CBB educates more girls in India than any other country due to its immense population, its extensive poverty, the oppression of its caste system, its pervasive gender discrimination, the oppression of its indigenous peoples, and its discrimination against religious minorities. All of CBB's projects in India are with these disadvantaged girls and women who are also deeply impoverished. According to the latest statistics, 60% of the Indian people live in poverty.
Alternative schools
CBB funds two systems of alternative schools for children of the "untouchable" Musahar, the lowest of the hundreds of social strata in Bihar, the poorest state in India. The Musahar are literally the poorest of the poor. Musahar translates as "rat-eaters" and that is correct--that's how poor they are.
Musahar children are unable to attend a full day of school as they have to work to help keep their family alive. So, the alternative schools for them meet from 7:30 to 10:30 AM, after which the children return home or to the fields to do their daily work.
One of the alternative school systems is directed by a Catholic nun who is a social worker. Seventeen of her schools had been closed when their grant from another agency ended, putting 700 children out of school. Funding from CBB reopened the schools, and the Musahar children are again receiving a basic education.
Another alternative school system is managed by the Jesuits. Both systems teach Hindi (the local language), English, geography, math, and science, as well as health care and sanitation. The schools also teach human rights and gender equality.
In all, CBB funds 36 alternative schools for the Musahar children. The annual cost of an alternative school for 35 students is $500.
Scholarships in 40 villages
In the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, CBB partners with Joint Organization for Natural Growth (JONG), which organizes tribal and Dalit ("untouchable") girls in villages so remote that CBB's Executive Director was the first foreigner to visit them. Finding 35 girls in families too poor to send their daughters to school, CBB gave each girl a scholarship to resume her education.
Only 20 years ago female infanticide was common in this area. Some of the girls CBB is helping to educate wouldn't even be alive but for the progress that has already been made. In supporting the schooling of these girls CBB is affirming the value of a girl's life.
JONG has organized 24 education centers in the 40 villages, each led by a young local woman with a 10th to 12th grade education. These women tutor village children for three hours after school, for which they are being paid for the first time--a monthly salary of $15 from CBB's grant.
Textbooks are free to school children in India, but they must supply their own notebooks that cost from $2 for the first grade to $30 for the 12th grade. CBB funds the cost of notebooks for the girls and has purchased 50 bicycles for girls who must travel three to five miles each way to school. CBB also funds a tailoring class for out-of-school girls.
After CBB began this project, school enrollment of girls increased 24% in one year. The number of girls in university studies has increased from one to ten.
The annual cost of supporting an education center for these girls is $600.
Adult education for women
In eight rural villages north of Kolkata (Calcutta), India, Compassion Beyond Borders funds adult education for 400 women in self-help groups that have been organized by Sri Mayapur Vikas Sangha. Each class trains women in literacy and health care for three years, with some of the women also receiving training in tailoring. CBB has funded the construction of education centers for these groups that also serve as places for community gatherings, such as village meetings, weddings, etc.
This project benefits a population that is mainly Muslim, who are subjected to discrimination in India, and also Dalits ("untouchables"). Many of the "women" in these adult education classes are girls who are not in school. After receiving this training, the girls are able to enter the public school system. The annual cost of funding an adult education class for 50 women is $1,200.
Prajna Vihar School
CBB funds the education of 115 students at Prajna Vihar (Wisdom House) School, for Dalit ("untouchable") and Muslim children. This is such a good school that upper caste parents plead to have their children admitted. A small number of poor upper-caste children are accepted so that Dalit and upper-caste children can learn to live respectfully with each other.
The school begins with two years of kindergarten and continues through the tenth grade, the end of high school in India. The schedule is rigorous, six days a week, with daily homework after the first grade. Instruction is in Hindi, the language of northern India, with English also being taught. The school offers a full academic education plus physical education, art, and dance instruction to all students.
Prajna Vihar was founded by a Buddhist, has Hindu and Muslim students and faculty, and is administered by Catholic nuns. All students are taught "moral signs", the ethical values of the Indian and world religions.
This private school is free to its students, with parents being required only to pay the cost of their child's school uniform. This requirement ensures that parents are committed to their child's education, without which the school cannot function successfully
The annual cost of a student at Prajna Vihar is $40.
School for the blind
CBB gives scholarships to seven indigenous girls at a school for the blind in India. The girls’ training will enable them to lead “a nearly normal life”, as shown by their performance of a semi-classical Indian dance here. Without this education the girls would be doomed to a life of begging on a street corner.
The girls attend school with other town children during the day, and receive training in Braille, etc. after normal school hours.
The annual cost of educating a girl at this residential school that is operated by the Catholic order Missionary Sisters Queen of the Apostles is $500.
One girl's story: Kaisar
One day Sr. Bindu, then the principal of the Prajna Vihar School, met a girl on the street who had graduated from the school upon completing the tenth grade, as is normal in India. Sr. Bindu asked Kaisar why she was not in school, continuing her education. Kaisar replied that she was too poor to continue with her studies.
Kaisar lives with her mother and her sister who has three children. The sister and her children have been abandoned by the children's father. These six members of Kaisar's family are supported by the incense that Kaisar's mother and sister make and sell, bringing in an income of $15 a month. Kaisar's brother gives his mother nine dollars a month. So, the family lives on $24 a month--that's 13 cents per person a day, far below the international poverty income of $1.25 a day.
Compassion Beyond Borders gave Kaisar a scholarship to complete her twelfth grade education. She was offered the opportunity to study teacher's training in a distant city, but was unwilling to leave home to do so. Nonetheless, she now has considerably more education that most poor girls where she lives and will be able to earn an income to help support her family.
