High Hills currently participates in the following programs:
Village Tuition and Centers
Education is crucial for progress and upliftment, particularly for breaking a cycle of poverty. Right alongside the recent phenomenal strides in economic growth in India, a general tendency to unemployability due to skill deprivation is increasing, especially among the rural population. Approximately one in five job seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.
In rural areas education remains inaccessible to many, for various reasons. There is still a significant lack in the physical presence of schools in proximity to many villages. Where schools do exist the medium of instruction is not always in a language that is accessible to the local population. In many cases children (and especially girls) cannot attend school anyway because the scant income from their labor in rice fields or factories is more immediately valuable to their households. According to a 2006 study by UNESCO the dropout rate in India is 39%.
High Hills Outreach partners with local agencies in India to provide basic education in the form of “tuition centers” in remote and rural areas. Besides making the education affordable, these centers provide a further crucial tool for empowerment in the form of vocational training programs. Here village youth acquire skills in mechanical and technical labor, computer applications, tailoring, plumbing and carpentry, which will start them on a profitable career track.
Among the long term objectives we hope to achieve through the village tuition center and youth vocational training programs, one is to improve the existing infrastructure of the educational system. Where schools are otherwise inaccessible we help them to connect with rural populations in the capacity of satellite schools. We also cultivate initiative within the community by training villagers to participate in running the programs. The centers are also a platform for health workshops which give instruction on disease prevention and basic hygiene.
Orphanages
A sad characteristic of countries like India is the stark abundance of abandoned and homeless children. Children are orphaned or abandoned for various reasons, ranging from economic hardship to families being affected by HIV/AIDS. In the absence of a government foster care system, these children are left with no one to care for them. We take these children in and give them food, clothing, shelter, education and most importantly a sense of belonging. Many of our children have gone on to live fulfilling lives and have families and careers such as nursing and teaching, where they contribute significantly to society.
Homes for the destitute
Women in India face uniquely distressing levels and forms of discrimination. They are in many cases regarded almost as property, to be sold and purchased from their father’s family to their husbands. With the existence of cultural institutions like Dowry, which compels families to pay large amounts of money to marry a daughter off, women are even seen as liabilities. Thus, female infanticide is widely practiced, and women who live to be married are easily abandoned by their husbands, or else by their communities when widowed. A large part of our activities entails providing care for such destitute women. We give them a place to live, a community to belong to and the opportunity to contribute to their own living by small-scale entrepreneurial means.
Care for HIV/AIDS affected people
India has the world’s third largest population of HIV/AIDS victims. The good news is that much has been done in recent years to curb the number of AIDS infections. But there are many whose lives and families have been severely affected by the disease, and our organization works to assist and rehabilitate them. We give medical care and counseling to about 3000 people directly affected by AIDS as well as providing education and vocational training for women and children of AIDS affected families.
