Shishu Sarothi launches micro-scholarship programme at Meghalaya

GUWAHATI: Shishu Sarothi organized the inauguration programme of the 2nd batch of students from the English Access Micro-scholarship Programme on Tuesday at its premises here, while the inauguration for the programme at Meghalaya was held on Wednesday at Nehru Park, Barapani.

The English Access Micro-scholarship Programme, sponsored by the US Department of State, was first introduced in October, 2018 by Shishu Sarothi to be run concurrently at two locations - one being at Shishu Sarothi premises in Guwahati and the second at Hill Crest School in Shillong. A total of 58 students from both the centers graduated from the programme in April and May, 2021, stated a press release.

This access programme provides a foundation of English language skills to economically disadvantaged adolescent children between the ages of 13 to 20, in their home countries. It gives participants confidence in English-speaking skills that may lead to better jobs and educational prospects. Participants also gain the ability and opportunity to compete for and participate in future exchanges and study in the United States.

"It was extremely inspiring and uplifting to see the transformation in the personalities of the graduating students at the end of the programme. The timid and shy introverted students who started out in 2018 are now confident young individuals poised to take up opportunities and ready to advocate for important issues in public forums and this indicates the level of change that the programme brought about. We hope to have a similar outcome for our new batches this year, too," shared Ketaki Bardalai, Executive Director at Shishu Sarothi.

The classes for 2nd batch were rolled out in June this year, with around 58 students enrolled in both the locations. In Guwahati, there are 28 students from neighbourhood schools (private and government). They have the classes mostly on weekends and occasionally mid week after school.

Adrian Pratt is the Public Affairs Officer at the US Consulate, Kolkata and the Director of American Center who attended the occasion as the special guest along with other members from the US Consulate, Kolkata - Sohini Das, Aishwarya Mondal and Sameek Ghosh.

The students conducted the programme and performed various cultural activities that included classical, Bihu, Bodo and Bengali dances and put up a skit to raise awareness about social problems of child labour and child marriage. Their presentations on different states of United States with posters and hand-made models were very informative and went down well with the visitors.

Adrian Pratt said that he was awed by the wonderful performance of the students and delighted to be visiting Assam and the North-East for the first time. He congratulated the children and shared personal experiences to encourage the students in their community service-related activities.

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