ASED
Changing the future of disadvantaged youth
Location
Purkal, a semi-rural village on the outskirts of Dehradun, a town in northern India situated in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Context
ASED has been supporting Purkal Youth Development Society (PYDS) since 2017. Between 2017 and 2019, ASED supported the construction of a new 4-storey building with 4 classrooms, a medical room and various rooms for children’s holistic development (yoga, performances, art, innovation lab).
The building currently housing the school’s 5 primary classes is almost 10 years old. Because of the climate (temperate, hot and humid), infrastructure is aging rapidly and classrooms are in dire need of renovation. In addition, PYDS aims to provide children with modern educational tools that will enable them to acquire the knowledge they need for their future.
Partnership
Since 1998, PYDS has been working to provide Purkal’s children with a quality education, from kindergarten to the end of secondary school. The majority of children are first-generation learners whose families live in extreme poverty.
The school offers a high-quality curriculum free of charge, ensures balanced nutrition and medical care, and includes extracurricular activities designed to develop fundamental skills that will serve them well in life (creativity, curiosity, autonomy, ethics and criticism). For PYDS, the acquisition of these skills is a key element of a successful education, because, together with quality teaching, it enables children to successfully integrate the world in which they live and improve their living conditions. Girls’ education is also a priority.
To date, 282 students have successfully completed their studies, of whom 114 are employed and 161 are pursuing higher education. The school currently has 509 pupils (189 boys and 320 girls).