HISTORY

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 Memphis –Mumbai Connect pre-primary schools are a group of cluster schools in the impoverished areas of Mumbai. Currently we serve four different locations in Goregaon. 

HOW IT STARTED:

In 2014, Avisha Kulkarni had started a class in a garage for about 18 pre-primary children in the Goregaon area of Mumbai. This school served the under privileged children of a slum in the vicinity of the school. In 2014, Shaila Karkera, saw potential for growth and offered to secure the funding from her friends and supporters in Memphis, USA, for educating 100 pre-primary students. Thus started our long term collaboration called Memphis- Mumbai Connect pre-schools.  These were all in underprivileged areas. Parents make less than Rs. 100,000.00 /year. (Approx. $1600/year or less than $150 per month) 

WHAT WE DO:

Parents of the impoverished class are unable to send their children to pre-school. Wealthy parents are able to afford the best pre-school programs for their children, so when the underprivileged students go to 1st grade, they are already far behind their affluent peers. In most municipal schools, the medium of instruction is Hindi or Marathi, the local language. However for students to get ahead in life, parents have become very cognizant of the fact that their child needs to be in an English medium school, which they cannot afford. Hence, the goal is to make the children proficient in English, Math etc. Our goal has been to prepare our students for admission into mainstream schools.  

2014: In July 2014, classrooms in three different locations were rented and three schools were started for a total of 100 students in three locations. 

2015: The school has grown to 160 students. We are in several locations in Goregaon and have one school in Chembur. 

2016: Our student population has doubled to 344. 

2017: Our student population is 558. We are in several locations. 

2018: Our schools continue to thrive. We have to let go of our classroom in Chembur so we can focus on our schools in the Goregaon area. 

2020: The growth with funds raised in Memphis has been phenomenal with 700 students schooled in 2019-2020 school year.  

2021: We have enrolled 960 students in the various locations this school year.  Total funds raised from Memphis so far has been in the amount of $252,000.00 which is about INR 17,640,000.00. Rotary of Germantown has been instrumental in helping transfer the funds.