What We Do

What is Frontline?

Frontline is a charity based in Northern Ireland that works to change the lives of Indian young people, primarily through the provision of education and healthcare. Our primary partners are Christian Fellowship Church, N Ireland (CFC) and United Christian Church of India (UCCI)

What do we do?

Frontline provides quality rural education and support for students aged 4-16 in a rural area of Andhra Pradesh, South India

We provide finances to fully support the educational process:

• Buildings – construction and maintenance
• Salaries for teaching and support staff
• Free school meals
• Medical care and advice
• school transport
• School uniforms, books, materials, etc
• A caring and safe environment

This work is carried on in multiple centres located around Vijayawada a small city located near the coast in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Our main focus is a village called Kethenakonda.

What have we achieved?

For nearly thirty years we have worked with a number of small international partners to change the lives of thousands of young people. Partnership is at the heart of what we do and together we have supported up to 1200 children in from 5 to 18 years (and some beyond that).

India is changing and there are greater opportunities for work but education is the key. A young person completing the equivalent of “A” levels and training for two years as a nurse can find work locally and earn a salary four to five times that paid to agricultural labourers.

However, Frontline is about far more than education and jobs. The benefit of growing up in a secure and caring environment has a tremendous effect, physically and psychologically, on both young people and their parents. We are a Christian organisation but no child is restricted by their religious background - their only qualification is need.

Where do the Children come from?

Children come from the very poorest families in rural communities. The majority of the parents still work as daily labourers, farm workers and other low paid and unstable or seasonal employment.

Children are recommended to the school through a network of local community workers, teachers, church pastors or simply by personal application, and are subject to an admissions procedure – there is often a waiting list.