Visitors to the HEAL Children’s Village in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, are frequently amazed at the loving, caring environment provided for the youngsters, who greet outsiders with unbridled delight and a sea of smiles. The key element always underpinning the charity’s work in the region is education and, if recent results coming out of the Village are anything to go by, the benefits to the children are growing year on year.
The improvements brought about not only by the dedication and hard work of the children, their teachers and house mothers, but through continued support from HEAL sponsors, are there for all to see.
No fewer than 16 senior children at the Village have recently won Polytechnic placements to engineering courses, double the number achieved last year, and four times the number in 2009!
Eleven of the placements were in electronics & communication, another in electrical & electronics engineering and two each in computers and mechanical engineering.
In addition to those 16, another 22 children successfully qualified in Intermediate, IT, nursing and other vocational courses, demonstrating the wide range of skills being developed.
These are just the latest positive results to come out of the school following excellent academic performances by the children in science, mathematics and languages, all of which pays tribute to the
educators within the Village.
Many pupils point to the 10th class as being a pivotal time in their lives and HEAL supporters can feel proud that no fewer than 38 children at the Village passed their 10th class examinations this year. And the message coming out of the Village is that it is the support of HEAL and its generous sponsors which inspires the school to set, and continually achieve, higher and higher goals. A growing number of children in HEAL’s care are now going on to become promising young students, some entering further education to help secure their future.
Teachers within the Children’s Village school assess those pupils who they believe are capable of going on to successfully further their education. And through its further education budget, HEAL is committed to helping these bright young adults, who it is hoped will be able to not only go on to achieve their ambitions in life, but to one day be able to put something back into their local communities. This is vitally important for the future development of the region and is seen as an important and expanding area of the charity’s work in Andhra Pradesh.
In addition to HEAL residential and poverty trap sponsors, we are therefore seeking vital financial backing for these higher education students. For £48 per month, it is possible to sponsor a student’s
education for between one and three years at a higher educational facility.
It is crucial that the children who grow up in the HEAL Village are not forgotten once they head out into the world. They need our support more than ever at a time when they are just beginning
to engage successfully with the future. HEAL aims to gradually increase its funding for those leaving the school to ensure these children can go on to fulfill their true potential.
