A happy childhood is the foundation of life and school days are an important part of a child’s formative years. Unfortunately large numbers of children in India’s carpet weaving belt start work at an age when western children are starting school. To deal with this problem Project Mala was founded in 1989 to provide a three year non-formal education course to children. Our aim is to help eradicate the use of child labor on the carpet weaving looms and enable working children to regain their lost childhood. We currently have six schools educating more than 1000 children.