Stone quarry school

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Going to school instead of breaking stones

After national workers had found several children doing hard physical work in stone quarries near the town of Yeleswaram in 1995, a school was erected within sight of the stone quarry – initially provisionally in a rice mill. The following years saw the construction of a large school and since then it has been a major priority of the wortundtat partner organisation AMG India to show more and more parents from the 47 stone quarries in the region what the future for their children could look like. Because only a good school education enables children to become apprentices or even enrol into a university. In turn, these conditions are the key to a future without the dangerous and badly paid work in the stone quarries. It has not always been easy to convince parents of the benefit of the school, because only too often families don’t even have the bare essentials and are dependent on every source of income, however small.

By accommodating 1,863 pupils, however, the school for former stone quarry children has reached its full capacity in the 2009/2010 term: a total of 1,763 children are now registered in 37 school classes. Another 100 children attend 2 classes of a sewing school. This success was not least made possible by the support from Germany: many people have taken over class sponsorships and by donating 18 Euros a month they fund one of the available spaces at the school.

Your help would also be appreciated.