Project inception
Eight years of Aashirwad School for Girl Child Education, jointly run by CHORD and Qualcomm.
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From labour to learning — schools that restore childhood.
Bridge, girls’, neighbourhood and formal schools that rescue, educate and mainstream children.
150 girls a year
Working girl children — migrated urban child labourers — rescued and educated annually.
Educational impact
Holistic, flexible learning plus support in early adulthood so the change lasts.
Community outreach
Girls are integrated into mainstream education, shifting families and neighbourhoods with them.
Girl power to the fore
Among children out of school, there are twice as many girls as boys.
Among illiterate adults, there are twice as many women as men. Offering girls a basic education is how they gain genuine choice over the lives they lead. UNICEF is clear: this is not a luxury. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and CEDAW establish it as a basic human right.
Why CHORD promotes girls’ education
Four beliefs. One reason is already enough.
A healthier, happier life
An educated woman has a better chance of health and happiness. That should be reason enough.
Skills and self-confidence
She gains the information, skills and confidence to be a better parent, worker and citizen.
More productive at work
Education raises productivity — and the return on educational investment is often higher for women than for men.
Girls in slums, first
The work is aimed at vulnerable and working young girls in urban slums, not at an abstract “girl child”.
Aashirwad School · Hyderabad
Rescue, educate and mainstream 150 working girl children every year.
The bridge school in Ranga Reddy District, Telangana, breaks the cyclic life of working children through CHORD’s remedial education model. It rebuilds a learning foundation that was denied to them, then moves girls into mainstream school.
Now in its eighth year, Aashirwad is designed to educate, empower, enrich and enliven — from primary and secondary schooling through vocational training and a future they can actually choose.
The development model
Neighbourhood schooling through adolescence, not a short rescue.
Support in the adolescent years has a lasting effect. Girls grow into independent, responsible women who lead change in their families and communities — including family planning, health, hygiene and a fairer share of employment.
A life changed
Sailaja, from a migrant family in Gokul Plots, was forced into labour. After CHORD enrolled her in the Qualcomm-supported bridge school she says she is living a dream — studying in Class 4 with books, uniforms, meals and dignity.Sailaja · Aashirwad School for Girls