Tong-Len has been very concerned to provide education and support for the children of the families that were evicted from their homes in Charan Khad in June 2016. At this time our tent schools within the Charan slum were also destroyed.
Since the opening of the Tong-Len School in the hostel complex in April 2018, it has been possible to provide full-time education to a large number of children remaining in the slum camps, in addition to those resident in the hostels. Currently almost 100 children are transported each day from the slum camps to the Tong-Len School, where they join the primary children from the hostels, returning each evening to their homes in the slums. In addition to a very rounded holistic education, they are given food, hygiene and health care and the opportunity to learn and develop through exploration, questioning and the use of computer technology.
Care and early education is provided for the pre-school children through the Tong-Len nursery, run by 2 Tong-Len teachers with assistance from some of the mothers. Here the children are washed in a hygienic environment and receive care, a nutritious midday meal and opportunities for play and basic education while their mothers are away begging or scavenging to earn the necessary rupees for survival.