The Community Hygiene Complex Project at Madargate

Madargate is a small locality within the town of Anupshahr, located in the district of Bulandshar in Uttar Pradesh. The area is quite unknown and does not feature in any formal map of the state. How Madargate was "discovered" by PPES is quite an interesting story. To cut a long story short- Sam, the founder of PPES saw a young lady with 2 children filling pails of water from the hand pump on the campus. Recognizing she was not a staff member, she was politely asked if her kids were students at the school. She quipped, "No, they do not study here. If the school knew who we are they would not take these kids", and scurried along. Shocked by this response, Sam was determined to know where she came from. With the help of PPES ground staff, he was brought to Madargate. There he learned that Madargate was home to the Kanjar community - a community that ranks lowest in the caste pyramid and where most if not all families fall below the poverty line.

The landscape at Madargate is an overwhelming scenario. Majority of the homes have thatched roofs or plastic sheets as rooftops, have no running water, no electricity and no basic sanitation facilities like drainage, toilets or bathrooms. Infectious diseases are rampant in the locality given the hygienic conditions, social evils are prominent given the lack of education and awareness, poverty and its reflections are intense given the families do not have a steady source of income and the feeling of safety and security is minimal given the lack of adequate lighting (electricity). Little children run around almost naked, covered in dirt from head to toe. Disheartened on seeing this neglected community, PPES vowed to help uplift this community and began a campaign to enroll students in the school as well as employ women at the PPES Production Center. Field staff were successful in enrolling 200 children from Madargate.

However, this alone was not sufficient to help empower and uplift this community. Enrolling the students at PPES made visible other pressing issues which had to be dealt with. The video below illustrates one dimension of the reality at Madargate....

Funds for this Project will also go towards setting up a solar lantern charging station at the Hygiene Complex. PPES recently received a generous donation from Hayat Communications towards sponsoring 100 solar lanterns. The families will only be given the solar lanterns (without the charging panels). It was decided to build a charging station at the Hygiene Complex to encourage the 100 families to make the most of all the facilities available at the hygiene complex (toilets, bathrooms, laundry, filtered water, solar lanterns) as well as to maintain a continuous involvement with the Madargate community. Setting up a charging station will also result in employment opportunities to man the station.

The Facts

WHAT:

The Community Hygiene Complex Project at Madargate is part of Pardada Pardadi's Green Initiative. It involves going green by bringing a significant change in the living conditions of the entire community at Madargate.

DONATIONS:

Give to the Community Hygiene Complex Project
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Learn about our other green project: The Solar Lantern Project >>