Empowerment through Education in Coastal Villages of Orissa, India - University of Texas - Austin

Orissa, India is a state of rich culture and history located along the eastern seaside of the country. Known for its colorful clothing, lively dancing, intricate art, ancient temples and religious heritage, as well as the abundance of plants and animals that thrive there, there is no lack of life in this part of the globe.

Yet, despite the natural prosperity of the region, the people of Orissa still face the widespread problem of poverty that is unfortunately common throughout much of the world’s rural areas. One of the most underdeveloped regions of India, the rates of literacy, sanitation, technology and economic opportunity are grim, and further perpetuate the inability for coming generations to improve their standard of living.

Because parents rarely earn enough to support their whole family, many children are forced to work as laborers rather than attending and finishing school. It is very common for young boys to be relied upon to help financially support their families by fishing alongside the men and engaging in other work. The opportunities for women are even more limited; due to their low-ranking social status, education for young girls is quite minimal. Oftentimes girls as young as four are used to help with household chores, such as cooking and caring for their siblings. And what is further, even if a child were fortunate enough to be able to attend school, the education they would earn is often seen to be of little value within the community.

In order to break this vicious cycle that perpetuates poverty, Nourish International – Austin Chapter will join hands with Divya Jyoti Mahila Vikash (DJMV), a local NGO active in the region for over ten years. Working with two key coastal villages inside the Ganjam District, we will carry out various activities to achieve this.

First, we will first work directly with the most marginalized members of the community to assess their needs by using Participatory Rural Appraisal, a common sustainable development tool that incorporates the knowledge and opinions of rural communities in the planning and management of development projects. This will be important to accomplish in order to be able to effectively implement our second initiative: providing motivation for education. This task will entail spreading awareness through a series of workshops on the social and economic value of education, which will include providing motivation and encouragement to parents to send their children to school. These efforts are parent-oriented and are intended to address the overwhelming problem of lacking parental support and valuation for education in their communities.

We will also take various student-oriented measures as well. This will include providing the teachers at local learning centers with new innovative teaching methods. Furthermore, we will conduct English coaching classes for business communication skills development, which will be in addition to holding workshops that will teach how to improve career development skills. Finally, we will provide computers and training for the village learning centers, which will significantly increase their access to outside information and will improve computer literacy.

By engaging with and educating those most capable of bringing change to their community, we hope to empower and enable today’s youth to be the leaders of tomorrow, thereby establishing a sustainable, self-perpetuating system of growth. We will give them the tools to defy their circumstances and will instill in them the recognition that they are worthy of such investments. Your contribution today will help make these estimable goals become a reality, which will initially impact approximately 1,000 individuals and many more to come in the future!