Eliminating Poverty Locally

I have always said and still maintain that education can help solve almost every problem. For instance knowledge on pollution and on the importance of a clean environment can help solve the problem of pollution. The power of education is such that it can elevate a person socially. The fact that education is the reason behind the prosperity of many is not new to anyone. Of course intelligence plays an important role too but the prime factor remains education and most importantly, an opportunity to education.

I live in a small village called Petit Raffray where most of its inhabitants earn a living from agriculture, be it sugarcane or vegetable plantation or cattle rearing. My family is one of the rare ones to be educated and to live quite comfortably all this thanks to my parents' hard work and to our inherited property. However, not all families are that lucky and I am conscious of it. And most families have several kids in secondary schools and cannot even afford the minimum, that is books and copybooks. These parents are interested in the education of their children, but they are just helpless. Of course they do work a lot, they spend almost every minute of their waking time in the fields working the land or finding plants for their animals but still their earnings are meager.

When we came to live here six years ago and the inhabitants came to know that my sister is a teacher and is giving private tuitions, they approached her with the hope that she would give tuitions at a low price. Now I have taken up that "job". You guys know how I always talk about giving tuitions etc... I have never been tempted to mention that I give most of my students free tuitions. I'm saying this today because a post from someone has touched me and I wanted to show my involvement in eliminating poverty in my locality. I hope these go as an example to those willing to do it too:

Most of the tuitions given to students in my locality are free.

Since I got many fiction books at home, I lend them to my students so that they would not have to pay for the loan from a library and I encourage them to subscribe to public libraries since their subscription fees are very low.

I also give them papers cut from my copybooks and paper files made by myself where they can store these papers without losing them.

All photocopies are free.

I have been giving tuitions for 2 years now and every year I try to introduce something new to encourage my students in their education. Lack of materials can be a great disincentive to education and I'm happy I'm helping them overcome this.


This post was written because I'm participating in MBB's theme of the week, which is poverty.