By Saath Team | SAATH
Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) Report April - June 2013
Saath Charitable Trust
SAATH was registered as a Public charitable Trust in 1989, Saath started the Integrated Community Development Programme, an approach that seeks to turn slums into vibrant neighbourhoods. SAATH caters to the multiple needs of the poor at once by providing them with one-stop centers, through which slum residents have access to services such as health, education, employment, micro finance and affordable housing.
Saath invests in human capacity of persons to manage their programmes in their communities. Communities co-invest with Saath and donors by and for the programmes, deciding and implementing them. Saath engages Institutions, Corporates and Individuals throughout the world as partners and supporters of integrated development in India.
CFS
SAATH designed Child-Friendly Spaces- a unique, 4-hour non-formal education course with an aim to later enrol the 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 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.
Impact
Currently, there are 7 Child Friendly Space centres; 4 in the slums of Ahmedabad and 3 on construction sites. Through our CFS centres, we have steered more than 2000 child labourers and children of labourers back into formal schooling systems.
Quarterly Status of CFS (April – June)
For overall development of a child during April to June, 2013 various activities were conducted at 7 child friendly centres. Following are the brief description of kind of activities conducted at various centres.
Gupta Nagar
The Vasna - Guptanagar centre was temporarily on hold as the teacher running the centre was sick and had to undergo an operation. A new teacher was recruited in the place and classes started running but the availability of children in the area was very low. There were many different schools active in the area. Also, a survey of the area was done by students of Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute for Saath. In the survey they found that there are less than 10 child labourers in the area and hence it was not feasible to run a class as already schooling facilities are available in the area. Hence, the centre was closed.
Fatewadi
In the Fatehwadi (Juhapura) Center, Teachers taught basics of alphabets of Gujarati, English and Hindi and story reading. Children also learned to read/write numbers from 1 to 10 and simple addition, subtraction and multiplication examples. The kids also learned to write essays on animals like cow, elephant etc.
They were taught about the diversity of our country India. They learned about the monsoon season, names of months, names of fruits and played games various indoor, outdoor games. Children were also taught to draw the vessels used at home. Along with education they were provided nutritious fruits and snacks. During this quarter the kids did various interactive activities with employees of one of our Corporate partners in which they learned about health and hygiene, basics of computer and the kids were also shown a movie about the importance of water by the Corporate. The kids were also taken to a garden by one of our new partners Aproch – Riverside school in which the kids did various activities, were show live play on stories and a magic show.
Khodiyar Nagar – 1
In the Behrampura (Khodiyarnagar) CFS, kids were taught English alphabets. They were taught stories in the form of songs and were also asked to tell a story in the class, which the kids did perfectly.
The kids learned about numbers in ascending and descending order, names of fruits and vegetables. They were also taught about colours and were asked to draw various pictures and then colouring them appropriately. The kids were taken to a temple in the nearby area where there is a garden. Various games were played during the visit to the garden.
During this quarter the kids did various interactive activities with employees of one of our Corporate partners in which they learned about health and hygiene, basics of computer and the kids were also shown a movie about the importance of water by the Corporate. The kids were also taken to a garden by one of our new partners Aproch – Riverside school in which the kids did various activities, were show live play on stories and a magic show.
Khodiyar Nagar – 2
A survey was done by the students of Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute for Saath in the Behrampura area. The result of their survey showed that in the area there are more than 70 child labourers in the area. Hence, we decided to open another centre in the area.
In the month of June a new centre was opened in the Khodiyar Nagar, Behrampura area. In this centre during the month of June, the kids were taught numbers and basic alphabets of English, Hindi and Gujarati. The kids played various games and were also given nutritious snacks during the classes.
SW Park – Naroda
In SW Park Naroda, older kids were taught about the basic Gujarati grammar, reading and writing of sentences/paragraphs and tables from 1 to 11 to read/ write and learn by heart. Younger kids were taught basic alphabets, numbers and identifying the missing numbers from a sequence. All the kids together were also taught Basic English and Hindi alphabets and numbers and doing addition/subtraction.
The kids were taught to clap according to numbers, names of months, names of fruits and vegetables, names of vehicles, names and voices of birds, all the charts present at the centre and were given introduction about Parrots and Camels. The kids also did various craft activities and learned to make paper boats and aeroplanes. Also various games were played by children in which many games were based on music.
The kids were also taken on a visit to Kankariya Lake, which the kids enjoyed a lot and also the kids were given gifts during this picnic.
SW Park - Vasna
At SW Park Vasna Center, Shahwadi, as the regular teacher left a temporary teacher was hired to run the centre and later on in the month of June a permanent teacher was hired. In the centre kids learned about English alphabets reading and writing. The kids were also taught numbers. Various activities which kids like were done for their overall development. Kids were taught simple words in Gujarati.
Moreover, Kids were given balanced diet that can lead to their physical and mental development. Various songs and stories based on moral were also told.
Devnandan Supreme – Vastral
Kids were taught English alphabets. The kids learned about numbers, and doing examples of simple addition and subtraction. Also they were taught drawing and learnt about different words. The kids played various indoor and outdoor games.
The kids at the centre were given a balanced diet so as to support their physical and mental growth.
Umang Lamba
In Umang Lamba, kids were taught basic alphabets and numbers. The activities done were focused on identifying words. The children were taught to trees, birds, animals, week days and counting. Kids also learned to read/write numbers from 1 to 50.
The kids were taken on visits to various places and taught various songs. Also, people from Nirman Programme of Saath visited the CFS centre.
Challenges
Status of CFS
Child Friendly Spaces- Status in June 13
Sr. No. Name of the Centre No. of Children Boy Girl Total
1 Fatehwadi 9 21 30
2 Behrampura- Khodiyarnagar 1 7 15 22
3 Behrampura- Khodiyarnagar 2 14 18 32
4 Naroda- Swaminarayan park 23 27 50
5 Lambha- Umang Lambha 13 16 29
6 Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park 22 21 43
7 Vastral- Devnandan Supremus 20 31 51
Total 108 149 257
Child Friendly Spaces (April 13- June 13)
Newly Enrolled Children Children enrolled to School
Sr. No. Name of the Centre Apr.13 May.13 Jun.13 Total Apr.13 May.13 Jun.13 Total
1 Fatehwadi 1 2 9 12 - - - -
2 Behrampura- Khodiyarnagar 1 - - - - - 5 2 7
3 Behrampura- Khodiyarnagar 2 - - 32 32 - - - -
4 Naroda- Swaminarayan park 18 - 12 30 - - - -
5 Lambha- Umang Lambha 4 5 - 9 - - - -
6 Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park - - 1 1 - - - -
7 Vastral- Devnandan Supremus - 7 - 7 - - - -
Total 
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