Kerala: ‘Hope’ helps them regain confidence

KOCHI

: They were written off as failures by their friends and relatives. But there was ‘

hope

’. And it only increased their grit and eventually, they proved all of them wrong.

For these eight students, clearing SSLC examination is a life-turner.

Most of these students have had a disturbed childhood — either in the form of drug abuse or an abusive family. However, they have been brought back to life by Hope, an initiative of Nanma Fundation, started by IG P Vijayan along the lines of Our Responsibility to Children (ORC) — a project of the Kerala police.

Thrilled to the core by the success, the students who wrote the examination after attending classes at Red Cross Bhavan, Kakkanad, after they were dropped out of

schools

due to various circumstances, are now looking forward to study and achieve their dreams. Supported by a dedicated team of volunteers, including two retired headmistresses — Omanakunjamma C and Rani Lonappan, counsellors and psychiatrists.

“We have 17 students studying here of which eight wrote SSLC exams. Others are with national open schools and some are in Class XII. The centre started working a year ago on the request of IG Vijayan sir. He pushes us to do our best because he believes that no child should be denied the right to happy childhood and schooling is part of that. The children, most of them are dropouts or SSLC fail. It affects their confidence and when they come here, they are highly dejected with zero confidence in their abilities,” said Shibi Hari, Kochi centre coordinator.

The classes were initially three days a week. “Some of the kids go back to the school they were studying if they have highly empathetic teachers. We had a student who joined us in October on special request from the school headmistress who said she had tried the maximum but couldn’t induce any confidence in the child. But we worked really hard with her and she went back to school and passed with very good marks,” said Shibi.

Volunteers associated with the centre said the first lessons are from a module prepared for kids who very weak in academics. It’s a bridge course with very basic lessons, something a child in primary class would be studying. Then they are slowly given classes such that they can score the minimum marks which along with their internal marks would help them clear the papers.

Volunteers of Hope were dismayed when the lockdown disturbed the exam schedule in March. “We were very desperate. The students had almost forgotten what they had studied. In the four days that we got after the government announced fresh dates, we hurriedly revised the subjects. The results have been very satisfying considering the circumstances. This will serve as a positive encouragement for other students too,” a volunteer said.


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