School to School (S2S)

Although part of the focus of S2S is on providing needy children in rural schools with needed supplies, it is not a charity programme; the main stress is on building relationships between urban and rural schools and their students, and on raising awareness of the detrimental impact that economic deprivation can have on motivation to attend school. The strategy for building awareness and inspiring volunteerism involves interpersonal, information-sharing approaches and the use of photographs to build connections between students living and learning in very different circumstances.

Organisers begin by spreading the message and mobilising participation through face-to-face and printed communication. GOONJ visits schools to talk to groups of teachers and students and brief them about the programme. They provide children with a half-page leaflet to deliver to their parents. They set up exhibitions with photographs depicting conditions in rural schools like lack of infrastructure, lack of chairs and desks, the presence of one teacher for many classes, and lack of notebooks, pencils, or erasers; the purpose is to use real images to sensitise urban schools to the condition of need. (Organisers hope to also enable urban children to visit remote schools to see understand the on-the-ground realties that their rural counterparts are experiencing). GOONJ later returns to each school to discuss the implementation and impact of the programme; the idea is to give parents, students and teachers a chance to feel good about contributing.

The process centres around a collection drive that is organised in the schools with the help of the school management and GOONJ volunteers. S2S introduces children to the idea of getting involved in helping others and making a difference in the lives of their disadvantaged peers through volunteering. The process is based on motivating schoolchildren to donate their time by collecting, sorting, and packing material old or excess material - books, uniforms, shoes, school bags, plates to eat lunch on, etc. - for their counterparts in remote villages. Organisers claim that the specific step of sorting the material and matching it to particular students' needs is crucial in that it helps young participants to develop "a sense of respecting the dignity of children at the receiving end", as opposed to typical donation programmes, in which "many people use the opportunity to clear all the waste they have". The children are motivated to give new items by messages like: "when you buy 5 pencils for yourself why not buy one for your friend in __________ village of ___________?" or "this year on your birthday, just commit a pencil box to your counterpart in __________ of ___________!" The idea is to instill a sense of responsibility for those in need, and a spirit of generosity and desire to help others.

Partnership supplements these efforts. Volunteers in cities approach schools to suggest initiating the programme, and organisers ask school principals and teachers to draw on their contacts in other schools to mobilise participation. Distribution of materials in villages is carried out by GOONJ's partner organisations - local NGOs, Panchayats, and the Indian army (in Kashmir). Through their participation, these organisations have "a chance to establish a better relationship with the community they work for and a chance to work without much financial involvement."

In addition to supporting concrete educational needs, S2S takes steps to support disadvantaged children's right to play. Organisers "firmly believe that lakhs of village children also have the right to play with better things than old tyres, used torch batteries, empty match boxes or the covers of cigarette packets which are their only toys." Thus, S2S is developing rural school activity centres for village children that provide access to discarded/donated indoor and outdoor toys, educational materials, and a small library of storybooks. These fun yet learning-based materials are intended to help children use their leisure time more constructively .

Children, Conservation, Education.

"The urban school children are by and large divorced from the realities of the other not so privileged children of India, this programme will educate and expose them and give them a better understanding of the hardships and difficulties of kids who struggle for the basic amenities of life."

Organisers note that, as the entire S2S concept is based on recycling, "it enables use of every single item (in the case of schools more of plastic items) for many years instead of using it once and throwing away in the garbage." The programme, that is, can help solve an urban problem wherein each year thousands of urban students replace all their school material, with no clear method of disposal.

S2S was a 2005 recipient of the Changemakers Innovation Award.