11th May, 2008

Sebastian Indian Social Projects is a small Indian NGO, registered in Kerala, registration number T-523/97.

SISP was founded in December 1996 by Peter Paul John (Kerala, India), Werner Fynaerts and Paul Van Gelder (Mechelen, Belgium).

SISP focuses on the poorest and the drop-outs from Indian society in and around the village of Vilhinjam in southern Kerala. SISP tries to improve their quality of life by, amongst other things, offering free training, training in social resilience, setting up banking systems (micro credit unions), mentoring and financial assistance for medical treatment, nutrition and/or schooling.

SISP works closely with local authorities and aid workers.

SISP currently employs 35 people.

NEW BUILDINGS

Since the building that SISP currently rents had become too small, it was decided at SISP's 2006 General Assembly to buy land and to build its own centre in 2007. The new building should be completed in the spring of 2008. The building is in its final phase of construction and comprises 5 classrooms, 2 offices, a spacious room for social activities, 2 large workshops and a beautiful, large, multipurpose room that doubles as a dining hall. Pictures of the new centre.

The new centre will make a vast improvement to the quality of education we can offer and to the working conditions of staff.

EDUCATION

Drop Outs

In 2007 we had an average of 80 children and young people, all of whom had dropped out from the regular school system and almost all coming from families below the poverty line.

The new centre will make a vast improvement to the quality of education we can offer and to the working conditions of staff.

We had 5 full-time teachers for the classics and 2 part-time teachers for the creative courses.

6 of the oldest students participated in the part-learning / part-work project. This involves lessons in the morning followed by training in SISP's various workshops in the afternoon, with a small salary which increases as their education progresses.

In 2007 we had an average of 80 children and young people, all of whom had dropped out from the regular school system and almost all coming from families below the poverty line.

We had 18 children enrolled in local schools in June, bringing the total number of children who studied in SISP previously but now followed courses at local schools to 35.

SISP pay their school costs, transport them to and from school, and take them for classes after school. 10 students who failed in their lower secondary were prepared by our teachers in the public exams and obtained their certificates.

Our teachers developed their own textbooks for our children for the current school year. All educational material was provided free of charge to our children. Each month the teachers visit our irregular children and try to bring them back to our centre, and we organise a parent-teacher meeting twice a year.

The monthly allowance to attend school and receive free medical treatment was continued as in previous years. This year, for the first time, we could also give our students free book bags, clothing and footwear at Christmas.

After-School Classes

We had an average of sixty-five children in the after-school classes which are from 16:00 to 18:00 in the afternoon: thirty-five former students and an additional thirty, all from families below the poverty line. We had 7 teachers for these classes.

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