"Nayantara" a Girl Child Sponsorship Programme

Nikki is a girl of 14 years, lives with her parents and one elder sister and two younger brother and sister in Turturi T.G Division of Alipurduar district of West Bengal. Her father Binod has education up to class IV standard and he is a labour. Her mother Anita is illiterate, works in ta garden as a garden worker. Her parents earn Rs. 4000.00 per month against hard labour and have to maintain their six member family in extreme financial hardship. Nikki lives with her family in a small house in the tea garden, which is not their own house but the garden owner allowed them to stay in the house. The house is made of teen sheet and the condition of the house is poor as is very old and most of its parts are broken. They don’t have any drinking water source and household toilet in the house. The physical environment of the house and its surroundings is not good, but there is no option for them to shift somewhere else.

The parents of Nikki are not aware enough about environment and its cleanliness; not even know what is good or bad, also don’t have initiative taking care of their children. Her father is addicted with local made alcohol, consumes almost every day and often creates unrest and breaks the harmony and peace in the family.

Nikki is physically thin and malnourished. She never guided by her parents taking care of her health and personal hygiene. She is reading in class VIII in a local school but was very irregular attending school as she couldn’t follow lesions during class room sessions. Moreover she was not so attentive and interested studying in school. Her parents were also reluctant about her irregularity attending school, poor performance and her least interest for study.

In the meantime two coaching centres for backup support to the children like Nikki have been established. After knowing the fact and family condition of Nikki through survey, she was counseled to continue her study better way, necessity of education, its benefit etc. During counseling she became motivated to take backup support through the coaching centre. The intention of setting up coaching centres was shared with the parents of Nikki and advised them to send their child in the centre. Nikki’s parents realized the need of their child and agreed to send her to coaching centre.

Presently, lot of changes has taken place in Nikki’s life. She became regular attending both coaching centre and her school and was found interested in her study. Nikki is getting tuition support preparing her home tasks, improving her general knowledge and involved in extra-curricular activities. She is also getting nutritional supplementation in the coaching centre and improvement in her health status has been observed. Nikki desires to help the poor people and wants to become an example in her community.