Community Centres

There are currently 10 Helping Point Community Centres (or “Daycare Centres”) operating in small towns and villages across the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The main purpose of the centres is to provide a higher quality of education for children who would otherwise have little chance to progress beyond primary education. In many of these regions, the local schools are underfunded and understaffed, making them poorly-equipped to meet the needs of their communities. There is a need for adequate educational opportunities for children living in rural areas, in order to provide them with better job prospects for the future and to give them a chance to break out of the cycle of poverty. In some cases, children as young as six or seven-years-old are required to work, rather than attend school, in order to help support their families. While the Community Centres provide local children with increased access to education, they also seek to meet the physical needs of their students through regular meals and health check-ups, relieving families of some of the pressures they face on a daily basis.

The Helping Point Community Centres seek to function as a part of the community; the staff members live in the village and some run the Centre out of their homes. They are continually building trust between people of different faiths, as the centres are often located in areas impacted by religious tension. Local people have been overwhelmingly thankful for the centres because of the hope that Helping Point is bringing to their communities.