From Child Labour to a Chance at School

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.

Art & Craft Workshops:

• It was Diwali time and to thank all our supporters, children from our centers decorated diyas and made greeting cards. Two day workshop was held by volunteers from Thomson Reuters.
• A jewelry making workshop was held for two weeks, where children learnt and made jewelry. Later on we held an exhibition for the same and children sold them and bought Diwali goodies from the sale money.
• Ahmedabad circle, group of young entrepreneurs of Ahmedabad, took 100 children from different centers for movie screening. Children loved watching the movie and enjoyed popcorn and coke.
• Marriott Hotel, Ahmedabad took 15 children to Ahmedabad Zoo. Children had fun time there and enjoyed the lunch provided by Marriott
• In association with approach Foundation, children experienced shopping experience. An exhibition was set up, where children were given fake money and they were asked to shop for them and their families in that budget.
• About 50 children from three centres were taken for a film screening at Alpha One mall.
• Two Art workshops were conducted by Sky Blue Institute, 60 children were attended the workshop. Here children learnt different colouring techniques and made beautiful greeting cards. Saath is going to use these cards as Seasons’s Greetings.
• 35 children visited Vastrapur lake amusement park. It was organized by KPMG. Together they enjoyed rides and had snacks.

Exposure Visits:

Teacher Centric Activities:

• Every month teachers’ monitoring meeting is organized at Saath office. This turns out to be a good learning opportunity for all the teachers. They discuss their centre specific achievements and challenges, which are resolved by sharing and brain storming.
• A senior member of the children’s programme was invited to share her experiences at a state level RTE convention.

Health and Hygiene

• Every quarter health check-ups are done and growth record is maintained. Their height and weight are measured and maintained on monthly basis.
• A health check-up was conducted in October, 2017 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

Interns and Volunteers

• We had an intern Barbara (name changed) from Canada who came to India to work with these children for one week. She taught children Alphabets in English and educate them on hygiene. She also distributed hygiene kits to the children of Rajyash center.   

Donation

• Mr. Shashank Shah celebrated his son’s birthday at Godrej Garden City center. He donated sports kits for the children, which included cricket set, footballs, tennis set, badminton sets etc.
• The developer of Makarba site celebrated his birthday with the children and cut the cake with them.
• Employees of Marriott Hotel distributed lunch at CFS centers to celebrate their Associates Week.

Festival Celebration

• Diwali festival was celebrated at all CFS centers. Volunteers from different organizations came and celebrated the festival with them. Some got sweet meats for the children and some did art-craft activities with them.
• 14^th November is celebrated as children’s day and we at Saath also had major celebration for them. Centers were decorated with balloons and special lunch was served to all the children.

SUCCESS STORY

                                                           Canadian enlightened in India!

The donation from GlobalGiving really helped in spreading information about India’s program abroad. It helps in volunteers from foreign countries coming to our country and learning about the problems so as to suggest appropriate solutions for the same as well as to experience problems in the developing countries. One such story is of Barbara who left India with a heavy heart as well as with hope and positivity when she mingled with the innocent and ambitious children from the Child Friendly Spaces of Saath.  Barbara (name changed) had come to India because she wanted to experience the plight of the poor children here as well as she wanted to know how the child friendly spaces help the children in building their livelihoods and giving them hope for the future. Barabara visited a child friendly space in Ahmedabad. The picture there was very interesting. The children were sated in groups and some were tired and also sleeping. The teacher was facilitating the children to read the alphabets from the board. The children were shouting the alphabets loudly. They were very excited to learn something new and looked very passionate. When enquired about the background of these children, these children came from very margalinsed backgrounds. Their parents were either laborers or peasants and some of them also did not have both their parents. These children were therefore deprived of the basic necessities of life. Of all these children Barbara got attracted to Aartis (name changed) story. Aarti was indeed a very different girl. Aarti lives in the nearby slum areas of the child friendly spaces. She is a very bright girl and what differentiates her from the others is that she wants to do something in life and she is very focused and positive at this early age of hers. She is very passionate about attending the CFS every day and her teacher told us that she is the brightest in the class and has a very good ambition of doing something in life. What is very special about her is that even though she comes from the same socio-economic and cultural background like the other people she is very confident and positive in life. After speaking to her, Barbara was so much interested and inspired that she went to see where this girl lives. Aarti lives in a shack with her mother and several siblings. Her father is an alcoholic and seldom cares for his children. Among all the siblings, Aarti and one of her brother only are regular students to the CFS. Barabara was so excited to see these children and she also distributed some hygiene packs to the students. She was very impressed by Aartis story and said that she wants to write about her. This story itself suggests that behind all the gloomy situations in life, there is a space for hope and positivity and within this space only do people build their lives. 

• CFS Report September - November , 2017 (PDF)