PTW Grassroot Development projects are helping children in disadvantaged communities.
Our aim is to provide the world with access to quality education and facilitating healthier lifestyles. Through a network of skilled volunteers, we deliver a range of health and education initiatives at the individual, community, and global level. For more than a decade PTW has utilised emerging technologies to deliver our health and education initiatives, meeting the needs of an increasingly connected world.
Targeted at vulnerable and disadvantaged children living in low income or poverty-stricken communities, our Grassroots Development projects provide resources and services to help bridge inequality gaps by providing access to quality education and improved health and wellbeing. This includes providing free and regular after-school learning in common academic subjects, as well as mentoring and nurturing individuals professional and career development. All our projects place a strong emphasis on nurturing leadership skills, including commitment, discipline, and responsibility for all the children we support.
Whilst we support the children in common global health issues, many of the children we support face unique challenges including alcohol and drug abuse, early teenage pregnancy, and HIV infections. Our interventions in these communities’ place strong emphasis on preventative health, while also supporting children who do not have the support or guidance when managing their individual health conditions.
As the world becomes more dependant and reliant on technology and digital resources PTW ensures that the resource and infrastructure gap between the developing and developed world does not continue to grow. Providing digital infrastructure resources to the communities we support has become a key focus for PTW since 2020. Through access to the internet and audio-visual communication devices, we can further connect these communities to the rest of the world, giving them access to all the online health and educational resources and support that PTW can provide.
PTW want to ensure that socioeconomic circumstances do not stop children from achieving their dreams and life goals by tipping the balance back in their favour and giving them opportunities for a positive future.
What We Provide
PTW provides long-term and free support in these projects and provide the resources which these projects require. Some of the outcomes
which PTW have achieved through our Grassroots Development work include:
- Providing free, regular and consistent tutoring and learning programs
- Implementing education programs and resourcing projects for these programs such as Computer Literacy with computing hardware such as computers and tablets and extra-curricular activities such as music education programs and provide musical instruments
- Building and creating learning centres and libraries for children to learn in a safe and secure environment that are resourced with text-books, literature books and learning materials
- Running physical education and sports activities, and provide the required sporting equipment
- Develop leadership programs that empower disadvantaged children to be leaders within their own homes and community
- Provide sustainable resources such as solar-energy kits and clean-water kits for projects to use
Our Grassroots Projects
PTW Grassroots Projects are conducted and run by PTW volunteers who live in the local community of the project. Learn more about our volunteering opportunities and if you are from the local community of our projects and would like to become a PTW volunteer, please visit our contact us page for more information,
The Magic Room
Sunsar Maya
Rescue Centre
Casa Do Caminho
“I always believed that education is the main foundation upon which we can change and build a better world. Getting involved with PTW through the project in Rocinha assured me of this. I had the opportunity to stimulate children’s learning, showing them positive pathways that they can choose to follow. Through the continued support of PTW we can provide more hope, pathways, and direction to the children of Rocinha. Helping them to realise and believe that there is a space in society for them."
~ Fernanda Geraldo Silva | Volunteer, Director of Brazil Grassroots Development Projects
“I am Samdarshni a 17 years old girl from Delhi, India. I am not from an affluent family at all, but am currently pursuing 12 standard in a Government school of Delhi. I am passionate about football, an ambivert, ambitious, enthusiastic and diplomatic; however, I am a slow learner and have been called a ‘tortoise’ in some instances – which really affects my decisive power.
I live in a district in North West Delhi. The district next to mine is occupied with well settled, literate people who have big houses and high living standards. On the other hand my district where I live is far less developed and a very poor community. Unfamiliar to most, the district has very small and congested living spaces, where each family home has merely 6 square meters for themselves in mostly single-room houses. The area is extremely unsafe, very noisy and extremely polluted. Despite having a government hospital, police station and fire station in the area, we unfortunately have major social issues. Litter and pollution along our streets and at our doorsteps spreads illness. Despite this exposure to health issues proper medical support is often in accessible due to the costs. Many women and children are abused, with murder and rape cases being common in our area.
Although girls don’t receive the same education as boys in schools, my TIF school teachers were fascinating, friendly, more productive and even challenging, pushing us to think outside the box. The Magic Room was a safe and free afterschool program I was attending between year 6 and 10, started by one of these teachers just for girls from my area, and one that PTW works with and supports. The Magic Room gives us the opportunity to learn and develop in ways that school doesn’t provide to us, or sometimes these opportunities are provided in school to boys, but not girls.
Ever since, PTW has been helping and guiding us. Over the years, my guidance and education needs have changed. Now, they foster my skills, enhance my knowledge, and preparing me for life after school. I don’t know any other teaching provided in this way that is personal and individualised in my community. They definitely help me in setting my goals and also attaining them. I certainly felt this happening in all PTW classroom session that I attended. To all the girls in my class, PTW emphasized the level of health and education that everyone should have, and encouraged everyone individually to reach their own possibilities and go beyond just what’s around us or what people think we are capable off.
Right now I have been working on my skills and knowledge that I’ll need in the profession I wish to join. For instance, I want to be a journalist, so PTW is teaching me the writing skills and analytical skills to understand persuasive language and learn how to address realistic issues communities in India face. I am also getting exposure to other experts from here and all around the world, gaining helpful advice on the pathways I have after school. We are also working on goals to study at the University of Melbourne whilst pursuing my goal of playing professional football. I am hopeful of a scholarship as the course fees are expensive, but I didn’t think these goals were possible or an option for someone like me until PTW showed me they were possible and realistic for me to strive towards and achieve!"
~ Samdarshni | Grassroots Development Student
“The Rescue Centre is a safe haven for vulnerable children found within the Uasin Gishu County of Kenya. The majority of the children are rescued from the streets where they have been forced to run from broken homes and families. Often they have to care for themselves and are prone to abuse, hunger, drug and alcohol abuse and crime. The Centre provides a temporary home for them for a period of 3 to 6 months as we trace their families to begin family reconciliation, with the aim of reuniting the child with the family.
Partnering with PTW has gone a long way in rehabilitating these children in our rehabilitation program as well as encouraging the staff by supporting local volunteers. Through positive input such as counselling and mentoring, talent nurturing, facilitating sporting activities and academic empowerment, PTW has played a great role in walking hand-in-hand with the Centre. PTW have supported us with the provision of;
- laptops for computer literacy programs started by PTW
- medical assistance with medicines and services of providing health advice and guidance
- music equipment such as Kenyan drums for talent nurturing
- building a library and learning centre to promote academic empowerment
- staff self-care support to empower our own staff with the skills they need
- teaching the alumni of the Centre to give back to the Centre and our community
PTW has grown the Rescue Centre not just in service but also in infrastructure.
All these efforts have helped rehabilitate and empower the lives of over 1000 children and also help reconcile and reunite over 1,500 families, reducing the number of children living on the streets. We appreciate you PTW!"
~ Beatrice Njerrie | Grassroots Development Rescue Centre Manager
