Ekal Canada

Donation of $500 supports one school of (about 26 children) for one year.

Ekal Canada is supporting at present 805 regular schools and 21 Life Time schools

Ekal organization operates one teacher schools in tribal and remote villages of India.  Ekal schools provide opportunities to those children who otherwise will have little chance to get education.  Schools have been taken to the doorsteps of the children.  There are no permanent school buildings.  Classes are held under a tree, in a hut, in a verandah, or wherever space is available.  Children sit on jute mats.  The teacher, students and the blackboard make an Ekal school.

There were more than 100,000 Ekal schools before pandemic. For various reasons, some of the schools had to be closed temporarily. At present there are about 80,000 Ekal schools in operation. There are more than 2 million children enrolled in an Ekal school.  Duration of Ekal schools is four years.  About 95% of the students move from Ekal schools to regular schools every year where they excel in the school. 

Mission – Holistic development of remote villages in India by providing Education (Ekal schools), Health and Hygiene (Arogya) and Economic Development (Gramothan).  Because of the epidemic, most of the ekal field activities and school operations  were suspended temporarily.  The things are restoring to normalcy gradually.

An Ekal Village-Ekal schools are in tribal and remote villages. Generally, Ekal villages are small with average population of about 1000 people.  They do not enjoy the ordinary facilities which we may take for granted, such as schools, hospitals, public transportation.  There is a high percentage of illiteracy, poverty and sickness.  Opening of an Ekal school changes the very face of the village.

Ekal Chapters – Ekal is a worldwide organization with chapters in many countries, and head quarters in New Delhi. In Canada, there are chapters in Windsor, Sarnia, London ON, Kitchener / Waterloo, Greater Toronto (GTA), Kingston, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.  Regina is our newest chapter.  There is informal presence in Montreal.

Ekal Organization – There is a very structured field organization.  Ekal team in a village consists of the teachers, volunteers and the village council (Gram Samiti ).

Breakdown of Donation money  -Funds collected for schools are spent only on schools with the following breakdown – Teacher salary 60%, Teacher training 27%, Teaching material 5% and the rest 8% on school operations.  Most of the work is done by volunteers,

Donor Recognition – A name plate is displayed in all Ekal schools..  The schools can be opened in memory of, to commemorate something, etc.  Every donor is provided with information about his / her school after the school is opened.

Visit to an Ekal School (Vanyatra).  We encourage our supporters to visit an Ekal school and have firsthand experience of the operation of the Ekal school.  Ekal volunteers make all the arrangement for the visit. The people who have visited an Ekal school say that it is an experience to visit an Ekal school.

Ekal’s  Reaction to COVID 19– Ekal team looked after nearly 300,000 villages during peak of the epidemic. Ekal volunteers provided guidelines and took necessary preventive and control measures.  Indian tailoring centers produced face masks for free distribution.  Medical and food requirements of the villagers were looked after.  If a patient became sick with suspicion of the pandemic, patients were moved to Ekal COVID Isolation centers set up in many states, at the advice of the physicians.

Ekal is a registered charity in Canada and is also registered as an Ontario Corporation. Tax receipts are issued. Websites www.ekal.ca, and www.ekal.org can be visited for further information.