Laxmi (name changed) was abandoned by her birth parents when she was just a year old. She was found by the Police and admitted to the SASOON Government Hospital in Pune. Mentally challenged, Laxmi was moved to an institute in Pune. The institute’s efforts to help her develop, unfortunately did not work; she had multiple disabilities. Today Laxmi is 10 yrs. old. She can use her hands to some extent but she has never walked! She understands Marathi but cannot speak.
By a High Court Order, Laxmi was recently transferred to the State home for girls run by State government. Earlier a residential arrangement for adolescent girls, the facility was recently, converted into a Home for Special Needs’ Children. In terms of special arrangements that such children require, the Home has none! CSA has helped the Home in many ways in terms of enhanced facilities as also, training and awareness programmes for Childcare and Social Workers. In one such initiative having provided surgical equipments like wheel chairs and walkers, we tried helping those kids who could not walk. Laxmi was one of those children.
When the walker was placed before her, Laxmi was very confused and nervous. Soon however, she stood, balanced herself and actually took her very first step! The joy on her face (that beautiful broad smile) had to be experienced; it gave tons of happiness to my heart! I am used to seeing her sitting in a corner with a sad and disturbed expression. This is the first time I saw her smiling. I hope this is her first step towards HOPE! I will watch her closely and always help her all the way. Her success will be my achievement!
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Introduction
The Observation Home for boys in Pune, Maharashtra, has approximately 200 destitute children in the age group of 7-17 years. Many of them are orphans; some have a single parent; others are children whose parents have been convicted and are serving jail terms; a few are those who themselves have been booked for juvenile delinquicy. All of them come from a poor economic background.
The home has an in-campus school that provides education up to the 7th grade. Thereafter, the boys are transferred to other institutes. Since last 3 years however, at the initiative of the Management of the home, some of the talented children are being retained in the Home; they are admitted to the 8th, 9th and 10th grades in nearby schools. The management felt that there was an opportunity to nurture some very talented children and help them in their development.
CSA's Role
CSA's objective being the optimisation of rehabilitation outcomes for institutionalised children, the decision of the Home to retain some talented children was encouraged. CSA provides the educational support to these older kids. CSA started a coaching class to help the kids with their syllabus. In addition, CSA introduced vocational training for the children who are conflict with Law and are out of the mainstream of education. CSA started a tailoring unit and dance classes, so that the children acquire skills that could perhaps, offer employment opportunities to the children when they reach adulthood. .
CSA also, aims at ensuring that the children are happy and are exposed to some of the small joys of life that are considered normal. Accordingly, CSA planned activities such as summer camp, festival celebrations, Awareness programs, Hobby classes, children’s day celebration, games, competitions etc.
Achievements
A significant achievement is that, as compared to 1 and 2 students respectively, who were able to complete their schooling by passing the 10th grade in earlier years, in the year 2010, 9 children cleared the 10th standard exams; one of them, Umesh Lawande scored 80% marks and is now pursuing a Diploma programme in Engineering.
Going Forward
CSA’s aid to help the upcoming higher education students to help themselves will continue, along with the joyful events to spread happiness in the life of this deprived kids. We are aiming at individauls who can be nurtured into becoming independent individuals as adults.
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April-May are the summer vacation months in India-that time of the year, when all children are expected to relax, have fun and generally enjoy themselves. Those that live in hostels rush home for the vacation. Institutionalized children in Government Observation Homes and Orphanages are different; not all of them have a home to go to! And so they stay back waiting for each dreary day and the vacations to end.
We at CSA attempt to bring a little cheer into their lives by organizing fun events in their respective institutions. Aware that most of those children miss out on the basic joys of life like savoring the fruit of the season, we used “seasonal fruit’ as the theme for our summer events. We organised ‘water melon get together’ at 4 orphanages covering approximately 250 children in Pune and Orissa.
In addition to enjoying the fruit, the celebrations included dance and merriment, nurturing hobbies such as mask-making with paper dishes, by-lane cricket and health sessions!
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