If you're reading this, then you clicked on the link, so thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Pratham is an organisation I respect a lot. They are almost a social movement more than an educational NGO. They are fiercely motivated by their cause, and work on a very bottom-up basis around sensitising and empowering communities themselves. They work from the most densely populated urban slums in India through to the most sparsely populated Naxalite rural areas. The basic literacy and numeracy techniques they use are child-friendly, and extremely rigorous evaluations by MIT's Poverty Action Lab have found them to be highly effective. These techniques are now being applied in other countries as well.
But in the end, its not about Pratham. Its about children. Words cannot begin to describe the talent and thirst for transformation that is out there among children across the developing world who right now do not, and unless things change will never have, the tools and confidence to fulfil themselves.
Whether you donate to Pratham or to someone else or even not at all, please help try and stop this waste. In the words of Freire:
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
Sorry, got carried away there...time to get off the soapbox and remember the words of my true hero, Eric Cartman:
"So, I am to understand that there will be no side dishes tonight?"
If you'd like to donate, then thank you - donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
