About Nav-Jeevan Sanstha School

Nav-Jeevan Sanstha gives slum children and orphans the opportunity to a new life by offering education, shelter, meals and medical care. Slum children are children who's parents are beggars. These children are therefore put on the streets to beg. For their parents, this is a source of income so that the children not attending school are doomed to a life begging on the streets. Nav-Jeevan Santhsa school has convinced some of these families to attend their school and earn a better quality of life.

Nav-Jeevan Sanstha School was founded by Mrs. I.S,Wilkinson from Nagpur India and Ms. Annelies van de Ven from the Netherlands. The idea of the school was born in 1980 when Mrs. Wilikson, a high school teacher by profession, managed an orphanage in Nagpur. Annelies adopted two little girls from this orphanage, and when her daughters grew up, Annelies asked Mrs. Wilkinson what she could do for Nagpur in return for giving her two beautiful children. Iris had always felt very strongly that the section of Indian society most in need of help were slum and street children. While an institution that takes care of the orphans exists, slum children, by virtue of having parents, are not considered society’s responsibility and are doomed to live a life in abject poverty and ignorance just like their parents.

While Mrs. Wilkinson registered Nav-Jeevan Sanstha in Nagpur in 2003, Annelies simultaneously launched Stichting Nav-Jeevan in Holland as a non-profit organisation. Stitching Nav-Jeevan raises funds by giving information and lecturers and still is the main sponsor for the work carried on by Nav-Jeevan Sanstha (NJS).

Why are we writing this blog?

Today NJS has 220 students and is housed in a beautiful building with all modern amenities thanks to the efforts of its Dutch partner. The 22 local teachers are supported by international volunteers- currently by us. We're 5 girls from Germany, The Netherlands and Dubai and have been here for a week now. One of us is going to stay for one month, two of us for 6 weeks and the other two for 6 months. In this blog, we would like to tell you about our experiences here in the "orange capital" of India, Nagpur, and invite you to read it, tell your friends about it and donate if you want the school to be able to keep up the great work that it is doing here.