A 13-year-old Selvi, loved going to school. Unfortunately, she had to drop out after elementary school as there is no high school in her village and her parents did not have the means to send her to the nearest high school. Selvi hails from a very small village of Anna Nagar in Tamil Nadu, where majority of the population belongs to Scheduled Castes and Tribes. She lives in a tiny hut with her parents, younger brother and 2 younger sisters. Her parents are daily wage earners and earn a meagre amount of INR 200 a day by plucking Jasmine flowers. Due to their financial conditions and high debts, Selvi and her younger brother had no choice but to work with their as flower pickers. This is the story of every other household in the village. Almost the entire village has no education to seek better employment and was once a community of bonded labourers. Although they aren’t bonded labourers anymore but still work for the same people.
After ADRA came to know about the situation in the village, we set up our Mobile Learning Centre’s (MLC) van in the village to ensure that all the children are able to continue their education. ADRA team reached out to Selvi’s parents to send her to the MLC. They were unwilling initially but with the team’s persistent efforts and counselling, her parents started sending Selvi, along with her younger brother, to the ADRA Mobile School. Now, Selvi is happy and is excelling in her studies. During a parent’s teachers meet, Selvi’s mother teared up while thanking the ADRA team in supporting her children getting back to school.
