Our Founder and Philosopher
Founder Valored is a brain child of the great visionary the late Dr. Desmond D’Abreo. Dr. Desmond had done his doctoral studies in Paris in 1964 on Educational Psychology, and had been Director of the Religious and Value Education Department of the Xavier Institute of Education in Mumbai from 1965 to 1971. He had a deep analysis of the educational situation in India and in the world as a whole. He was a person who lived and worked tirelessly for a value-based development.
Desmond was a strong believer of education as a tool for empowerment. The education which he believed in was one which made people critically aware of their situation. He was a visionary, he dreamt of a just equitable and humane society, which is sustainable only with each member of the society, participating fully in the process of development. His concept of development was one where people plan, implement and monitor their own development. This to him was the only way towards shaping a just and equitable society.
Desmond gave up his position as a professor at St. Xavier College, Mumbai and opted to work in the field of education in the rural areas. He first worked with groups of adults creating awareness of the situation along with giving them literacy in the non-formal method of Paulo Freire. This experience made him realize that while concentrating on working with grownups we were losing a whole generation of children.
In 1995 Desmond D’Abreo was invited to the USA as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence. He was appointed as professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota. Here he taught courses on Gandhian Philosophy of Education, Women and environment and Dalit and tribal movements in India comparing it to Afro-American struggle in the US. He created a course on Ethics of International Aid. He was also called to other Colleges to lecture on the same subjects and share his experiences. At the end of the academic year when his assignment as Fulbright Scholar in Residence was done he was invited by many other universities in the States to work with them. His answer was a definite “NO”. He emphatically said “ There is so much work in my own country with my own people” and returned to India to get more involved in the project he had started with Value Oriented Education ( Val-or-Ed).
Objectives
The Objectives by which we would achieve these was to
Work with communities unmindful of their caste or creed but to concentrate specially on the weaker sections of society and specially those based in rural areas
To strengthen the formal education system and making it more effective, relevant and useful for the children of the underprivileged and marginalized section of society.
To work with the teachers towards making primary education child-oriented.
To make the schools community-centred where the community is involved in every aspect of the running of the school and framing the syllabus.
To have a network of teachers. Teachers too are adults who are the products of the prevalent value system and hence may not be ready for a change. Hence have seminars and workshops on relevant topics which will enable them to think, reflect and act and pass this on to the children placed under their care.
To liaison with the government along with the local communities, the teachers and the local Panchayats when and where change is necessary in the field of education.
To spread the practice of democratic values of equality, respect for every one rich or poor; educated or non educated, literate or illiterate, respect for women and the girl child; cooperation versus competition, sharing versus self accumulation.
To create public awareness regarding children’s problems especially the negative biases towards the girl child, child labour and child rights.
To work for the promotion of:
Child Rights.
Equality – Equal opportunity and status for children of both sexes.
Eradication of child labour system.
Education and health for all children.
Since values have to be caught and not taught this could be done in our teaching methodologies, the teachers’ dealing with the children and the harmonious involvement of all interested in the welfare of the children bearing in mind that every player in this field of education is equally important.
To let this movement spread in an organized way to the different taluks and to the district as a whole.
Goals
The primary goal of development is humanization. The poor, through centuries of oppression and exploitation, have been dehumanized. The major task of development is to give back to them their true human image and dignity. Humanization is person’s first vocation; even though it is being constantly negated though injustice, exploitation and violence by oppressors. But, at the same time, it is affirmed whenever the oppressed yearn for their freedom and for justice and when they struggle to recover their lost humanity………. This humanity cannot be compartmentalized by the problems or activities…. In development a person is to be regarded not as an economic entity or even as a political entity, but as a total human person, living in communion with other human persons.” – Desmond A D’Abreo
Goal : Work towards an education for creating a just humane and equitable society.
Valored’s Vision of Education
We believe that the right to education and the right to have its full childhood belong to every child in the world and in the country, in which so many millions of children do not have access to any school but are enslaved in hard work right from their early years. We also believe that education should be in- keeping with the psychology of the child – not a burden or a period of boredom, with emphasis on discipline and punishment but a pleasant experience in which the child learns at its own pace and rooted in its own experience, and not that which is imposed by teachers and the education department. We believe that education should lend itself not only to the intellectual growth of the child but also to its moral and social growth to enable the child to be a worthy citizen and equip him/her to face the present day challenges to create a better society..
Adolescent Education for Girls
With globalization tremendous changes are taking place, society is changing at a very fast pase, along with economic growth, socialization in the younger generation has its own impact on the society.
Socialisation has also faced a lot of health and social problems. Women and Child Department found it necessary at this stage to intervene and impact adolescent education to the high school children (girls) in collaboration with the Department the project had educated programme for the high school children in Sulya and Mulky in the month of April. Following were the topics dealt upon. Adolescent health education , Career guidance and Gender sensitivity. About 60 students benefited from this programme.
PADI – Community Awareness
These years Padi stressed a lot on importance of child rights, as there has been an increase in the no. of child abuse, child rape, child harassment cases. A wide spread awareness was given on J.J Act 2000, Child acts and child rights.
This programme was supported by Women and Child Welfare dept.There were programmes also heldon
awareness on importance of education and Child Rights was imparted to Students, Community, Teachers, Panchayat members and the Police Department. An outdoor children’s painting on Environment programme was conducted where the children were made to realize the importance of greenery and parks.
Child Right Awareness
Child abuse, child labour, child trafficking, child rape, kidnapping have been increasingly coming to the notice of the general public and the police, but because of lack of proper awareness on child rights and the J.J.Act neither the Department nor the police or the general public were able to react in a justifying manner to such cases.
As such the children are the ones who are suffering without getting proper justice. Hence wide spread awareness programme were carried out on J.J.Act, Child Rights and Child Acts. One such programme was carried out for the Department,Police Personal, Lawyers and other NGOs. Prof. Ravi Verma Kumar- Senior Lawyer of High Court, DR. H.V. Parshwanath- Deputy Commissioner, Mr. G.V.Hedge- Session Judge of D.K. District, Prof. B.K. Ravindra- Principal,SDM Law College were present for this programme. Similar programmes were also carried out in Bantwal, Belthangady, Sulya, Puttur and Mulki at different dates in the year.
To make people understand and be aware of the hardships that a child labourer or street children under go, an Art/ photo exhibition was held at St.Aloysius College Hall. The Photos and Art exhibited were the collections made by the street children themselves. Hence, this programme was more realistic and original.
PADI – SDMC Trainings
For the last consecutive 3 years Padi has been involved in conducting SDMC (School Development Monitoring Committee) training programmes. This year too the Govt. had introduced a new circular on the recent changes in the SDMC.
Based on this and in collaboration with the dept. SDMC Training were conducted in the month of March 2007 in Belthangady Taluk to be followed with
Training for all the other Taluks of D.K. District. The contents of these trainings were on clarity about the new circular policy, role and responsibilities of SDMC members, SDMC’s relationships with Grama Panchayath.
PADI – Training and Exposure
Under this programme a team of 8 teachers had been to Araville in the month of February 2007 to study Isai Ambalam School Education system so that they could see if the same could be implemented in the D.K. Schools.
This was a very educative exposure. Another Training cum Exposure programme was carried out in Mulky for the
DEd students on Gender Sensitivity, Career Guidance, Adolescent Health Education and the Psychological and Health problems faced by children. 30 students under went this training.
A group of children were taken to the forest for an Exposure and were introduced to the medicinal and herbal plants of the forest. This exposure was to make the children understand the value of the forest and love for nature.
