Dear Friend of Rainbow
This time around we want to inform you of a rainbow girl whose story proves that one can dream it and definitely achieve it!
Amudha was brought to Rainbow Home at the age of 13 years. She has two brothers. Her parents in the meagre earning job as weavers were not able to take care of children with good food, education as they earned the bare minimum. Having suffered a lot to feed the children for the day, when they got informed about the Rainbow Homes program and its work, they agreed to send Amudha for a while and see the change in her life, escaping the poverty even if temporarily.
Initially, she felt lonely thinking of her mother and father. Through the care of the home team and the continuous attention, she was soon found to be engaged with everyone. She is calm, sweet nature, and respectful to everyone. She enjoyed the school life at RSTC (beginners course to be bridged on par with normal schooling) with friends for 6 months and later she joined in the normal school. Gradually she came out of the loneliness and she was engaged more in the extracurricular activities organized in the home. We found more change in her attitudes and behaviour. She was given more care so that she was regular to school and can start concentrating on her studies.
Intervention and success in her life:
Gradually, she started to study well in all the subjects, her handwriting is good. She is quite affectionate towards her family and wants to take care of the young ones once she grows up. She is very patient in handling things and is often appreciated for her conduct at school. Her aim is to become a Nurse, but she couldn’t get the degree seat in B.Sc nursing. She is more confident and showed interest in doing nursing. She was given guidance through career counselling and about the alternate courses.
Knowing her best interest in the subject of study, we found a college which prefers Diploma in GNM (Nursing) and through this course, she can also do the advance study equal to BSc.Nursing. She now has filled the college application with more enthusiasm and she got in with the admission process through the entrance examination. Finally, she got placed in the college in Diploma in GNM (Nursing) for three years course at Puducherry.
Amudha being constant and never wavering in her pursuit of becoming a nurse has become an inspirational role model among her sisters in the home. She was guided with good values, the importance of studies, improving skills, respect towards elders and awareness. The girl has the aim to do well in studies and to serve the needy people.
When talking about her life she states" life challenges you, situations often tend to bring you down. if today is not good, cry go to sleep thinking tomorrow you can start again. If I think of the poor people around, I find my sadness is little and more need my help. And that's what I am going to do. Do my little work which can reach people who need my skill."
We wish Amudha to keep up the spirit and reach her goals in her constant pursuit!
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Dear Reader
Greetings of the day!
Udaan - taking flight program of Rainbow Homes Program which entails the Futures (16-23 aged) group of children aka the young adults, focuses on the efforts to prepare the reintegrated street children in the society. Special interventions like career counselling, job placement programs, part-time job sponsoring/resourcing, group living, management courses to make better of their living expenses and finding a suitable earning are what the young adults learn through.
We require all-time assistance to resource for these interventions which make sure that even after leaving the residential care homes, the child is not left without any plan or follow up and can earn his/her own living on their terms. This time around on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, we bring you three impactful stories of girls, who are an inspiration of their friends, family and society.
Teresa joined Rainbow Homes in the year of 2007 December. her father fell seriously ill, leaving him paralyzed and the family in complete distress. This resulted in her mother having to work, going out in the mornings and returning late in the evenings, and since there was no one to take care of her father, it affected Teresa badly. She left the residential care of Rainbow home and became a day boarder. She took over the responsibility of nursing and caring for her father day and night while she being associated as Rainbow girl she continued her day schooling with Loreto day school. Her hardworking attitude and dedication towards her studies toppled with a number of household chores and caring for her father brought out good results when she appeared for her ISC (Indian School Certificate) exam and scored 73.7%. With an increased motivation and dedication she is now pursuing a Hotel Management/Diploma course from Bengal Nalanda Group and has transited from our home and is staying in a hostel. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours, and all her fellow rainbow girls and younger mates in the rainbow homes look up to her now, appreciating her stance in life.
Similarly, Taniya, a fellow Loreto Rainbow Girl, hailing from Kolkata appeared for the H.S. (Higher Secondary) Class XII Board Exams in 2019. She secured 82 %. Presently she is doing her BHM 1st year. She was admitted in the Rainbows in ~ in the month of April 2010 in class IV after her father's death. She was brought here by a Loreto staff. She has a brother and her mother is a cook. Apart from being a brilliant scorer in academics she also has talents in creative writing which won her many competitions. She also represented her school in State Level in Throwball, got prizes in drawing, talent hunt runners up. Presently she is getting a scholarship from Cognizant for her higher education. When asked about her achievements, she proudly says, " since my childhood I wanted to do everything, learn everything. Who says you can excel in only one thing? I love having to do many things in life. And sitting idle is something I try to avoid. It gives you bad memories and makes you overthink". With her level of concentration and persistence, she hopes to achieve much more out of life.
Flying high in the clouds is a head start for Tammana (meaning wish) who achieved her life long dream of becoming a flight attendant by getting selected in Indigo Airlines, as cabin crew. Hailing from Loreto Rainbow Homes, in her futures workshop Udaan when she was 16 years old, she shared this dream with her peers and teachers with such passion on how she always saw the planes soaring high in the sky, and what it would feel like to be in the air all the time? Tamanna is staying with Loreto Rainbow Bowbazar since 2016, passed her class 12 NIOS exam this year (2019) with 64% marks. She started as a day scholar as she lived with her mother alone and they both needed each other. She continued her studies with NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) board and scored 64 %. With all the courage and faith on herself, she passed all the rounds of interview and is ready to fly high as she dreamt. She will be joining from 1st November 2019.
What we are absolutely proud of are the different lives these girls lived and the circumstances they faced in life, and even after all the obstacles, they dream, they thrive to have their own place in the world. All they need is your support and helping us impact many more lives of the girls who dare to dream.
This international day of the Girl Child let us pledge to be a stepping stone to their success, to their wild, untamed unstoppable and unscripted adventures of life!
Dear Fellow being,
This time around I bring to you an endearing story of our child journalist Asma - meaning sky, and her tale to achieve her dreams.
All went well until the day when my dad died due to snake bite, at that time I was only 3 years old, my mother along with all my siblings packed all our belongings and by the time I realized we had made a home on the streets of Pune City, the early years of my life were spent on the busy streets of Pune Station, as my mother scraped a meagre earning from begging and doing petty jobs. At a very young age, I began begging outside the Dargah (Muslim holy place of prayer) along with my mother. I am the youngest of all 7 brothers and sisters, we lived in a thatched house on the footpath. We were exposed to various forms of violence and abuse, we did not have any access to primary health care, we were subject to cruel and inhuman treatments every day while living on the streets, we had no proper shelter nor were we safe on the streets.
When I was 11 years old in the year 2015 Rainbow Foundation reached out to me and now it is 4 years that I have been a part of the Rainbow Family. Before coming to Rainbow Home I was enrolled in school but I was irregular and did not have much interest in studies as there was always pressure from family to beg and earn a living, also since I never went regularly to school I was poor in studies and could not concentrate and often get beaten up by the teachers for not doing the tasks, which further disinterested me towards studying. The timely intervention helped me, as it did with so many other girls. And today I am attending formal school and studying in 9th Grade. I aspire to become a Police Officer. I live a life free from exploitation and abuse, a life of dignity. I am happy in Rainbow Home as I have a lot of friends and Didi’s around me who always guide me, help me whenever there is a need, I live freely, I enjoy dancing, drawing chit-chatting with friends and Didi’s and her in Rainbow Homes I got all these opportunities. Now I attend school regularly and get educational support from the teachers which has developed my interest in studies now I can even write and read without any errors, I can express my thoughts and share them in writing with others, I am very happy to be a child Journalist for Rainbow Saathi(Rainbow Homes quarterly magazine) as it gives me a platform to express my feelings and thoughts about issues of concern at the same time has given me the confidence to encourage other children to express themselves and then we together write in the Rainbow Saathi. I count myself to be blessed being a part of the Rainbow Family, my desire is to reach out to many more street children like me and to make them a part of this family.
I am from a Muslim community. In our society women every day wear burkha. And if a woman is seen without a burkha then our big brother they shout at us, and I do not like to wear burkha and we are not allowed to keep our faces uncovered. But in Delhi, people wear burkha and also cover their faces with a nakaf and they are not allowed even to lift the nakaf and if they do so, they are severely punished and are kept hungry for one entire day but I do not like it and because of which I stopped going there. My mother and sister force me a lot to go there but I say no baba...Muslim, Hindu, Jai Bheem, Maratha all discriminate each other and I don’t like it and whatever regarding caste discrimination that is happening in our society should come to end this is what I feel very strongly. In our society there are a lot of religions and caste and Muslim religion is a part of it. And these difference in religion and caste have been created by man himself and it is important that one should give some thought to it. Before coming to rainbow home we never celebrated festivals of other religions but after coming to Rainbow Home we celebrate festivals other than our own religion, and that time I understood the difference in religions and their practices. I understood that society doesn’t mean religion and caste but the place I live in, my surroundings, people leaving in my surroundings. But the society where I stayed before coming to Rainbow Home is not good, there every night men would come and torture girls, and if we did not speak properly to them then the next night they will come to our houses and steal and then physically abuse the women and young girls. I am happy to be in Rainbow Home here I do not face any such discrimination nor am I forced to wear a burkha.
