Namma Veedu
"Our Home"
The
Sakthi Montessori
School
The Sakthi
Foundation extends its helping hand to underprivileged children by
providing them with good education. Sakthi Foundation is starting its
first school in a southern Indian village called Sendurai, Madurai (Dindugal)
District, Tamil Nadu, India.
Sendurai is a small village of nearly 5000 people with an average family
income of Rs. 50 (~1-1.5$) per day. The literary rate is approximately
5% and the children of this village are forced to work in the
agricultural lands as labor to help their parents. Though there are
government schools nearby, very few children get good quality
education.
Sakthi Foundation chose this village as its first project because one
of the co-founders of Sakthi Foundation, Dr. Sendurai Mani hails from
this village. With the help of many people, he has come up all this way
in life and wants to help other children, with his background. For this,
we need your help.
Acknowledgements:
Sakthi
Foundation acknowledges everyone, who has agreed to help this project.
1. Dr. M.
Madeswaran, Teacher, Montessori School, Chennai. Madeswaran is a
Montessori trained school teacher. He has decided to resign from his
current job in Chennai and move to Sendurai to set up this school.
2. Mr.
Samir Somaiya from Somaiya group. We are encouraged by his generous
help of Rs. 100,000 for the construction of the school building.
3. Drs.
Richard Goldsby and Barbara A. Osborne, Amherst College, Amherst,
MA. Thank you , Dr. Dick Goldsby for your generous donation of $500.
4. Mrs.
Poornima Mani and Dr. S.A. Mani , gave the first contribution to the
School project by generously donating all their wedding gifts to the
Sakthi School fund.
To help this
good cause, please feel free to donate to the Sakthi Foundation School
Project. This is a secured online payment system through Paypal. All
Donations to Sakthi schools through Sakthi Foundation are tax exempt.
Contributors will receive a tax exempt statement.
This is a secured online payment system through
Paypal.
You can also mail checks to
Sakthi School Project
Sakthifoundation
1507 Lone Oak circle
Fairfield, IA - 52556, USA.
More about the School
Dr.
Madeswaran, with other Sakthi Foundation friends, has chosen Sendurai
area to start their flagship school for the following reasons:
1. The
agricultural farmers own small pieces of land or work on rental land and
are unable to send their children to good schools due to high fees. So,
at the tender age of 6, they send their children to free
government schools where the quality of education is very poor. The
children are not motivated or educated well enough to be able to earn a
good standard of living.
2. As a
Montessori trained teacher with 6 yrs experience, Dr. Madeswaran
expressed the idea of helping these children get a good education so
that in future they would be freed from financial burden and poverty.
Dr. Madeswaran pointed out that the education system framed by the
famous Dr. Maria Montessori in Europe became very popular in the early
1900s. She framed the education system for children of the working
masses in one of Rome's worst neighborhoods. Ironically, now this
education system caters only to affluent children.
This
inspired Dr. Madeswaran to initiate the same Montessori education for
the children of economically poor children. He says, “I see the child as
the centre of learning. I am a facilitator. I am here to mould the
children under my care to face the challenges of the world and at the
same time to enjoy inner freedom".
Dr.
Madeswaran adds, "The current education system is driving children to
seek materialistic liberation in the outside world without being aware
of the inner world of freedom and peace.” Sakthi Vidya School would
focus on these subtle aspects of inner growth as well. At Sakthi Vidya,
the children will exercise their right of choice of the field or area
to work in. The child will have an integrated view instead
of fragmented knowledge in different subjects. For example, through
Zoology, the child will learn language as well and vice versa. Children
from Sakthi Vidya would not be merely CD (compact digital)
information packets but would carry with them a plethora of seeds of
scientific, artistic, cultural and spiritual knowledge that would
appropriately sprout and yield fruits for their own betterment and also
for the benefit of society.
To begin
with, Dr. Madeswaran, the Principal of Sakthi Vidya School plans to
enroll 15- 20 children in June 2007 at Sendurai. We request friends to
extend their help to make Sakthi Vidya a great Success.
