Support education for vulnerable children (India)

Name of Project: Pratham & Pragati Projects

Project Period: Ongoing

Reporting Period: 01^st October to 31^st December 2020

Specific Objectives of the Project: 

• That vulnerable children in Government Homes and Red-Light Districts gain access to academic, vocational, and life skill education.
• To bridge the digital divide to help children have access to online learning through the provision of mobile recharges/ data packs and providing IT infrastructure for children in Government Homes and Red-Light Districts.

Sahaara believes that every person has a dream, and our work centers on ensuring that vulnerable and marginalized persons can articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Children in Government-run homes and from the red-light districts live in the high-risk environments under constant neglect, which also results in a high level of school dropouts in middle school. The Pratham and Pragati programs strive to build strong foundations in math and languages through their remedial education centers to ensure such children continue their learning process in schools to finally fulfill the dreams.

However, due to the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown the computer and education centers have remained shut. Sahaara adapted quickly by offering online education but due to the poverty challenges being multiplied due to unemployment in the impoverished communities - we had to bridge the digital divide by providing mobile recharges and internet data packs to children to attend Zoom classes. Sahaara also helped set up the IT infrastructure at two Government Homes in the city.

Going the extra mile

Rohit* lives in the Turbhe red-light area with his grandparents, mother, and brother. He is currently undergoing Sahaara's remedial classes. During the lockdown, Sahaara started online classes because physical classes were restricted. Rohit’s mother had a smartphone and Rohit would walk a few meters away from his house where he could connect to a Wi-Fi network and attend these classes. Understanding that Internet recharges will be a financial burden on the families, Sahaara started facilitating Internet pack recharges for the children. Rohit too was able to avail of the Internet plan recharge.

But unlike Rohit, many children had no access to even a smartphone and were missing academics. Teachers started requesting the students to share their smartphones with other children so that all students could attend classes. Rohit instantly agreed to do so.

Rohit impacted the children of his own neighborhood with his initiative. At 11:00 am, Rohit would go to 2 students’ houses and help them attend class. At 12:30 pm, he would go to another student’s house and help that child attend the online class with his smartphone. At 3:30 pm he attended his own class and again at 4:15 pm he helped 2 more students to attend the online class. Another 5 children attended the online Zoom classes through Rohit’s kindness alone. He ensured that everyone did their homework properly. He helped them to report their homework to their teacher by sending photos.

We at Sahaara felt that this hunger for learning must be nurtured. We have done all that we can to continue providing these children with things that would enable them to participate in the online classes. Rohit has been very thankful to receive Sahaara’s help in the mobile recharges.

*Name changed to protect the beneficiary’s identity.

Links:

• Pratham - Remedial Education by Sahaara Charitable Society
• Pragati - Remedial Education by Sahaara Charitable Society

Name of Project: Impart computer literacy to poor children in India

Project Period: Ongoing

Reporting Period: 01^st April to 30^th June 2020

Specific Objectives of the Project:

• To improve access to computers
• To increase computer literacy of the children
• To deliver quality computer education

Challenges:

• Lockdown imposed by the government caused the loss of daily jobs
• Computer centers remained closed
• Basic necessities became the desperate needs of our beneficiaries

Sahaara believes that every person has a dream, and our work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons can articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Children living in Mumbai juvenile homes are one of the most marginalized children in Mumbai. Institutionalized, these children are most often from highly poverty-stricken families.

However, when the lockdown was announced this year to reduce the spread of the COVID pandemic, all computer centers have remained shut ever since. Many of these families lost their livelihoods during the lockdown. While computer education was stalled during this period, Sahaara continued with emergency food and hygiene relief during the period of the lockdown.

Hanging by a thread

Vijay* is an ex-student of the Chembur Children’s Home. He is now a college student in his final year of graduation, majoring in Arts. His father died when he was young. His mother worked as a maid to support the family and Vijay worked part-time as a stand-by security guard to supplement the family income.

In March 2020, the Prime Minister ordered a National Lockdown to curb the effect of the COVID pandemic. While this helped reduce the rate of the spread of the virus, a new challenge began, and various restrictions were imposed on labor. Many daily wage workers lost their livelihood during this time and became desperate for even a single meal a day. As a result of these circumstances, since both Vijay and his mother were daily wage workers, they lost their jobs.  Their situation devastated them as Vijay could not understand how he could support his mother and his two younger siblings.

Out of sheer desperation, Vijay looked for any job he could get.  He got a job as an assistant in a grocery shop where he was given work for an hour or two every day.  The income was negligible, but it was better than nothing. When Sahaara made a routine call to Vijay to enquire about his condition, we heard about their plight. We were moved by the fact that even in these difficult times, Vijay had taken it upon himself to do something about it. Sahaara decided to help the family with our emergency family relief with ration and hygiene supplies.  This was a timely help which enabled them to tide over the difficult period of the Lockdown which stretched past June.

*Name changed to protect the beneficiary’s identity.

Links:

• Website