Support education for vulnerable children (India)

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.

Below is the story of a child who has benefited with the help of the computer training carried out by Sahaara personnel.

Motivation to Succeed

Ever wondered what life would be like without a parent to care for you? Do you know what it would feel like to watch family walk away and never return? What would being abandoned feel like?

Rama’s* father and mother hail from Bangladesh and moved to Kolkata, West Bengal just before Rama was born. At the age of one, his mother passed away and his father’s second wife moved to Kolkata with her two children. His father was an alcoholic, due to which his father and wife would have frequent fights. On one such day, his stepmother beat his father in public leading him to be emotionally disturbed. Due to this experience, his father committed suicide by consuming poison. After this, his stepmother chose to move back to Delhi. She took the three children to a station in Kolkata and using the excuse of getting food for Rama, she left him sitting on the platform. Rama found himself all alone anticipating the return of his stepmother but she had left the young 6 year old to fend for himself. Rama stayed at the station for 2 days still expecting his stepmother to return.

A scrap-picker nearby noticed him and offered to take the frail boy to live with him. Rama lived with him for the next 5 years, working as a scrap-picker too. During this time, he would often take drugs. In the year 2011 at the age of 11, he wandered around a station and while under the influence, he got onto a train heading to Mumbai. When the train halted, the railway police found him unconscious. The police then admitted him to Dongri Children’s Home where he stayed for the next 2 years. In 2013, Rama was transferred to David Sassoon Industrial School (DSIS).

Sahaara conducts computer coaching classes at DSIS. We connected with Rama in July 2016.

When we met him, he was a quiet, distant and lonely boy who had no knowledge of how to use a computer but an immense interest in learning. He had no confidence in himself or his ability to learn, due to his lack of English reading skills. With our constant encouragement, he is now a much happier boy who has become friendly and mingles with the other children. He has learnt how to use MS Word after much practice and diligently doing the homework given by us. His English reading skills are also growing, as he is a fast learner. He is now teaching the other boys how to use MS Word, which is a wonderful growth!

He is a regular attendee of our classes and takes any opportunity he can to come learn. Rama is now an ambitious 15 year old with an interest to pursue higher education. We are looking forward to Rama’s bright future, and hope to see other children like him grow as motivated as he is!

*Name changed to protect identity

• Quarterly Progress Report (PDF)