When Providence School in Shillong, India first started in 2000, it had just five underprivileged children. Mandated to empower children with skills that will make them self-sufficient and independent, the school now has over 300 children enrolled. 

Our Mission

The mission of Providence is to help and develop happy, self-sustaining people tooled to be small time entrepreneurs, skilled to multitask and be aware of the needs of the larger world. By restoring dignity, creating an academic start, and teaching life sustaining skills, we can give these children a chance at life.

Providence is focused on the children's future 

We feed, tool, empower, and teach students in the hope that a happy and wholesome today will produce a happy and successful tomorrow. 

• Skill Training: Providence presently teaches 14 trades and crafts. After attempting to learn all trades, the child is aware of his/her strengths and talents. 
• Academics: Lessons are taught in spoken English. Knowing English provides a distinct advantage in their community. Providence prepares students to take the National Open School Examinations. The importance of the examinations lays not so much in the certificate that might be awarded as in the self-belief and confidence that the certificate will produce. 
• Nutrition: Enrolled students are chronically malnourished and stunted.  Lunch – mostly government rice and a few vegetables – is prepared at school by the students and provided as the best, and sometimes their only, meal of the day.

The people we serve

Students range in age from 5-15 years old and belong to various tribes, groups and communities. Their entitlement to be trained and taught under the Providence umbrella comes from the fact that their parents earn less than Rs. 800 (approx. $13) per month and cannot even afford the minimal costs of government schools.

Our goals