Celebrating New Classrooms in Bagad

It’s been a busy summer and fall in Bagad, India!

We are proud to say that Free The Children has completed construction of three new classrooms in the community, with another two under construction!

This is a huge accomplishment considering Free The Children has only been working in Bagad for a little over one year. To celebrate, on a recent sunny Sunday the community held an inauguration ceremony, which was attended by around 200 community members—half of which were children. The new classrooms were decorated with colourful balloons, ribbons and flowers. Students performed a dance and Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children, was on-hand to give a speech.

The school headmaster, Mr. Shiv Pratap Singh, underlined the need for new classrooms and highlighted existing challenges Bagad is facing, including the marginalization, discrimination and exclusion of children from society. He said, “We are proud of being teachers of this unique and dynamic school that’s educating our new generation. I would like to thank Free The Children for creating this learning-friendly, inclusive environment. We are now able to deliver our services more effectively.” He added, “I think this school is the first in taking effective steps towards including dropout students in Bagad, particularly girls. As the local teacher I know that many parents did not want to send their girls to school but thanks to teacher engagement and enthusiasm, parents have been actively enrolling their daughters and children in school.”

As we continue our work in the community, we look forward to building more classrooms, implementing more programs and helping provide even more.

To learn more about Free The Children’s work in India, visit www.freethechildren.com/india