BADI ASHA SCHOOL
Badi Asha in Hindi means “Big Hope”. The school provides free education, for around 167 children fron kindergarten to grade 6, from the ages of 4 to 16 years, who reside in the impoverished Aurangabad district of Varanasi.
In addition to a child-focused and creativity centred education and a safe environment for learning and play, we provide our students with uniforms, school supplies, as well as 2 healthy organic meals and healthcare free of cost for the children and their families.
Further, we provide assistance with secondary school tuition for our alumni.
We give great importance to the pedagogy aspect, in fact we design and implement regular training sessions for our teachers and our approach is based on non-traditional methods of education and pedagogy, inspired by the philosophies of Montessori, Steiner, and Krishnamurti.
Beside the regular curriculum we focus on art, music, drama and gardening which we use also in a therapeutic way for students with special needs.
For our students and community members we offer computer training.
In the school, a Gender Equality Program leaded by Asian Bridge Foundation was offered to our ex-students and school staff. In 2022, we completed the first phase of the program, called the ‘Behavior Change for Gender Equality’, with the goal of increasing the understanding of gender-based violence and its underpinning root-causes in Indian society.
PROJECTS
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BADI ASHA SCHOOL
The school provides free education, for 167 children from kindergarten to grade 6, from the ages of 4 to 16 years, who reside in the impoverished Aurangabad district of Varanasi.
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BROWN BREAD BAKERY
The project provides free Vocational Training and employment for underprivileged section of society, while promoting sustainable organic farming and local food production.
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TAILORING PROJECT
The all-woman staff is trained to design and produce tailored goods which are sold under the "LEARN for LIFE" brand.
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TOUR GUIDE PROJECT
Learn for Life vocational tour guide training aims to provide Varanasi youth with necessary skills required by the Tourism and Hospitality Sector in order to guarantee their livelihood.