A Project Supported by the International School of Hyderabad

Amboth Tanda School

India continues to face serious problems educating children, especially those who are from very poor families. Although India has made remarkable progress in technology and in many other fields, the rural population still deserves greater attention. A large number continue to live in abject poverty. Many villages do not have proper infrastructure and social amenities. Most children continue to accompany their parents to work on the fields instead of attending school. If there is a school in the village, very often it does not function regularly. Many villagers still do not see any value in educating their children.

In 1990, in order to create a model school that demonstrates a good education programme, we decided to adopt a village. This village was mainly inhabited by the Lambada tribe. We selected the reputed Indian Foundation ICF INDIA to carry out our targeted programme. When we started talking to the villagers about educating their children, they were strongly opposed it. Most of them are peasants and are dependent on monsoons. They make very negligible earnings only during the periods of harvesting. They have lost the habit of working regularly. The village had virtually no infrastructure. The tribal people lived in straw huts. 

We introduced a self-help project and gave them the incentive to improve their living conditions. We guided and helped them to build over 100 mud houses made of stabilised mud blocks. This gave us the possibility to gain their confidence and they agreed, but with great reluctance,  to send their children to school. We started a small school with only 50 children in a temporary accommodation. Later, when the number of the children increased, a need for a regular school building arose. 

Thanks to the donations received from various Swiss and European donors we were able to purchase land and construct a regular school building with ground floor, first floor and a separate dining hall. 

The construction of the Amboth Tanda School building and the dining hall has had a very positive impact. It has motivated the parents very strongly, not only to educate their children, but also to delay the marriages of their young daughters because most tribal people have a tradition of marrying their children at a very young age. 

The construction of our school building has changed the scenario of the whole region. Thanks to the donations we received, the future of many rural inhabitants became more promising. The establishment of the school has contributed to the expansion of the horizon of the inhabitants. 

The International School of Hyderabad (ISH) has been closely involved with the development of the Amboth Tanda Village School for many years. We ISH are determined to keep the school running and we do hope you will be able to help us in some way.