After eight months of delay, the new school building of Nongjyndong village is ready for its students.

Of the 32 children who studied in the Persara RPCL School, Ibadashai Nongrim says I am so happy to go and study in our new school, a class fifth student.

For the first time, Ibadashai and other children will be able to sit under a concrete shed over their head without any fear. The situation is much different now due to the support from MLA Mr. D. Jyndiang, who had sanctioned 2 Lakh from his local development fund for the construction of Primary school at Nongjyndong.

Previously, students used to study under a dingy, dilapidated tin structure school which was very unsafe and dangerous. For the 24 families in Nongjyndong village, it was the only infrastructural setup for their children to study.

The situation used to be challenging for children and teachers during winters and rainy season.

Children used to find it difficult to attend classes and created grave concern for the parents. “We almost surrendered thinking that this school would never be constructed and deprive our children from the basic education” says Everista Wanniang, one of the mother.

The intervention of Caritas India FARM North East II program covered this village and decided to resolve this issue with people’s action. The local partner team of Nongstoin Social Service Society (NSSS) led by the Coordinator, Brolius Marbaniang took cognizance of the matter and swung into action by facilitating a series of meetings with the village leadership during March-April 2016.

“I convinced people of Nongjyndiang that the program can show you the way to a solution but the action has to be yours”, says Brolius. The community realized that a collective action can lead them to the desired result.

In May 2016, community visited Department of Education and Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan office with their request for new school building but the repeated appeals were unanswered.

Finally, with the motivation from NSSS team, the community approached the local MLA Mr. D. Jyndiang with a written request. MLA considered their request and sanctioned fund from his local development fund for construction of a primary school building in Nongjyndiang.

In October 2016, the fund was released and the construction of school building started. The year 2017 ushered a new ray of hope and happiness once the school building was constructed during January 2017.

Collective action by the community helped in achieving their goal and the result achieved due to the effect of community collective effort will sustain for long.