Asha for Education

Center for Development (CfD) came into formal existence on 25th of January in 1996.The group came together specifically to address the issues of education primarily in Muslim and Dalit community. CfD believes in their complete emancipation and in creating a society with deep communal harmony. It currently works in the city of Ahmedabad and in rural areas of Junagadh district of Gujarat. CfD’s target groups are Dalits, Muslims, Kolies and fisher folk communities. Women and children of these communities remain the focus group of the organization.

CfD started its work in 1998 with child labourers and has enrolled more then 1200 children into formal schools, till date. Irregular and inadequate income were the main cause of children’s school drop-out. Hence, they started income generation programs with their families. This helped greatly in keeping the children out of labour work. In 2001 there was a massive earthquake which affected the lives of many people. This again affected the education of the children. Schools were closed for months for renovations and parents were scared so they did not send the children to schools. The second consecutive year, 2002, saw communal carnage on a very large scale. Thousands of people were killed and more than 150,000 people were displaced and living in relief camps. The riots continued for six months and people were segregated in many colonies. The whole atmosphere was of suspicion and uncertainity. In this situation people could not think of sending their children to schools because of insecurity. Hundreds of children dropped out from schools. Many families shifted far away from their original living place to newly built relief colonies build by religious organizations. Means of livelihood were destroyed; economic boycott and polarization of communities snatched their livelihood resources. The families became divided and their lives were disturbed in all facets. The main affected groups were children, girls and women.

CfD has been working with riot affected people of Danilimda, Behrampura, Piplaj and Ramol area. They have been involved in peace building exercises with these people since 2002. Education of children was completely lacking in all these areas as most of the children did not go to schools and were drop outs. CfD started education centres for these children and also integrated peace building alongside by taking equal mix of children of both Dalit & Muslim communities in the centres. This helped the children better understand each other. During the parents meetings, the parents of children of the two communities also got a chance to interact with each other. This really helped in forging friendships and developing a better understanding between the people of the two communities.
CfD continues its work with the rehabilitation and education of riot affected victims.