Supporting Dalit Children was set up by Dinah and Peter Findlay in January 2008 following the family’s short stay in a primary school for Dalits in North Karnataka, India.

Please please please sponsor us!

Every child deserves a chance, help us help them by sponsoring us on our big adventure!  100% of your sponsorship goes directly to these children.  Click here to sponsor us.

The Dalits are outside of the four main castes in the Hindu caste system.  They are known as the ‘untouchables’ and have no place or standing in Indian society.  Society forces Dalits to perform the most menial and degrading jobs, often clearing dead animal carcasses from roads or clearing (by hand) public latrines.    These people are cruelly victimized and exploited, especially women who have very little rights and who are often forced into prostitution.  Children all too often become bonded labourers – bonded labour is the same as slave labour and is widespread in rural areas particularly.   In order to help repay a family loan, bonded children are forced to work for corrupt and wealthy landowners for very little or no pay, often seven days a week. The value of their work is invariably greater than the original sum of money borrowed, and, a debt can run over decades meaning a child may be destined to bonded labour from a debt his grandfather incurred generations ago.

Click here to meet some of the children!

St. Xavier’s School for Dalits was founded several years ago by two Indian Jesuit priests.  Their school provides a first-class, all round English-medium education to Dalit and other out-caste children from forty-five surrounding villages.  Self-help groups of women from each village help to choose which children should be given first priority to a school place.  The poorest of the poor will get first priority, the bonded labourers, the malnourished – those in greatest need.  Dalits live in stark, impoverished conditions – mud huts with no electricity or running water, make-shift slum-like dwellings which are prone to being washed away by monsoon rains.

At present it costs £150 per child per year for their board and education and the charity’s aim is to sponsor as many children as possible.  This education will give them real opportunities to escape from the poverty trap which they have been born into.  Many of them now look forward to a future in teaching or other vocations through which they can serve their communities.

Click here to find out how to donate

All money raised goes directly to the Dalit school’s bank account – there are no administration or advertising costs. Every £1 raised/donated goes to pay for a child’s education, absolutely nothing is deducted.

Supporting Dalit Children has its own bank account, is registered with the Charities Commission and has Gift Aid status.   If you’d like to support this charity, please send a cheque made payable to ‘Supporting Dalit Children’ to Fillets Farm, Hunsdon, Nr Ware, Herts, SG12 8QA, UK.  Alternatively please transfer funds directly to the charity’s bank account “Supporting Dalit Children” at Barclays Bank plc, sort code no. 20 73 26, bank account no. 13455785.  (If you are able to complete a Gift Aid form, this increases every donation by an additional 28%).

With many thanks for your care and generosity.  Every pound given makes a real difference.

Dinah Findlay, Managing Trustee.