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We opened the Sambhali school in Setrawa in October 2007. The interest is overwhelming and the project runs very good. A lot of very detailled information about the current achievements you can read in the Volunteer´s Reports in our Support section.
Our aim is to establish a free school for the local children in Setrawa Village and self sustainable art and craft program.
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Some major goals |
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To aid children already attending school with extra English classes before and after school hrs. |
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To provide education for those who cannot afford it. |
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To create classes teaching self sustainable practices such as arts and crafts-products that can be sold to help run the project and for future financial independence for it’s participants. |
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To demonstrate basic hygiene skills such as hand washing and the proper manner in which to clean clothing etc. |
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To integrate castes. Setrawa project, unlike Jodhpur Sambhali will be promoting mixed castes. |
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We are looking forward to promote practices for eco-friendly livelihood such as recycling of old used materials, and by using household water to grow a kitchen/vegetable garden. |
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Future possibilities may include improving general infrastructure and appearance of the village. For example: plantations, providing shade, drainage systems, building roads, street lights, awareness programs on health, hygiene, aids, education to help stop child marriages, equality etc… in the form of a council or community assembly group. |
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Observations about Setrawa |
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Setrawa is a small village 1 ½ hours (110 KM) drive West of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The village has a population of approximately 3000 people. There are several communities in the village, The Sarpanch is an elderly woman of the Dalit community (meghwal) she is officially the head of the village Panchayat (community governing body) however she is a widow and uneducated so her eldest son assumed the position.
While it may seem strange that a Dalit woman is elected as a leader in the community. This is allowed because the Indian government has reservations for untouchables in their system. It was an unusual circumstance when we were invited to her house, and told that if a Rajput individual was to visit that it was considered indecent for her to drink the water being offered. When we were offered chairs, she would not sit in front of us on the chair and a carpet was placed on the floor for her to sit.
The town seemed to operate quite efficiently. There were plenty of small neat little shops with all the basic requirements for living, such as a chemist, stationery supplies basic food stalls, even clothing stalls. Other industry associated with people residing in Setrawa included farming and mining of the sandstone quarries.
The mining has also had a negative impact on the town by disrupting the soil stability in the most historical area of the village, the result being collapsed houses and dangerous wasteland. The damage has increased in the last 2 decades.
There were so many children filling the streets when we arrived. It was soon established that this project would be very welcome in their village. Within minutes of suggesting our Ideas, the local leaders and respected members of the community were sweeping us around from place to place that were available for rent. We also were told around 30 - 50 children were already interested. This was meant to work. The local people were very happy that the village name would be internationally recognized.
The level of education in the village is not very different here in comparison to Jodhpur (at first glance). We noticed quite a variety of levels. But this may have been because we were meeting mostly the higher caste children at this time, given our impressive introductions. One major difference is that most kids speak Marwari, so all of that good Hindi we practiced will have to be replaced by a new language! |
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