Nurture 75 vulnerable children in the RedLightArea

Outreach: 

The toddlers of this community are susceptible to many forms of violence and abuse, such as being used as pawns for gambling and drug peddling, being exposed to pornography, physical fights, harassment of their mothers or other female family members, and sometimes even being assaulted themselves. Considering such an exploitative environment, our outreach team is the first and usually preferred point of contact between Apne Aap Women’s Collective and the community inhabiting Kamathipura and Falkland Road, the red-light districts of Mumbai.

With the aid of our dedicated outreach team, this quarter saw about 10 new members joining our Umang program. Upon enrollments, these beneficiaries have access to education (kindergarten), all forms of assistance with their health (ex: referrals, camps, nutritional support, etc.), therapies, interactive activities, exposure and recreational visits, and rehabilitative measures like night-shelter house amongst other general support and aid.

In this quarter, 335 home visits were done by our committed outreach workers (ORWs), where they meet their mothers and address any of the issues that they are having with their kids. They also reach out to women for admissions in the night shelter, assuring them about their kids’ security and health.

Education: 

From Alphabets to numbers, teachers mainly focused on identification of the alphabets and numbers. They also focus upon the awareness about their surroundings and general knowledge of things and people around them through various creative means such as educational puzzles, flashcard, games, toys and different things as resources, storytelling etc. The objective behind the educational activities is to make learning easy and fun.

This quarter, our Umang beneficiaries continued to learn alphabets, numbers, colors, shapes, Basic English and Hindi poetry and other fundamental literature of a kindergarten along with increasing their general knowledge.

Regular E-learning classes are also conducted through which the beneficiaries learn new rhymes and various moral stories.

Monthly assessments are conducted to track the record of the beneficiaries in the form or oral and written assessments. 55 oral assessments were done as well as 34 written assessments were done in the last three months. Most of our beneficiaries did well in the assessments, and some have even developed a greater understanding of alphabets and numbers because of illustrated medium of learning. Because of which, we could obtain the growth chart/progress reports of 48 beneficiaries.

Our long-term associate and a specialist in preschool curriculum, Ms. Marina Dutta also continued with her zestful activities, which include interactive games like puzzles, matching cards, role-playing, building blocks, creative illustrations, flashcards etc. Such activities help in developing fine motor, cognitive and social skills. This quarter, she had brought many storybooks and toys, and introduced new resource materials.
 
Apart from these assessments and activities, we have also maintained our regular garden visits- while constantly introducing newer games and activities to maintain their attention.

Health and Nutrition:

At AAWC, we place utmost importance on the health and nutritional aid provided to our beneficiaries. Acknowledging the fact that all of our beneficiaries are from a highly vulnerable and marginalized community, and live in environments that often trigger ill health- our activities range from spreading awareness on general hygiene, sanitation, and required medical support to holding quarterly health camps targeting specific ailments. We have also arranged periodic supply of sourdough breads, healthy salads and sandwiches, which complement the beneficiaries’ daily meals with varied tastes.

Along with this, we aid our beneficiaries with specialized awareness programs for their mothers (ex: neonatal care, medical treatments for contagious diseases, seasonal healthcare, etc.), routine medical referrals, nutritional aid provided through a well-designed diet chart, multivitamin and protein supplements, following up with hospitals and doctors, etc. This quarter, around 31 Umang members benefited from our monthly medical check-ups, and around 47 medical referrals were made. 11 beneficiaries were also given immunizations, which includes Hepatitis B, Polio, and Tetanus.

Nutritional aid in the form of healthy and warm meals, protein and multivitamin supplements, moringa (drumstick) seeds and soymilk was also continued to be provided on a regular basis. We could provide nutrition 6745 times to 34 beneficiaries and nutritional supplements in the form of multivitamins was provided 1433 times to 34 beneficiaries.

Counseling: 

Acknowledging the fact that most of our beneficiaries are born into single parents, violent or broken family structures- their first contact with society, we recognize the fact that these toddlers may not have formed satisfying relationships or learnt to emote transparently in their early childhood. To combat with their emotional instability and prevent any sort of mental health crisis in the future, we hold various therapy sessions with our Umang beneficiaries. These include one-to-one mentoring/Individual sessions, art therapy and referrals to external experts for aid with severe mental health issues.
 
Udaan Umang sessions: Having noticed that the Umang beneficiaries are closer to the adolescent girls (Udaan beneficiaries) who are members of AAWC, we realized that designing few sessions amongst them might lead to positive changes in both sets of beneficiaries. This quarter, the Udaan-Umang sessions included storytelling and games on the themes of discipline, morals, and kindness. Umang children had a resourceful and interesting time at these sessions, and have been displaying small gestures of faces of expressions by drawing it on chart papers them with the help of Udaan beneficiaries. Udaan girls also taught them patriotic songs.

As assumed, these sessions have led to higher bonding amongst the children, with the Umang toddlers finding role models and mentors in their older counterparts.

Social skills sessions: We conducted social skills/group sessions this quarter. These sessions are aimed at educating the young Umang children on behavioral aspects and routine formation. From teaching the children about washing hands regularly before meals to toilet training for the extremely young, these sessions are imperative in creating a fundamentally healthy and socially adept child. This quarter, some of the topics covered under this session have been good touch Bad touch, Toilet training and sanitation, respecting peers and elders, basic behavioral do’s and don’ts, food etiquettes, etc.

Child Future Planning Session (CFS) Mothers’ meeting: We conduct these meetings regularly in order to evaluate or plan the Umang beneficiaries’ future. One of the meetings had an agenda of discussing and sharing the information about the various identity documents for their kids. Mothers were informed and guidance was provided in order to obtain various documents for their children. Apart from that, health and hygiene was also one of the topics of discussion in the meetings. They were made aware about their kids’ hygiene and what wonders does it do to a human body.

 Night shelter: 

We also run our own rehabilitative night shelter for the most vulnerable toddlers and adolescent girls of women in prostitution. Providing a safe space away from the disturbances and brutalities of the red-light district, our night shelter provides a home for many young children who have never known the comforts of a family and healthy living. With a capacity of almost 20 toddlers, Umang beneficiaries of the night shelter have access to all the other Umang activities like education, health, empowerment, extra-curricular, recreational/exposure visits, and celebrations held at our centers. 2 new Umang beneficiaries were enrolled in the night shelter in the last 3 months.

Recreational Activities: 

As we know that “All work no play, makes jack a dull boy”, we equally try to establish a balance between educational and recreational activities for our beneficiaries.

This quarter, we collaborated with “The Robin Hood Army” who conducted storytelling sessions with the Umang beneficiaries. They also distributed snacks as refreshments after the activities.

We also conducted activities such as indoor and outdoor games, arts and crafts, Rakhi making, storytelling, watching quizzes on television and different types of painting. A few of the indoor activities include puzzles, memory game, animal jump, back walk and some of the new creative painting activities are hand print fish painting, coconut table making, peacock craft activity, fingers painting tree activity etc. All of our beneficiaries enjoyed these activities, and often look forward to more of these due to the fun and informal nature of such events. The outdoor games that the beneficiaries play are Football, Passing the parcel, one leg race etc.

Celebrations:

This quarter, Umang beneficiaries celebrated “Raksha Bandhan” and made rakhis with the material provided.They tied “Rakhis” on each other’s’ wrists with proper rituals and a promise to respect and protect each other. They even tied “Rakhis” to their teachers.

 Independence Day was also celebrated. Umang Beneficiaries wore new and colorful t-shirts and stood in queues resonating a flag. The teachers told them the importance of three colors in our tri-color flag and the reason behind celebrating “Independence Day”.  All of them ended the program singing the national anthem and the national song.

Janmashtami was celebrated, in which teachers decorated the Kindergarten (Balwadi room) with balloons. Older children built human pyramid and teachers assisted younger beneficiaries to climb on it and burst the balloons filled with chocolates. Beneficiaries also danced on Hindi song “Govinda re Gopala” along with teachers.

Umang beneficiaries celebrated Teacher’s day, in which older Umang beneficiaries enacted their teachers and program managers. They also taught younger Umang beneficiaries the way the kindergarten (Balwadi) teachers teach by mimicking them. In the last, Umang beneficiaries thanked their teachers.

ManpasandLife (MPL) NGO celebrated their 5^th Anniversary, where they got in touch with us and organized a food drive for our Umang beneficiaries. They distributed food packets and sweets to the toddlers. The beneficiaries enjoyed and thanked the people from MPL NGO in consensus.