often become slaves in brick kilns and fields.
• 80% of rural girls in north India suffer some kind of abuse or slavery.
• Four rural children in ten grow up not knowing how to read and write.
• Over half the population of north India is illiterate making this region the worst illiteracy in all of Asia. 

Our Impact

In only one generation a nation can be transformed either positively or negatively by how its children are trained. WIN is making a difference in the lives of some of the most at-risk children. Just two hours a day can mean the difference between illiteracy and literacy, between illness and health, between fear and hope, and between slavery and freedom. 

WIN's children's centers provide a basic education in reading, writing, arithmetic and Christ-centered values. 

The graph below depicts the amazing impact of our education centers:

A VICTORY STORY

In Mujhara Kala Village Pastor Shyam leads a small house church. The plight of children of the village who were not attending school was very sad. They were wearing dirty, stained clothes. Some had running noses with flies sitting on their faces. Most of them looked underfed. They were talking to each other using filthy language. There was trash strewn about everywhere in front of their huts. 
 

WIN’s leaders arranged with the pastor to start an education center where these unschooled children could receive a basic education. We then met their parents and talked to them, explaining the importance of sending their children to the education center. We also told them about the imortance of cleanliness and hygiene. 
 

A few weeks after starting the ecucation center, when our staff member Maneesh visited the village again, he was surprised to see the large attendance at the education center. Children who used to roam around and waste away their time were enrolled at the center. In addition to this, they wore clean clothes and looked a lot healthier than previously. When Maneesh visited some of their homes, he found their surroundings no longer littered with trash but neat and clean. The instruction received by our staff members and the rural education teacher had already made a big impact in these families’ self-image and cleanliness.