Hello everyone. I’m Lokesh, 20M from India. I’m a student and my main interests are in reducing animal suffering and helping kids educate.
I’ve been a part of an NSS (National Service Scheme) project of my college (IIT Madras in Chennai) for two years. We partner with an NGO, Shiksha Prayas based in Haryana—which teaches underprivileged students (aged 14-17, in class 8th-10th) in the outskirts of New Delhi—to mentor the kids alongside their teachers. The mentoring is done mainly on phone calls and occasionally some fun, informative events are also organised. Despite of all the efforts, it doesn’t seem like there is any outcome coming from what we’ve been doing from our end (mentoring). [Teaching by the teachers are the centers is certainly producing visible results.]
I would like to know if anyone has reflected on the ways to help underprivileged kids in the community, here. Is the above method not workable, or we’re missing something? Are there any resources on it?
I know this probably doesn’t answer your question, because you are thinking of interventions within education. Perhaps there are some real slam dunks there that I haven’t heard about (and I’d welcome other commenters to mention them).
Effective Altruist ideas are perhaps helpful here because they encourage you to take a step back, and think “if I really want to help underprivileged kids the most, what can I do?” it’s possible (though by no means am I certain) that the best intervention isn’t in education.
Hello everyone. I’m Lokesh, 20M from India. I’m a student and my main interests are in reducing animal suffering and helping kids educate.
I’ve been a part of an NSS (National Service Scheme) project of my college (IIT Madras in Chennai) for two years. We partner with an NGO, Shiksha Prayas based in Haryana—which teaches underprivileged students (aged 14-17, in class 8th-10th) in the outskirts of New Delhi—to mentor the kids alongside their teachers. The mentoring is done mainly on phone calls and occasionally some fun, informative events are also organised. Despite of all the efforts, it doesn’t seem like there is any outcome coming from what we’ve been doing from our end (mentoring). [Teaching by the teachers are the centers is certainly producing visible results.]
I would like to know if anyone has reflected on the ways to help underprivileged kids in the community, here. Is the above method not workable, or we’re missing something? Are there any resources on it?
Thankyou very much for you time.
Hey Lokesh,
Thanks for coming to the EA Forum with your question!
In some ways, I haven’t seen much discussion of this question on the EA Forum, in another I’ve seen loads.
The ways people interested in Effective Altruism have found to reliably help underprivileged kids are mostly based around:
Saving their lives: for example, making sure they don’t get malaria, getting them vaccinated, etc.
Helping them live healthier lives: Lead exposure elimination so that they don’t get lead poisoned (which amongst other things seems to lead to lower IQ and all that entails), Vitamin A supplementation to prevent blindness, food fortification, and deworming.
All of the above: work on increasing economic growth, and direct donations to underprivileged families, are promising interventions across the board.
I know this probably doesn’t answer your question, because you are thinking of interventions within education. Perhaps there are some real slam dunks there that I haven’t heard about (and I’d welcome other commenters to mention them).
Effective Altruist ideas are perhaps helpful here because they encourage you to take a step back, and think “if I really want to help underprivileged kids the most, what can I do?” it’s possible (though by no means am I certain) that the best intervention isn’t in education.