In India a child born with special needs is destined for a life of dependency. For the poor this situation is extreme. The children with special needs are considered to be a social, financial, mental and physical burden to their families. Special Care Center annually reaches out to children who are hearing and speech impaired and mentally challenged and living in poor socio-economic condition and is attended by 300 children who lack affordable education facility for their special needs.

The children with special needs are considered to be a social, financial, mental and physical burden to their families. Through lack of knowledge and skills of the family, the children do not get the appropriate help they need. The children do not go to school or leave their homes. Therefore, are not challenged to develop mentally or physically. The experiences have shown that the families will often prefer to invest on a healthy child over a child with special needs, when it comes education.

Solution

Save The Children India's Special Care Center annually reaches out to 250 children who are hearing and speech impaired and mentally challenged and living in poor socio economic condition. The school is attended by 300 children who lack affordable education facility for their special needs. The school offers the transport facility, breakfast and afternoon lunch and educational supplied support to children to ensure that they complete schooling and lead life of dignity and independence.

Long-Term Impact

The overall goal of the Special care center is to improve the quality of life for children with special needs in poor families living in slums of Mumbai with its objective being 1. Ensuring integration of children with special needs into the wider community through education and skills training 2. Supporting them to avail opportunities of social interaction , Education, Life skills development and employability skills training .

Save The Children India is a non-profit organisation that envisions India as a Child-Friendly Nation. It is committed to preventing exploitation and all other forms of discrimination of vulnerable women and children, and empowering them to lead a life of dignity, self-respect, and independence. 

There are three core verticals in the organisation - disability, education and anti-trafficking. The disability programme includes a school for the hearing impaired and a school for the mentally disabled as well as an early intervention for those with hearing impairment, called Dhvani.

The education programme includes work on Early Childhood Education through a Balwadi programme and improved learning for children in Primary School through remedial programmes.

Save The Children India is responding to the current crises of Spread Novel Corona Virus. We are reaching out to urban poor families who are largely daily wage earners and are hit unexpectedly with the crises. Loss of daily wages have put them to a greater risk of poverty, hunger and health crises.

The young children are at risk of islolation, malnutrition and other health concerns more than ever.  The organisation has developed strategy to continue provide support to the Families of children vulnerable, victims of violence and staying in Institutions. We are committed to continue provide them with uninterrupted services.

Your support in this situation is critical and help us reachout to familes with daily essentials and good health.

The ASER Report of 2018 notes that among grade 3 children in rural India, only 27% can read a grade 2 level text and 28% can at least complete subtraction problems. ASER 2018 also reveals that only a quarter of the children in grade III are at the right grade level. More than half the children in grade VIII are still struggling with Division. One out of four children are leaving grade VIII without basic reading skills. Without strong foundational skills, it is difficult for children to cope with what is expected of them in upper primary grades. Majority of the children need immediate help in acquiring foundational skills in both literacy and numeracy. Education, both at the pre-primary and primary level, require immediate attention. In this time of the global health crisis, we need to strive towards ensuring the continuing education of these students, so that they progress at normal grade levels.

Problem Diagnosis:

• Owing to the fact that most of the beneficiaries we cater to via the range of education programmes belong to the lower socio-economic strata of society, and the fact that most of their parents are daily wage earners, these families have faced the worst brunt of the lockdown, resulting in a loss of livelihood, that then implies a short supply of essential food items, that will adversely affect the entire family, and also hamper the growth and development of the children of the family.
• The closure of schools, and of our education programmes, will result in a widening gap in the age-appropriate learning levels of many students, further hampering the progress they have been able to make so far. 
• Given that illiteracy among parents exists in a majority of the communities we cater to, lack of, or inadequate and reliable information about the COVID 19 virus among parents, will put them, their families, and the community at large at a greater risk of contracting the said illness.
• Owing to a loss of daily wages, many families may even be forced to resort to making their children work, to make ends meet.
• Owing to the restrictions on daily life owing to the pandemic, increased gender-based violence, exploitation, social exclusion and separation from caregivers can all have a very adverse effect on the child’s emotional and physical health.

How we plan to intervene: We at Save The Children India are intervening in our individual capacity, as well as partnering with a consortium of like-minded social organizations, to present a collective response to the current health emergency in Maharashtra and New Delhi. To fight against the harsh repercussions of the spread of COVID-19 in India, Save The Children India is has been undertaking large scale fundraising, to provide groceries and grain of daily needs, hygiene supplies and financial assistance to the communities Save The Children India operates in, as well as to those in dire need of the same.

The Interventions are as below:

1. Essential supply of grains and groceries: Save The Children India operates in several parts of Maharashtra and New Delhi, and provides the above mentioned educational interventions to children from marginalized communities attending schools run by Municipal corporations in the respective areas. We plan to provide an essential supply of grains and groceries for the coming months, as we anticipate that the current crisis will increase unemployment and the families would need continued support, until they can secure a new job, or alternate sources of livelihood.
2. Need based Medical supplies: We intend to provide support for essential medical supplies like masks, sanitizers, soaps, sanitary napkins and other hygiene products. Going forward it would also require more sanitising material to clean up the community and common places like schools.
3. Direct cash Transfers: Given that all our young beneficiaries, of the education programme, hail from families that belong to the lower socio-economic strata of society, and have faced the harsh brunt of this pandemic, that has resulted in a loss of livelihood, we aim to ease their situation by way of providing Direct Cash Transfers, so that they can meet their day-to-day expenses.
4. Long term Interventions through Behavioural change communication: We atSave The Children India have created module and series of awareness toolkits, that can help children and communities differentiate between various infections and its spreads, so that children, youth and  communities can all adopt the prescribed hygiene practises in their daily lives and be much better prepared to face such emergencies in the future.
5. Virtual lessons: Owing to this current health emergency, all of our students have been restricted to the confines of their home. However, this doesn’t mean that their education has come to a halt. During this crisis, we at Save The Children India have been making educational videos, each 7-8 minutes long, and have been circulating it via Whatsapp to our student’s parents, ensuring that our student’s education continues, even in this time of crisis.

With continued support from large hearted donors such as yourself, we hope to reach out to many more vulnerable families and individuals, in this time of crisis.