From Child Labour to a Chance at School

Child Friendly Spaces PROGRESS REPORT
(April – June, 2014)

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 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.

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.

IMPACT
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 (April – June, 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. 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. The volunteers from Praxis Organization visited our one of Child Friendly Spaces centre. School Kits received as donations by Saath were donated to children at all the classes. All the children from Child Friendly Classes celebrated the “NO CHILD LABOUR DAY”. The event was called “Meghdhanush” and celebrated on 12/6/2014. In this event different activities like dancing, singing, poetry and speeches were given by children about their experience in our classes. Children were happy to perform on stage. They have experienced a good and happy day of their life.

Given below is the brief of activities at each individual centre:
Fatewadi
In the Fatehwadi (Juhapura) Centre, in Gujarati 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 15 and basic addition examples. In English the children learned the alphabets, how to give their introduction, shapes and sizes, fruit and vegetables name and colours. They have also learned summation of 2 digits.

The children were taught about the importance of mathematics. In games the children played the indoor games. The children were taught about clay modelling and glass painting. They have learned new drawing and painting techniques. Also, they have learned importance and names of different colours.

SW Park – Naroda
In SW Park Naroda, in Gujarati the children learned simple words, reading and writing the alphabets and small words in English. 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, learned from charts, played various interactive learning games and children songs. One parent – teachers meeting was held to talk about their progress and make parents aware about their children. Teachers have taken tests in classroom and also shown result to their respective parents. Children performed well in their exams. Apart from these the children also learned about various animals and birds and their voices.

SW Park - Vasna
At SW Park Vasna Centre, in Gujarati while the younger kids were taught alphabets, the older kids were taught to read and write the alphabets. In Maths, kids learned basic examples of addition, multiplication and subtraction. In English also the alphabets were taught to the kids. Apart from these children were taught basic disciplinary manners, parts of body, saying good morning, good bye etc. They were taught general knowledge.
 
Devnandan Supreme – Vastral
In the last month, teacher has resigned and new teacher is enrolled. 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. Children were taken on an exposure visit and did various activities and were given school kits as gifts.

Lamba
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. 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.

Ram – Raheem Tekro
During the 3 month period the children were taught English and Gujarati alphabets, vegetables and fruits names, numbers from 1-100, 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. They have been taught to make toys from waste material. They have also taught about glass painting and learned different colours names.

Vejalpur
 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. Children were taught season names and importance of cleanliness. Interns form Pandit Din Dayal University, came for their internship and shared the centre and did painting activities with children. Make them prepared for dance and painting competition on the event day.

CHALLENGES

• Workers keep on migrating to different sites and different cities which creates a hindrance in tracking trained children.
• Lack of funding stops from opening up of new classes.
• Stationary, Toys, Teacher Expenses, Snacks are becoming costlier.
• The attrition rates of students are increasing.
• Children are from scattered age groups and so the activities cannot be standardized.
• Education is a barrier to the parents of such children and thus it takes time to make them aware and understand the importance of getting their children enrolled to CFS.

 
STATUS OF CFS

Child Friendly Spaces- Status in June 14
Sr. No.    Name of the Centre              No. of Children
                                                         Boy    Girl    Total
1    Fatehwadi                                14          22          36
2    Ram rahim no tekro                  18          23          41
3    Vejalpur                                    21          21          42
4    Naroda- Swaminarayan park     32          26          58
5    Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park 20          20          40
6    Vastral- Devnandan Supremus    8          12          20
7    Lambha                                      8          10          18
                                        Total       121        134        255

Child Friendly Spaces (April 14- June 14)
Sr. No.    Name of the Centre                      Newly Enrolled Children                Children enrolled to School
                                                               Apr.14    May.14    Jun.14    Total    Apr.14    May.14    Jun.14    Total
1    Fatehwadi                                           8             1          6               15          -           8             7            15
2    Ram rahim no tekro                              -             3          7               10         -            -            3               3
3    Vejalpur                                             13            6          5               24         -           4             6             10
4    Naroda- Swaminarayan park                9          13        15               37         -            -            11               11
5    Shahwadi- Swaminarayan park           5           13       10               28          -           -               6               6
6    Vastral- Devnandan Supremus             10        11          -                 21         -          -             -                -   
7    Lambha                                               -           -             -               -              -           -              -  &n

Links:

• Saath Website
• Saath Blog