By Saath Team | SAATH
Child Friendly Spaces PROGRESS REPORT
(January – March, 2014)
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.
SAATH designed Child-Friendly Spaces- a unique, 4-hour informal education course with an aim to later enrol 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.
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.
Currently, there are 7 Child Friendly Space (CFS) centres; 4 in the slums of Ahmedabad and 3 on construction sites. Through our CFS centres, we have enrolled more than 2,000 child labourers and children of labourers in our CFS classes.
QUARTERLY STATUS OF CFS (January – March, 2014)
For overall development of a child during the three months, various activities were conducted at the child friendly centres and special care was taken that a nutritious diet is provided to each child coming at the centre. A new centre was opened in the month of March in the Vejalpur area. Thus currently we have 3 CFS classes at construction sites and 4 in slums. During the 3 month period various activities were done with children along with learning activities. Children celebrated the Republic Day and Holi during the three months. The students from Lycee International School France and did various activities with the children of one centre. Colouring Books and School Kits received as donations by Saath were donated to children at all the classes.
Given below is the brief of activities at each individual centre:
In the Fatehwadi (Juhapura) Center, a new teacher was enrolled in the month of January as the older teacher resigned. In Gujarat the children learned the alphabets, reading and writing simple words and their spellings. In Maths the children learned to read numbers from 1 to 100 and write numbers from 1 to 50, tables from 1 to 10 and basic addition examples. In English the children learned the alphabets, how to give their introduction, shapes and sizes and colours.
The children were taught about the importance of cleanliness. In games the children played the games of Volleyball, Kho – Kho and catch. The children were taught about colours with the help of newly given colouring books to them, information about Utrayan and Republic Day was given to them. 14 students from Lycee International School France visited the centre and did various activities with the children.
SW Park – Naroda
In SW Park Naroda, in Gujarati the children learned simple words, reading and writing the alphabets. In Maths the children learned to count with the help of pictures, numbers and the sequence of numbers from 1 to 20. The children learned about colours, coloured the newly given books to them, learned from charts, played various interactive learning games and children songs.
Apart from these the children also learned about various animals and birds and their voices.
At SW Park Vasna Center, in Gujarati while the younger kids were taught alphabets, the older kids were taught to read and write the alphabets. In Maths, the younger kids learned the numbers while the older kids learned about basic examples of addition and subtraction. In English also the alphabets were taught to the kids. Every Saturday drawing and colouring activities were done with children for the newly given colouring books to them. In sports and physical activities the children were taught standing up and sitting down exercise and the game of musical chair was played.
Apart from these children were taught basic disciplinary manners, parts of body, saying good morning, good bye etc. The children were given information about the festival of ‘Utrayan’ and kites and sweets were distributed among them.
During the three month period the children were taught basic alphabets of English and Gujarati, calculation examples and some simple words and sentences. Many stories were narrated with the children. In January the children were given kites on Uttrayan and on 26th January Republic Day the children sang the National Anthem.
In January 5 kids were selected by Coco – Cola Company and were taken on an exposure visit to their office where the children spent their day and did various activities and were given toys as gifts. In February the children were given colouring books and also basic school kits and were taught how to take care of them. The children celebrated the festival of Holi in March.
New children were enrolled in the centre in January. Different activities were done with children according to their age groups. The children were taught English – Gujarati alphabets, names of fruits, animals, birds, colours and they learned about various shapes. For the children already coming to class even before January focus was given on them regarding words and their spellings. The children were taught to colour the books that were provided to them by a donor. Craft activities were also done with the children and they were taught to make various things out of paper and colouring them. Puzzle games were played with children and also they were given information about the festival of Holi.
Ram – Raheem Tekro
Started in December this is also one of our new centers. During the 3 month period the children were taught English and Gujarati alphabets, Stories, Songs, Simple words and drawing basic shapes. For sport activities, exercise sessions were done for the physical development of children. Along with this a balanced diet was given to the children for their development.
Our newest centre was started in March, 2014 in the Vejalpur area. 38 children were enrolled in classes. In the class the children were taught prayer songs, reading alphabets (English and Gujarati) and reading from 1 to 100 numbers. With the help of charts the children were taught names of animals, birds, fruits and vegetables. With the help of interactive games the children were taught about how to give their introduction, identify various colours and counting digits.
Child Friendly Spaces- Status in March 14
Sr. No. Name of the Centre No. of Children
Boy Girl Total
1 Fatehwadi 22 29 51
2 Naroda- Swaminarayan park 27 22 49
3 Umang Lambha 8 10 18
4 Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park 23 34 57
5 Vastral- Devnandan Supremus 23 40 63
6 Ram- Raheem tekro 26 26 52
7 Vejalpur 18 20 38
Total 147 181 328
Child Friendly Spaces (January 14- March 14)
Newly Enrolled Children Children enrolled to School
Sr. No. Name of the Centre Jan.14 Feb.14 Mar.14 Total Jan.14 Feb.14 Mar.14 Total
1 Fatehwadi 20 11 10 41 - - - -
2 Naroda- Swaminarayan park 1 19 13 33 - - - -
3 Umang Lambha 4 1 1 6 - - - -
4 Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park 5 31 36 72 - - - -
5 Vastral- Devnandan Supremus 5 11 19 35 - - - -
6 Ram- Raheem tekro &
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