Children living in Tiruvanamalai’s slum areas and surrounding villages have little hope for becoming well educated. Schools are very poor and most children go home to parents who are uneducated and unmotivated to support their children’s education. Regenboog’s simple yet highly effective solution has been the development of three evening schools that now provide encouragement and educational support to over 200 children. The children meet Monday through Saturday after school from 5:00 to 8:00 in locations that are easily accessible. They are divided into age groups and each group has their own teacher who helps the children complete their homework and understand their lessons. Equally important as their schoolwork, children are taught to care for others, to be responsible citizens, and to believe in themselves and their abilities to create positive futures.

The long held desire to teach computer skills to the children in the evening schools came to fruition recently with the opening of a computer center with 5 desktop computers in one of the evening schools. Children will be able to systematically learn computer skills from a teacher and to play educational games. Access to the Internet is the next step.

In addition to the Evening Schools, Regenboog also supports 4 full time teachers in the very poor region of the Jawadhu Hills. One school in this area had over 150 children and only 2 teachers. The administrator of this school approached Regenboog for assistance and Regenboog offered to pay the salaries for the additional teachers.

The Mobile Library project began with donations of about 150 books in English and Tamil and the recognition of the importance of providing a way for poor families to access books to read at home. Part of motivating children to succeed in school is to provide them with books on a variety of topics of interest to them. In order to make these books available, a volunteer has brought books to the Children’s Home, the Evening Schools, and 3 other local orphanages. Every two weeks the volunteer loads about 100 books on a motorcycle and travels to these locations. Children are able to check out books for the 2 weeks period and then return them and check out others. This project has been an instant great success with the children.

Two issues with the current situation are that during the rainy season a motorcycle cannot be used to transport the books and the number of books carried on a motorcycle is limited. Thanks to Dominik Kulsen of Switzerland, a solution to both of these issues has been found. Mr Kulsen donated funds to buy a used auto rickshaw that is being transformed into a mobile library. All books will be stored in the rickshaw and will be driven to various locations all year round for the enjoyment education of many children.