What We Do
Our mission is to help deprived children and young adults escape a background of poverty, slum life, illiteracy, and ignorance thereby creating opportunities for their integration into mainstream society.
SUKRUPA works with deprived children and young adults, providing a secure environment, schooling and skills training that enable them to escape poverty, slum life, illiteracy, and ignorance. Sukrupa breaks the poverty cycle for these individuals and their families by creating opportunities so that they are able to integrate fully as participants and contributors in mainstream society.
SUKRUPA accomplishes its objectives through the following programs:
Sukrupa Education Center
The SUKRUPA Education Centre currently provides free schooling, nutritious food and basic health care for 450 children who thrive in a clean, safe, friendly and happy environment. The centre serves children of pre-school age (generally 2 1/2 years old through 5) as well as students in class 1 through 10.
Student Eligibility and Parent Involvement
SUKRUPA follows a strict screening process for all admissions This process begins with home and community visits to affirm economic qualification (for example, that the family is currently considered below poverty line status). The Sukrupa program requires a 14 to 16 year commitment of attendance that begins upon admission to Pre-School. At the time of admission the parent makes an agreement with SUKRUPA to observe all rules and regulations. There is also a commitment required to attend quarterly child development training sessions offered through Sukrupa’s community development programs and to volunteer for half a day per year at the School. Individual counseling is also offered as needed.
The Sukrupa Curriculum
The integrated curriculum at SUKRUPA is distinguished particularly by its emphasis on a balanced education of arts, social values and right attitude in addition to academics. This produces young adults who are globally aware, fiscally independent and personally responsible.
The Sukrupa curriculum is holistic and touches a number of key disciplines:
- Academics: Sukrupa follows both innovative and traditional Indian methods. CBSE is the curriculum that is taught at The Sukrupa Education Centre.
- Nutrition: Is the major and integral part that helps the students to attend school regularly providing nourishment for needed growth and development. Sukrupa students are provided with protein porridge in the morning and nutritious meals for lunch and evening snacks.
- Health and Hygiene: Immediate medical attention is provided when the children fall ill at school. Regular medical check up is conducted for all the children.
- Languages: Sukrupa provides a complete educational experience in English, Kannada, Hindi, German and French, preparing students for the global setting in which they will emerge as the next generation of leaders.
- Multi-disciplinary Creative Teaching: Sukrupa’s curriculum includes education in the Fine Arts and Theater, skills development in crafts and physical exercise and conditioning through a study of Indian and Western Classical Music and Dance.
- Sports and Fitness: Sports and fitness is emphasized through training in Field Hockey, Rugby, Soccer, Kho Kho, Kabbaddi, Athletics and Cricket.
- Extracurricular Activities: Sukrupa supports Club Projects in English, Math, Science, Geography, Sports and Horticulture. This achieves the development of students based on interaction and participation with businesses, outside experts and adult volunteers, many of whom are accomplished business and community leaders in their own right. Sukrupa organizes field trips to places outside the home and school environment that widen the scope of learning.
SUKRUPA Residential Program
The SUKRUPA Residential program offers a secure, full-time home for up to 10 children. In this loving family environment, children who are orphaned, have single parents or come from families in crisis receive affection, nutrition and guidance. This affords these children with the stability required to fully develop as young adults, to build personal confidence and restore self-esteem, and to see directly the potential that exists within them to achieve personal fulfillment.
SUKRUPA Youth Training Program
Sukrupa recognizes that some of its participants will enter the program as young adults. For these older children and teens, many of whom have been child laborers or school drop-outs, the SUKRUPA Youth Training Program is a 5 year curriculum in personal life skills, social skills, leadership as well as academics studied through distance learning.
This program is offered in conjunction with the State University. The program provides practical training in a diverse set of skills and disciplines including teaching, accounting, sales, computers, conversational English, dance, design, hospitality, housekeeping and artistic crafts, each designed around a particular student’s interests and talents. Through this program, young women become empowered contributors to their families rather than dependent mothers at the age of 13 or 14. Young men likewise become responsible providers for their families as they gain the skills necessary to obtain gainful employment. Recognizing the economic reality of the families involved, each student receives a monthly stipend to help cover family expenses and thereby ensure that student’s continuous participation in the complete Sukrupa program.
SUKRUPA Community Development Program
Sukrupa’s Community Development serves women and young adults in the community, in particular the parents and siblings of the children who attend the School Program at the SUKRUPA Education Centre. The Community Development Program offers health camps, family counselling, parenting and life skills training as well as vocational training. These components of the Sukrupa program provide a complete foundation for dignified employment and self-sufficiency. Consistent with all Sukrupa programs, the ultimate goal of this program is to provide a path out of the slums, to provide sustainable relocation to mainstream neighborhoods. For this program, Sukrupa collaborates with Jain Hospital and Baptist Hospital to address medical issues of the community.
Sukrupa’s Pilot Projects
In addition to the permanent Sukrupa program, we continuously innovate supporting programs that further the Sukrupa mission. The following are current pilot programs:
SUKRUPA Outreach Program for Government School Children
In the Outreach Program students from the SUKRUPA Youth Training program teach English to underprivileged urban slum and rural children studying in Kannada Government Schools from Class 1 to 7. This provides a benefit to both the government school children who receive this additional educational reinforcement, as well as to the Sukrupa Youth Training participants who develop leadership skills and reinforce their own sense of community contribution and participation. The program features creative activities including art, craft, music, dance, games, all of which are designed to enrichment the learning experience through language practice. In 2009, 400 children participated in this pilot project. The project was considered a success and will be fully implemented when funding is available.
SUKRUPA Rural Development Program
Addressing the challenges of rural poverty as the underlying cause for the formation of urban slums, SUKRUPA has established a pilot project with two villages in rural Bangalore, including an ongoing project offered in collaboration with Sai Trust. The Rural Development Program provides pre-school activities, supplementary education for government school children and vocational training for young adults and women. Future sources of revenue generation for the villages may include organic farming, dairy farming, and renewable energy.
