The boys and staff of The Doon School and underprivileged children from schools it supports are excitedly looking forward to welcoming HRH, The Duchess of Cornwall, to their campus in Dehradun on Thursday (November 7).
The Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting the school, which in 1930s India pioneered the concept of schoolchildren, taking on social service as the core of their education in India, and will meet women and children benefitting from projects initiated and aided by Doon School boys and teachers.
Among their numerous local and regional programmes, The Duchess is particularly interested in the boys' support for women's empowerment through microfinance and vocational training of girls in villages, as well girls' education in the numerous slum and village schools directly supported by The Doon School. The school's aim is to produce ethical citizens and principled leaders to fulfill its mission of creating a genuinely meritocratic India in the twenty-first century. As part of her visit, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall will also see underprivileged children who regularly work with boys in the school's art studios, interact with the children and staff of 'Waste Warriors', an NGO committed to ending waste and visual pollution in Dehradun and other districts, and see a photographic record of the relief and community support work that over two hundred boys from The Doon School recently began in the hill villages of Uttarakhand devastated by the floods of June 2013. The Doon School has committed itself to a long-term relief and reconstruction effort to rebuild villages, schools and livelihoods in the region.
The Headmaster, Dr. Peter Mclaughlin, said: "We have been told that The Duchess of Cornwall is especially interested in girls' education and women's empowerment across the globe, so we are pleased that she will have an opportunity to see our work in that domain.”
“We think that it is vital for our boys, many of whom go on to leadership roles in India and across the world, to take responsibility for the plight of women in India through these service programmes and our collaboration with NGOs working in a number of fields." The Doon School was established in 1935 to fulfill the vision of its founder, SR Das, to educate boys of every caste, creed, religion and socio-economic background from across India in a school in which every one of them was equal. Currently, 40 per cent of the pupils are supported by scholarships and other forms of financial aid provided by
donations from its alumni and the school's scholarship
endowment.