By Rahul Thomas | Coordinator - Donors
Sahaara believes that every person has a dream, and our work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to 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.
As a part of the holistic intervention therein, Sahaara imparts computer education to the children between fourteen to eighteen years of age in the juvenile homes. Sahaara’s in-house computer course delivers a fitting foundation to the children preparing their skills for the technology-driven world outside the homes. The children attending the computer training get a start which will help them break out of the poverty cycle and fulfill their dreams of a stable future.
Umed’s* Journey from Notoriety to Nobility
Umed was born in June 1997. His father ran a scrap material business and his mother was a housewife. Umed had six other siblings – four sisters and two brothers. Of his siblings, two of his sisters are married and the other two are at home while his brothers attend a local school.
Umed used to reside with his family in Mira Road - a suburb of Mumbai - where he attended school. While walking to school daily, he and his friend noticed a house, which was locked for many days. One day they decided to tamper with the lock and break into the house. He was fifteen years of age when he broke into the first house. Umed and his friend continued walking this path and they broke into other homes as well and robbed them. They felt that it would not be possible for the police to catch up with them as they were students and the police would probably be looking for adults. In Jan 2014, though, their plans were rudely dashed when the police picked them up and placed them in the Bhiwandi Observation Home because of their age.
Umed stayed there for two months and then was shifted to the David Sassoon Industrial School in Matunga. It was there, in the month of March, that Sahaara met him. He was very quiet and reserved but easy to talk to. In July, when he joined the Computer class, his interaction with the Sahaara staff increased. As they interacted, the teacher got to know about his past and what was the sequence of events that landed him in the Home.
Over the next few days, he opened up and spoke about the bad choices that he had made in life, which had resulted in him being away from his family and staying in an institution. There was a visible repentance from his side as he decided never to walk that path of robbery again.
He says that he wants to grow up and major in computers or an electrical job. He is an enthusiastic learner. Although he is not strong in operating a computer, he is eager to learn and is the first one to show up for class! He is good in Math but his grasp of English is poor and thus he struggles with concepts in the computer class. Acknowledging his weakness, he has now begun to devote more time in learning English words so that he can grow in the skill of operating computers.
He wants to return to his family and live a normal life once he is released in the year 2015.
*Name changed to protect identity.
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