India

New Delhi alternative learning centre gets a visit from Queen Rania of Jordan

A student from the Ritinjali Learning Centre presents Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah with a handmade gift.

By Savita Varde-Naqvi

NEW DELHI, India, 13 March, 2006 – Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan visited children at the Ritinjali Learning Centre in South Delhi on Friday, the first day of her two-day trip to India. Ritinjali is one of over 3,000 alternative schools in India dedicated to teaching out-of-school children while reintegrating them into the formal education system.

The students received Queen Rania with a cheerful musical greeting. “It is our good fortune that you are our guest today. Welcome, welcome, welcome to you always,” the children sang.

Alternative learning centres such as Ritinjali are the result of the combined efforts of over 180 non-governmental organizations, Indian education authorities and UNICEF. Most of the students come from poor families, a large percentage having dropped out of school in the past. Many are receiving a formal education for the first time.

Queen Rania Al-Abdullah views artwork created by the students of the Ritinjali centre.

‘The power of collaboration’

Queen Rania, a member of UNICEF's Global Leadership Initiative for Children, mingled with the children at the learning centre, asking them about their hopes and concerns. She viewed their artwork exhibited on display boards and observed a history class on the monuments of Delhi.

“It is heartening to see so many young minds eager to learn, and that is due, in no small measure, to the commitment and vision of the teachers and the community,” she said. “Such initiatives speak loudly of the power of collaboration between international and local NGOs.”

According to UNICEF’s India country office, out of approximately 200,000 children in Delhi who were not in school in 2003, more than 130,000 are now enrolled in alternative learning centres. Over 30,000 students from the centres have been integrated into formal schools.

“We must promise our children that we will do everything in our power to facilitate their dreams and create a path along which they can walk confidently and realize them,” said Queen Rania. “The international community must deliver on that promise.”

Kyria Abrahams contributed to this story from New York.

Español Français

Printer friendly

Tools to Share NEW

What's this?

What's this

Digg, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine are web services enabling you to share stories on the Internet.

The blog this article feature enables you to generate a short summary of this article, ready to be pasted in a blog post.

Digg and Newsvine are social news sites, where the top news stories are selected not by an editor but by its collective users. Explore Digg and Newsvine for yourself.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website where you can tag and share your favourite web pages, rather than bookmarking them in the traditional way inside your web browser. Try out Del.icio.us

Blog this article

Post this article to your blog. The story’s headline, main picture and summary will be displayed on your page as in the preview below.
Writing the rest of the blog post will be up to you!

Click in the area below, then copy the code and paste it in your blog page:

<div class="unicef_embed headline">
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageImageOriginal = "http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/ibc_india_rania_8789.jpg";
var pageTitleOriginal = "New Delhi alternative learning centre gets a visit from Queen Rania of Jordan"
var pageBlurbOriginal = "NEW DELHI, India, 13 March, 2006 – Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan visited children at the Ritinjali Learning Centre in South Delhi on Friday, the first day of her two-day trip to India. Ritinjali is one of over 3,000 alternative schools in India dedicated to teaching out-of-school children while reintegrating them into the formal education system.";
var pageURLOriginal = "http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_31590.html";
var pageURLTracking = "http://www.unicef.org/blogthis/infobycountry/india_31590.html";
</script>
<a class="img" href="http://www.unicef.org"><IMG alt="UNICEF Image" src="http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/ibc_india_rania_8789.jpg"></a>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.unicef.org">
<img src="http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/unicefSmallBlue.png" width="83" height="20" alt="UNICEF" />
</a>
</h2>
<h3 style="font-size:default!important;line-height:default!important;">
<script language="javascript">document.write("<a href=\""+ pageURLTracking.replace(/.html/,".rhtml") +"\" >");</script>
<!--<a href="http://www.unicef.org" >-->
<script language="javascript">document.write(pageTitleOriginal);</script>
</a>
</h3>
<p class="embed_teaser">
<script language="javascript">document.write(pageBlurbOriginal);</script>
</p>
</div>
<style type="text/css">
.unicef_embed {
background: rgb(256, 256, 256) !important;
border: 4px solid #0099ff;
border-width: 4px 0 1px 0;
margin: 10px 30px !important;
padding: 5px;
overflow: hidden !important;
zoom: 1;
}
.unicef_embed img {
   border: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed a {
   display: inline;
}
.unicef_embed a.img {
   float: left !important;
   margin: 0 5px 0 0 !important;
   width: 102px;
   display: block;
   overflow: hidden !important;
}
.unicef_embed a.img img {
   border: 1px solid #999999 !important;;
   width: 100px;;
   padding: 0 !important;;
}
.unicef_embed h2 {
   line-height: 2px;;
   clear: none;;
   margin: 0 !important;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 {
   line-height: 16px;
   font: bold 16px arial, sans-serif !important;
   margin: 3px 0 0 0 !important;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 a {
   line-height: 16px !important;;
   color: #0000ff !important;
   font: bold 16px arial, sans-serif !important;
   text-decoration: none !important;
   display: inline !important;;
   float: none !important;;
   text-transform: capitalize !important;
}
.unicef_embed h3 a:hover {
   text-decoration: underline !important;
   color: #df5e32 !important;
}
.unicef_embed p {
   color: #000 !important;;
   font: normal 11px/ 11px arial, sans-serif !important;;
   margin: 2px 0 0 0 !important;;
   padding: 0 !important;
}
.unicef_embed a {
   display: inline !important;;
   float: none !important;
}
</style>

Preview :

Donate now

India

New Delhi alternative learning centre gets a visit from Queen Rania of Jordan

Tools to Share NEW

What's this

Blog this article

document.write("<a href=\""+ pageURLOriginal +"\" >"); document.write(pageTitleOriginal);