Care and School Education of Street Children

Thanks to all our donors who supported and encouraged us to continue to support 2000 street children from various places in Pune city. Foundation has conducted following activities from Nov 2017 to Jan 2018 for these children :

On 14^th November 2017 children were taken to a park and eatables were distributed to them. From this day we started distributing evening meal to these children at their locations. We got Aadhar card issued for these children which is made compulsory by the Govt. of India for opening bank accounts, distribution of grants, identity of person and address etc.

Every week in December 2017 health check up camps were arranged in various locations and total 850 children were medically checked. The check up consisted of Height – Weight Measurement, General Check up and Hemoglobin Check Up. During these camps children were distributed protein and iron supplements along with sweaters, blankets, soaps, toothpastes and toothbrushes, oil etc. Every Thursday we conducted dental check up of these children at their locations and at Rangoonwala Dental College and more than 1000 street children were checked and their reports are maintained.

On 3^rd December with help from charity hospital health camps for the children and their parents were organized and those children and parents who needed medical treatment were taken to hospitals and given medical treatment.

In January 2018 hundred street children were distributed shoes and sports equipments like cricket bats, balls, stumps, volleyballs, tennis rackets etc. were distributed in 2 locations for 200 children. These equipments were provided by M/s Pravin Masalewale. 

Some children won medals in sports competitions arranged by their schools.

5 children from Kalyani International School visited our street children and arranged activities like sports, health care, importance of cleanliness and hygiene, handicrafts, reading, storytelling, singing for 50 street children.

60% of our street children passed their midterm exams conducted by all their schools.

We arranged transport facility for some more children.

Thank you so much for making it possible for us to reach out to the children living on the road and transforming their lives.

Activities conducted against Activities Proposed    

 1.       Survey of city streets to find the street children, their numbers, residences – Accomplished

2.       Contacting the children and their parents and relate to them information about this programme - Accomplished

3.       Counselling of children and their parents to persuade them to join the programme – Accomplished

4.       Filling the registration forms (complete history) - Accomplished

5.       Continue counselling till they are ready to join the programme – Accomplished

6.       Obtaining various documents necessary for school admission – Accomplished

7.       Meetings school authorities for school admission and securing school admissions – Accomplished

8.       Medical check up, treatment – Accomplished

9.       Providing clothes, soaps, toothpastes, toothbrushes, towels, uniforms, shoes, schoolbags, school material etc. – Accomplished

10.     Arranging extra coaching after school hours and also assisting in their studies at their locations – Accomplished

11.     Arranging sports teacher and purchase of various sports material – Accomplished

12.     Visiting the children in schools and their locations to find out their problems and to assess their educational progress and at personal level e.g. improved hygiene, cleanliness, manners, self confidence, progress in sports and extracurricular activities etc. – Accomplished

13.     Repeating counselling to counteract absentism in schools and tendency to go back to begging – Accomplished.

14.     Visiting schools to assess the attendance and progress of the children – Accomplished

15.     Arranging picnics, recreational programmes and other sports activities for the children - Accomplished

 Measurable qualitative and quantitative indicators (outputs)

On the completion of the project there are measurable qualitative and quantitative indicators such as:-

1. Increase in number of enrolment in school

2. Visible progress in their studies and overall performance

3. Since they are provided with nutritious diet, there is a remarkable      improvement in their health.

4. Active participation in extra-curricular activities has contributed to their personality development.

5. There is a change in the thought process of these children due to school education they are more focused about career opportunities to transform their future.

6. Last year we sponsored 1000 street children who were admitted in various schools and this year they are continuing their school education and the dropout number has also reduced.

7. The course does not aim at entrepreneurship but providing school education and to assist in Govt. of India’s ambitious aim of making beggar free India.

8. We have been successfully able to enroll more than 1000 street children in various schools last year and providing them with the necessary educational materials and counseling them to be educated, healthy and responsible citizens of India.

Challenges     

Main problem was getting parents’ buy in as children contributed to household income by begging. We appointed counselors and managed to convince parents through repeated counseling.

Getting children ready for school and keeping them in school was another issue and therefore health visitor is appointed. Because of bad hygiene teachers from schools were reluctant to give them admissions. We have conducted hygiene training in communities and distributed essential items required for upkeep.

Because the children are lagging in their studies we hired teachers for imparting basic literacy and numeracy knowledge to children. We started coaching sessions after school hours. We distributed sports materials and hired sports teachers so that these kids could play and spend some quality time.

We faced reluctance from school authorities as they were apprehensive about these children learning with other children owing to their background and behavior. But our efforts as mentioned above helped us securing school admission. The teachers often neglect / reject these children and we have to communicate with them.

We face the problems of school dropout due to parents migration. We suggested them to keep them in our institutes till they come back.

We witnessed some children resorting to begging again after school hours. We taken help from police to prevent this and it is effective.

At some places schools are far away. We have arranged school bus / transport.

Vaccination of these children is another problem as they are afraid of injections and many times they run away.

Environment in slums is hardly conducive and unsafe. Therefore we have started holding coaching sessions in school premises itself. However, as meeting with parents is important we send them in team of two.

Lesson Learnt from the initiatives    

We have learnt that extending our hands to the poorest and most vulnerable can uplift their lives. Given help such people are willing to do the needful to take advantage of the help and change their lives to better. They have the required capability, capacity, initiative, skills and willingness. We have learnt that we need to carefully survey such people, communicate them and without actually assessing their condition by paying them repeated visits we cannot run such project successfully. Without factual assessment we cannot design a project that meets the requirements. We need to be have good communication with the beneficiaries and with their trust without which running such project would not be possible. Involving the all the concerned persons is also important e.g. teachers, social workers, parents etc. We have learnt that sometimes though people many not offer monetary help but they donate various support articles e.g. school bags, uniforms, clothes, sweets, etc. We have to create a corpus for this project.

Public service too can help in this initiative by offering assistance and necessary guidance. These children do not have any documents that are required for obtaining school admission e.g. birth certificate, proof of resident, identity card, ration cards, etc. In such cases Public Service can help us in generating such documents. Govt. run school can help by giving admission to such students. Various administrations can either run such project themselves or help the NGOs. State and Central / Union Govts can run such projects or help NGOs. They can pass the necessary laws in this regards.

Achievements

Majority of children enrolled into our program used to beg on the streets for money and / or food

• We helped them get Age Certificates for school admissions. Hitherto, they did not exist on paper
• These children are now receiving formal school education which has given them a sense of self-esteem
• Our remedial teaching and coaching help them cope with school syllabus and homework
• Extra-curricular activities including sports training, dancing and drawing help develop artistic learning and encourage them to think in a more challenging and creative manner
• Children are now conscious about the basic hygiene- brushing teeth and bathing on a daily basis
• Children receive requisite and good quality food intake with our daily meal plan. There has been a considerable improvement in their health. Previously, a number of them would sometimes get just one meal in a day
• We carried out vaccinations (immunization) for these children who otherwise would have remained susceptible to diseases such as polio, measles, etc.
• Health check-ups facilitated by us have helped assess need of medical intervention. We have provided these children medication as advised.
• Children have now developed a sense of modesty. Previously, they would roam about the streets fully/partially naked
• Children have learnt to communicate well including their wishes, dreams, fears and problems which help us intervene wherever necessary. They are learning a dignified way of living
• Our effort to keep these children engaged through the day has gone a long way in keeping their minds off the harsh realities of their lives and to an extent; it has sort of become their safety net. Most importantly, these children have stopped begging
• For parents it is a relief that their children are well taken care of while they are away for work. Further, as food for children is provided by us, it has eased off some burden of parents. Although reluctant initially, parents are now understanding the importance of providing education to children and are realizing that given an opportunity their children could do well in future. We have instilled trust amongst these communities and today they are more willing to support our effort. As their children continue to receive good quality education and are showing improvement in health, these communities have become more conscious about their surroundings and have reported a few instances of anti-social elements / activities in and around their localities and schools. We have sought police intervention in such cases. Slowly but surely they are cooperating with us to provide a conducive environment to children
• For girls above 13 years upto 16 - 17 years are involved in vending / hawking on the road and their parents are reluctant to send them to schools due to fear of their security and therefore we counselled these girls and hold them about their hygiene and menstrual cycle and nutritious diet, importance of sports and taught them various handicraft courses and tailoring and now they are also insisting in learning and that we are doing at their locations.

• Success stories (DOCX)