Parijat Academy
In 2007, after SASCWA's initiative in Dhemai was reported in Assam state newspapers, SASCWA was approached by the director of another school also situtated in a tribal village. The school is called Parijat Academy and is the initiative of a local Karbi man, Uttam Teron. SASCWA has provided funding to Parijat to buy school materials including desks, benches and books and other educational materials. SASCWA also provides funding for a early childhood teacher at Parijat and toys and materials to support a toy library within the school.The desks and benches (shown below) were made by local craftsmen. The photo below right shows the text books delivered to the school. In 2009, SASCWA collected and delivered art materials to Parijat and Dhemai and ran an art competition for the students which was a great success. We asked the children to draw pictures of their local village. In 2010, with the help of Hill House, Pembroke School, Adelaide, we were able to send more art materials to Parijat. The children have very little access to art materials so it provides a welcome change to the routine of school and an opportunity to express themselves in a new way. The children were very proud of their pictures.
The partnership with Parijat has also allowed us to support teachers in schools in remote villages some distance from Parijat including our main project at Garbhanga where we have focused our most recent efforts.
You can find out more about Parijat at http://www.parijatacademy.org/
 Benches and stools after delivery |
 Textbooks provided by SASCWA are delivered |
 Desks in place in the classroom |
 Weaving is taught at Parijat |
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In 2009, Udoy and Rupali Saikia, our project officers visited Parijat for the second time and Dhemai for the third time. They brought back pictures of the boarding house where children from remote villages who boarded at the school lived during term time. You can see ta picture of one of the boarding houses above left. Each child slept on a board bench covered with a cloth. Cooking was carried out over an open fire outside the boarding house building. It becomes quite cold in the region during the winter months and we thought it was important for the children to have adequate bedding materials so that they would be able to sleep comfortably at night. Therefore hand-made bedding materials were sourced locally and each child in the boarding house was provided with a cotton 'mattress', quilt and pillow. As you can see in the photos below and above right taken in 2010, the bedding was brightly coloured and its delivery caused much excitement. Rupali and Udoy were able to visit again when the bedding materials were delivered and to hand these over to the children.
 Delivery of the quilts and bedding to Parijat boarding students |
 Inside the girls boarding house |
