The Problem We are currently working with a nomadic community, Bharwad, settled in Nagpur district for about 40 years.

The population of the Bharwad community in Nagpur district is about 4500, living in about 80 hamlets. There are about 1200 school-age children (3-15) of which 42% are enrolled in some schools, only 34% actually going to school and less than 5% are able to achieve grade-level competencies. Can we imagine? If this problem is not addressed, hundreds of children will be thrown into the cycle of poverty.

This extremely alarming situation is the lack of awareness and motivation about education in the community, as well as the serious lack of motivation and skills in the school-teachers who are not taking enough efforts to bring these children to classrooms and create an environment in which children will feel dignity, joy and inclusivity. These children need someone who would take extra effort. There is a need for leadership at different levels to inspire and lead the change.

Solution We search highly motivated and passionate fresh graduates/youth who have potential and interest to become education leaders. In the short-term, they work with these children to improve learning outcomes, develop passion for learning, work with parents to develop clear vision and strong motivation for quality education and with teachers to improve skills and motivation for creating quality learning experiences for children. In long-term, these fellows will become part of a movement of education leaders who will be working in cooperation with each other to create learning spaces that will equip the children to find their passion and lead to a happy and successful life Impact We have completed a pilot project in a hamlet near the village Sonkhamb, Ta. Katol during August 2020-February 2021. Our children (including primary and pre-primary group) were able to move from 1.42 to 2.46 (against expectation of ⅗ by the end of the year) on Student vision scale (SVS), which is our qualitative measure of students growth The children were able to complete on average 6.83 of 13 milestones on language and 12.50 of 15 milestones on Mathematics. Parents of all children noted their satisfaction with our learning centre and noted that their children go to the learning centre every day on their own without having to insist. Parents decided to either stop their migration or make necessary arrangements to ensure that their children continue learning. We conducted a survey of 31 Bharwad hamlets from 5 Tehsils. District administration took note of it and have moved to check the status of the out of the school children. Also the administration has agreed to allow us to work with 4 ZP schools for improving the quality of education in these schools.