Project Nandi

Project Nandi aims to prevent Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian students from being left behind by distance learning during the pandemic. We will provide technical support, laptops,  broadband assistance  to families to promote educational equity and improve learning outcomes for students.  25,000 children in Minnesota are currently without the equipment & internet needed to attend school safely.

Distance/online learning is failing students, and the problem is exacerbated for children of color. An overwhelming number of children of color in the Twin Cities failed their entire school year as a result of the shift to online classes, and many of these students are showing signs of PTSD from the trauma they experienced during the Minneapolis Uprising, as well as the trauma from the pandemic as a whole.

The funding being provided from the state is insufficient for the scope of need. Minnesota schools had a discrimination problem long before online learning: 34% of Minnesota students are students of color, but 64.4% of all disciplinary actions (defined as suspensions, expulsions, and exclusions) are taken against them. Only 50.8% of Indigenous students and 69.9% of Black and Latinx students graduate. It is evident from this data that Minnesota schools are pushing out students of color instead of educating them. Now, with classes continuing online, the digital divide will add another layer to the nearly impossible odds working against these students.

We hope to serve 400 children this school year with laptops, in-home learning spaces, & support. With the upswing in covid, we have 107 families waiting for help. Education is a basic human right under the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and currently, these students’ rights are being infringed upon. That’s where Project Nandi comes in: each child deserves a decent laptop and tech support to keep them online. We hope to fundraise enough to create in-home, customized learning spaces and tech support for four hundred children this school year.