A loving home and care is given for the needy children, who are either orphans, have single parents or are from battered families.. They are provided schooling, education, health care and nutrition, discipline and mentoring so that they develop as any other child would.

SUKRUPA has taken the responsibility of nurturing, educating and mentoring these children, while taking into account the background of the children and that their parents often do not have the time, resources or the awareness to fully support the growth and development of the children.

Vision
With the available resources and premises, a high standard curriculum is taught that is both creative and traditional so that children learn with understanding. SUKRUPA’s School program provides a quality education that enhances the children’s natural abilities and talents. The program gives them opportunities to realize their dreams and guides them to be independent and responsible people with good values.

Teaching Staff
Our teaching staff is sensitive to the community that we serve. Teachers are committed to the cause and take the place of mothers in the school. Individual attention is given to all the children. Every child is precious. For children who are behind, one-on-one attention is given so that they can catch up with their peers. Teachers are the cornerstones in the lives of students and the pillars of success in our school.

Nutrition and Health Care
Basic hygiene and a nutritious diet lead to good health. From the start the children have been  initiated on to awareness on hygiene. Children are taught to take bath everyday and wear clean clothes. They are provided with two sets of uniforms per year along with the clothes that come as donation. SUKRUPA also provides nutritious meal and protein mix that has helped the children to maintain good health and immunity. As the children’s parents do not have regular jobs their income is meagre and the children’s health is not a priority compared to providing food.

When the children are sick, basic medical help is provided although there is no allocated fund for medical care. SUKRUPA would like to provide an annual health check up and take care of the very basic medical needs of each child. This will improve school attendance of the children, as they are prone to sickness

Emphasis on Languages
Spoken English is mandatory at SUKRUPA. Besides English, the children also learn Hindi and Kannada as part of the curriculum. Teaching the respective mother tongues is in the pipeline. Through our volunteer programs, children also learn French. The other languages that we would like to introduce in the coming years are German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin.

Parent Participation
It is a prerequisite for the parents to be part of their childrens' school program. Through interactive programs among the parents, issues at home are discussed and solved. Most of the parents are young adults, and through this initiative SUKRUPA creates a learning platform for the parents to raise their children in a positive manner. This has helped other siblings in the family as well.

Obedience & Discipline
Obedience and Discipline form a solid foundation of the school program. SUKRUPA strongly believes in values, and imparting a strong sense of community values will enhance our local, regional and national development. People who respect each other and their country are inclined to share what they have learnt with others. Our children are taught to believe that a single person can make a tremendous difference in lives of others. Older students are given the responsibility to teach and mentor younger children.

Projects with Other Schools
SUKRUPA children have regular opportunities to interact with international school children and mainstream school children through various activites.

Creative Arts and Activities
Along with academics, equal importance is given to various forms of creative arts such as

• Dance: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Contemporary Classical, Bollywood and Free Style.
• Fine Arts: Drawing, Painting, Sketching. Crafts: Collage, Mosaic, Paper Crafts.
• Music: Carnatic Classical Music, Choir Music, Instruments.
• Sports: Field Hockey, Athletics, Badminton, Cricket, Kabbaddi, Kho Kho, other sports that we would like to include are Baseball, Volleyball,  Soccer, Swimming and Tennis.

Programs at SUKRUPA help the children to develop skills such as leadership and team building that help them face the world with confidence.

School Retention
As the children come from vulnerable backgrounds, we consider it a blessing that the parents have allowed them to continue in school instead of sending them to work as construction or domestic workers. Still, some of the girls do support the family by doing domestic work early in the morning and boys distribute papers or clean cars as the family has huge loans to pay. We are proud that the school dropout rate of children in our development program has dropped from 80% to 5% over the past few years.

Skills and Leadership Training
As the community does not value skills training, many people do almost anything that pays money. Most of them are unskilled labors and do not have regular jobs. SUKRUPA has designed a Special Life Skills Leadership Program for the 10th, 11th and 12th standard children. The first batch of 18 children will participate in this program during the 2008-2009 academic year.

Building Community
Some of the children are part of a hockey program and the ‘PRAYAAS’ dance group that requires them to practice on a regular basis. Others pitch in and help at SUKRUPA in teaching, accounting, sales, designing etc., for which they are provided special training. This assists them with employment at SUKRUPA while they continue their studies through long-distance education programs such as IGNOU till they complete their graduation. During this period they are given a small remuneration that encourages them to stay in school as well as teaching the value of saving.

This would mean 5 years or more for the 10th standard pass children and 3years or more for the 12th standard pass children. The challenge is how to keep them till such time they finish their graduation and how to employ them skillfully in various activities at SUKRUPA. If they are not monitored at this stage, the chances of their developing bad habits is maximum. As such, parents do not have the time or the know-how, the children themselves are still impressionable, and we feel strongly that it is important to guide these children for 3 or more years sothat they develop deep roots in responsibility and accountability for themselves, for their families, and for the community.  

We consider children at SUKRUPA as our own. We want to provide them the best for their growth in leadership and life skills. Grooming and mentoring them in the right direction is SUKRUPA’s mission and responsibility. Once they finish their graduation they can either continue working at SUKRUPA and take up leadership positions or they are free to work in any other field of their choice. Through this program we at SUKRUPA are confident that we offer a comprehensive program that gives the children a firm foundation that is the basis of a beautiful future.

Children are encouraged to participate in sports and various forms of adventure activities. Through different volunteer groups, children are able to play cricket, football, kabbadi, khokho, baseball etc. SUKRUPA conducts competitive Annual Sports for all the children, and 6 of SUKRUPA boys play field hockey. They are trained at “Dhanraj Ballal Hockey Academy” through our partners Dream a Dream.

SUKRUPA also conducts several field trips annually which are both recreational and educational.

SUKRUPA believes that it is extremely important for the children to be creative for their overall development. Children have the opportunity to learn various arts including classical music, classical dance, free style dance, drawing, painting, sketching, collage, glass painting, pottery painting, and murals. Some of the art work has been made into greeting cards as well.

If a child is extraordinary in any art field or has specific talent, special attention is given and s/he is trained under professionals to pursue the specific art.

“PRAYAAS” is an emerging performing group of SUKRUPA. The group can perform Bharatanatyam, Katak, Contemporary Classical, Freestyle,  Bollywood and Folk Dance. 50% of the revenue generated from the performance is distributed as scholarships among the children who perform, and the other 50% goes into the developmental programs of SUKRUPA.

This is a great incentive for the children, considering that most of them are school dropouts who are inducted back into school through our after school program. Enormous effort and resources go into training them through professional artists in different forms of dance, music and theatre. The focus is to spot the talents and create opportunities for the children to realize their dreams and grow as independent citizens.