Europlacer supports charity funding children’s education

Published: February 4, 2022

Our local teams selected charities from around the globe to whom we have pledged our support for 2021 – here we focus on: Khushi Feet.

Khushi Feet works to fund education for children living on the street or in deprived areas in India, where it is estimated that there are at least 400,000 children living on the streets ,100,000 of which are thought to be in Kolkata.

After a trip to Kolkata to help street children, charity founder Emily Cook was both shocked and humbled by what she had witnessed. On her return home she was inspired to set up the charity Khushi Feet. Based in Faversham, UK, Khushi Feet raises money and awareness for schools for street children in Kolkata.

Many of the street children are orphans and are left to protect themselves and any younger siblings. Living on the streets is tough and some children resort to coping mechanisms such as alcohol and drugs. As a result, the majority of street children are very unlikely to ever receive any education.

Thankfully, there are organisations like Khushi Feet working to support the GNCEM (Good News Children’s Education Mission), working with underprivileged children by providing them with the opportunity to go to school.

Unlike other Indian schools, the schools are funded and do not charge students for tuition, as the children live in extreme poverty in slums or on the streets.

With currently 9 schools in areas of Kolkata around 3000 children, from kindergarten to 9th grade, are currently being taught.

‘Khushi’- is the Bengali word for ‘happy’

At the schools, the children are washed, educated, loved, and fed proper nutritional meals. They experience a safe and caring educational environment – the children love school and thrive off learning and creativity.

What these schools do for Kolkata’s poorest children is incredible. It changes lives and this is why Europlacer wants to support this work.

 

Khushi Feet’s Mission Statement is Footsteps to Freedom 

They believe that a street child’s poverty and illiteracy can be overcome with good education. A good education will help them off the street and into a proper job when they are older, giving them their first footsteps to freedom.

All the money Khushi Feet raises helps fund the education of children living in extreme poverty in Kolkata.

Their fundraising pays for:

  • resources such as food supplies
  • clothes and towels
  • education materials and books
  • medicine and sanitary products
  • running school buses
  • building extensions to school buildings- kitting out schools buildings with proper floors, doors, windows and furniture.

Words from Emily Cook

“The organisation which runs the street schools we support in India (GNCEM – the Good News Children’s Education Mission) has various schools and hostels in and around Kolkata. There are two hostels – one in Chandpur and one in Gobindapur – for underprivileged children. However, since the outbreak of the coronavirus, due to need to socially distance to stay safe, not all the children can stay at these hostels. Online classes are not an option for these children who live below the poverty line. If these children can’t go to school and stay at the hostel, they will be on the streets.

So, the students are being divided up into small groups and accommodated at other GNCEM buildings. However, these places don’t currently have proper accommodation or education facilities.

Europlacer’s donation will be providing funding to ensure these children can stay and study comfortably in these mini ‘Smile Hostels’.

Specific things that Europlacer’s donation will fund include beds, mattresses, pillows, mosquito nets, study tables, chairs, classroom equipment, lights, fans, bathroom and toilet repairs, kitchen utensil. 

There are always more children than GNCEM can accommodate, so post-Covid hopefully having these new hostel facilities established should provide even more children with an education and a safe and suitable place to stay.”