Let's get some new chalkboards!

Info about the School and how to help

Greetings from India! My husband, James Nuttall, is a 2010 Wharton MBA, and after graduation, James decided to start his own beverage company with an Indian colleague from Wharton, so we are now living in Gurgaon, India (suburb of New Delhi). For the past six months I have been volunteering my time at a local school in our neighborhood that is for children below the poverty line. There are many families in our area that work as migrant construction workers, security guards, rickshaw drivers, domestic help, etc. These families cannot afford the transportation to send their children to government schools, so they attend a makeshift school which is run by a group of concerned citizens and relies completely on donations.

Basically, the “school” is an outdoor area where the children bunch together on large blankets and the teachers use chalk boards on easels for instruction. There are about 200 students divided into 7 grades preschool through fourth grade. The kids are very eager to learn, and attendance at the school is high even though the students have to endure weather extremes, wandering livestock, and lack of any amenities. I go to the school a few times a week and read interactive story books with several of the classes to help them learn English and gain a love of reading. The needs of the school are immense, but the most pressing need is for new chalkboards because ones currently in use are very old, damaged, and nearly unusable. I thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to link interested friends with a grassroots international development project and raise money to buy the school new chalkboards. The cost of the chalkboards would be $400 and any extra money raised could be used for books, sports equipment, and art supplies for the children.

Ultimately, it would be awesome to raise money for an actual school building for these kids, but I think the modest goal of new chalkboards is a good place to start. I am posting pictures of the school and the children and I would be happy to pass along any other necessary information. A little bit of money could go a very long way for this school. I will personally use the funds to go buy the chalkboards and deliver them to the school and post pictures of the event. Money can be donated through my husbands paypal account using the email jpnuttall@yahoo.com. If you haven't used paypal before you will need to set up an account, which is easy. You can contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to consider this project!

Sincerely,

Kristy Nuttall