It is well known that many children in India, particularly those living in rural areas, don’t complete their education, but the reasons why are not fully understood. Neena will be spending a week visiting several villages around Chennai (formerly known as Madras), gathering information about this issue from families using a questionnaire designed specially for her trip.

Neena said: ‘Although we know that many children stop going to school altogether, or finish their primary education but don’t carry on to secondary level, we don’t really know why. It may be that the children themselves have health problems, or that they have to leave school to look after a sick relative. The aim of this survey is to try and identify the main issues which prevent children from attending school and getting a good education. We will use the findings from the questionnaire to decide how Project HOPE can best help the local communities with health-related schemes, which will, in turn, allow the children to go to school regularly.’

Neena will be accompanied by a local operations manager from the NonVerba group on her trip around the region, and is hoping to visit as many families as she can. She will then fly to Delhi to meet Project HOPE’s country director and report on her findings, before continuing her holiday. ‘I’m really excited about the trip as this is the first field visit I’ve done with Project HOPE, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the organisation’s work makes a real difference to improving the lives of people in developing countries.’