From Child Labour to a Chance at School

CHILD FRIENDLY SPACES

SAATH CHARITABLE TRUST

SAATH is a non-government organization registered as a Public Charitable Trust in Gujarat, India. In Gujarati the word SAATH means, “Together, Co-operation, a Collective or Support.” SAATH’s one-stop, integrated services reach over 4,00,000 individuals in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Since 1989, SAATH has facilitated participatory process that improves the quality of life for the urban and rural poor. SAATH caters to multiple needs of the poor by providing them with one-stop centres, through which they have access to services such as health, education, employment, micro finance and affordable housing. SAATH engages institutions, corporate and individuals throughout the world as partners and supporters for the integrated development of India.

• Vision: Saath envisions inclusive and empowered communities and individuals. 
• Mission: To make human settlements equitable living environments where all residents and vulnerable people have access to health, education, essential infrastructure services and livelihood options, irrespective of their economic and social status.

 CHILD FRIENDLY SPACES

SAATH designed Child-Friendly Spaces- a unique, 4-hour informal education course with an aim to later enroll the child labourers, children of construction labourers in formal education. With a steady influx of migrating families to urban settlements and poor quality of education, creating alternative education spaces for quality education has become important.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROGRAMME

The main and objective of this programme is to reach the child labourers and children of labourers and help them gain formal education eventually and there after making them skilled and self-sufficient. Children from the slums, child labourers as well as children of labourers on construction sites all require a strong base in education and access to quality education. Dropouts from school need to be continuously counselled and encouraged to go back to school. The education programs designed at Saath recognize this need and aims to bridge this gap.

 Interns and Volunteers:

• Interns from MSW department of Gujarat University interned with Saath for two months. The conducted numerous educational and extra-curricular activities. They celebrated ‘Holi’ at all the centres. They also took children out for to a nearby nature park for picnic.
• Volunteers from Karma Foundation visited the centre and conducted classroom activities- mixture of education and fun.
• Employees of Plum Slice visit centre once a week and engage with children in fun activities such as singing and storytelling.  

 Donations:

• Mrs. Patel celebrated her daughter’s birthday with these children. They cut cake and had yummy lunch with return gifts.
• Mrs. Kiran celebrated her birthday with these kids, she said this was one of the best birthday she has every celebrated. She donated food and school kits to the children at Godrej Center.
• Employees of Hyatt invited children for lunch to celebrate their Associates Week.
• aProCh took about 100 children from Saath for an exposure visit to Riverfront on the banks of Sabarmati River. Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Corporation (AMTS) provided an exclusive free bus service to pick and drop children. The timing for the visit was 5pm to 7pm. Teachers took the responsibility to drop children to their doorstep. It was a three-day event and children engaged in activities such as rides, watched film and attended a music performance.
• 40+ children were taken to Nini’s Kitchen, a restaurant in Ahmedabad, for lunch. It was organized by a few MSW interns. Children relished upon cuisines, which would be rare for them. They learnt table etiquettes including how to use spoon and forks. They felt special for the day for the special treatment and attention they received from the staff, teachers, and interns.
• Children of Saath were invited to an event organized by the Traffic Department of the city. They were transported in the department’s bus to the venue, GMDC Ground. The aim was to make children aware of traffic rules. The demonstration was followed by painting activity. All the children were then awarded with a certificate for participation. It ended with tummy full of snacks.
• About 50 children from three centres were taken for a film screening at Alpha One mall.
• Two craft workshops by aProCh were conducted during May. 30-40 children along with children from other school participated. They learnt to make things out of paper.

Exposure Visits:

Teachers – Parents Meeting:

• Parents’ meeting takes place every month. Parents were apprehensive at one of the centres about their children’s progress and had pessimist thoughts about education. The program coordinator then shared progress of all the children in parents meeting.

Health and Hygiene:

• Every quarter health check-ups are done and growth record is maintained. Their height and 0weight are measured and maintained on monthly basis.
• A health check-up was conducted in January, 2018 for the children of construction workers. The malnourished children are given supplements to bring their health to normal level.
• Hand washing is a practice that is stressed upon and followed daily. Teacher ensure that each and every child when enter the class and before eating wash his/her hands

SUCCESS STORY

Saniya (name changed) aged 4 years, one of the students at our CFS is the only daughter of Mr. Seher and Aashiya. She has been studying at Juhapura Balghar for over a year now. Her father is a fruit seller in city area of Ahmedabad and earns around Rs. 500-1000 per day depending upon sales. Her mother is a homemaker. She mentioned that her family has enough even after providing for the Husband’s parents, as he is only son of the old parents. Both the parents of Saniya can just barely write their names. They feel overjoyed to see her daughter successfully read and write her name and other things too. Her mother exclaimed with joy that, “I feel proud to see my only daughter learning so much.” The teacher said that Saniya is an intelligent and studious child, and she completes all her work and learns things easily. Saniya aspires to become a doctor in the future. Today, seeing Saniya read, write and understand things, her parents feel happy and proud to have sent her to Preschooling where she not only her mental development but also received nutritional and hygiene support which helped Saniya maintain her health.

• Progress Report March - May, 2018 (PDF)