Students at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have started work transforming a school in India which will help make a difference to the lives of children.
The team are building washrooms in Indore as part of the project run by DMU Square Mile, which works to share the experiences of staff and students for the public good.
A lack of separate washroom facilities is one of the main reasons girls drop out of school. According to Indian children’s rights organisation CRY, one in 10 schools do not have basic facilities and only 18 per cent have separate toilets for girls.
DMU Square Mile is working with a DMU partner school, Daly College, on the project. The visit is run with #DMUglobal, DMU’s pioneering programme to offer students a valuable international experience during their studies, on campus and overseas.
Students arrived this weekend in India and have started building work already.
Jess Bogic, who works for the Square Mile team, said the students had met the pupils who will be benefiting from the project. She said: “It has been an amazing experience. Meeting the young girls who have benefited from washrooms in their schools was incredible.”
Student Emma said: “We feel so privileged to be out here helping this community!”
The group are staying at Daly College, a 118-acre campus in the suburbs of Indore, a rapidly developing city of three million people in central India. It is just one of several #DMUglobal trips which are taking place at the moment. Politics students are heading to Hong Kong and Brussels; there is a Japanese cultural and language conference happening on campus and students are heading off to Amsterdam as part of their studies.
Posted on Tuesday 24 February 2015