COVID 19 Response - Rainbow Homes Program

Comprehensive Residential Care for the most vulnerable children

A brief update on the support

 About Rainbow Homes: The Rainbow Homes program for girls and boys is an ‘Open, Voluntary, Non-Custodial, Long-Term, Residential, Comprehensive Care’ program to enable the mainstreaming of children from street situations in India. This means children are not locked up, they have made a conscious decision to leave the street, come and stay in the home, the environment is not regimented and there is a plan for the education, nutrition, healthcare and future employability of every child. Rainbow Homes programme works in collaboration with the local government, civil societies and other likeminded groups & individuals in every city by creating a movement for caring for these vulnerable children.  The program has successfully reached out to over 10000 street children. Currently, we are running 56 homes, where about 5000 children receiving direct care in 10 cities in India.  

Support:  Patna is one of the Rainbow Home’s operational cities where Rainbow Homes run 5 homes, covering about 450 children. The support received from supporters has been helpful in providing complete care for the children of  Gharaunda Vikasaarth Rainbow Home for 1 and a half months. All these children received safe shelter & protection under the care of 11 caregivers in the home. 

 Gharaunda Vikasaarth Rainbow Home runs within the premises of Dhirachak Government Middle School, Anisabad, Patna. There are a total of 78 girl children living in the home where 11 caregivers are placed to extend comprehensive care programme to these children.  Through the support of funders from GlobalGiving, children could access to the following major facilities & activities:

Food & Nutrition:  All the children in the home accessed nutritious and healthy food in the home.  Children are provided with 3 times meal and 1-time snacks every day.  The Menu is prepared by children in the home by incorporating the items that are healthy and nutritious.  Eggs and fruits are given twice a week, non-veg once in a week, and milk is given every day.  Additional nutrition is provided with boiled egg and milk to the underweight children.

Health & Hygiene:  As the COVID19 pandemic outbreak affected the entire world, Rainbow Homes has introduced several precautionary measures at homes.  The Gharaunda Rainbow Home has been following the utmost clean & hygiene practises at home level.  Cleaning of the homes is increased to 5 times, frequent handwashing of the children ensured.  The required materials for this, including floor cleaners, sanitizers, soaps, toiletries, liquid washes, disinfectants have been purchased and made available at the home. 

Education:  During the pandemic also, the educational activities have continued in the home through online sessions. These sessions were conducted by the Education Coordinator and the part-time teachers and volunteers of the home.   

Other activities:  Despite the pandemic situation, the home did not stop the activities which are interesting for the children.  The activities such as dance, karate, music and even education classes are conducted online through Zoom or Google meet. 

Some activities organized at home:

• Mehandi competition, 
• dance competition, 
• Music competition, 
• painting competition, 
• games competition and 
• other activities like making jewellery, cement art, paper art, made useful things with the waste material
• Various games activities have been organized     

Utilization of fund received f: The donation received from the donations was polled up in a general fund and has been spent on running the Gharaunda Rainbow Home for 1 and half month.

Challenges and Way forward:  

• The challenge of the home is to continue uninterrupted caring facilities to the children of Gharaunda home.  We do not have committed/assured financial support to run the activities of this home.  The team at Rainbow Homes approaching many donors and funders to get funding support.  
• One of the other challenges is to equip the home by improving the digital education-related infrastructure to continue their education.  
• Ensuring food security of the families of these children is another priority of the home.  Most of the families of these children are homeless and do not have access to safe food during this pandemic.  Rainbow Homes has been trying to reach out to these families to ensure food security of the families.

We, at Rainbow Homes, are extremely thankful for the funders and supported through GlobalGiving for extending this critical support to Gharaunda Rainbow Home.    

• images for RHP (PDF)