Preventing school dropout of 300 children in India

Project Period: Ongoing

Number of participants:

Participants in and around redlight areas:

• Early Childhood Education- 61
• Remedial Education – 157
• Youth- 31
• Parents - 67

Participants in Government Homes:

• Remedial & Supplementary education - 114
• Higher Education – 12
• Total Participants covered- 126

Specific Objectives of the Project:

• To facilitate a better learning ecosystem for vulnerable children in and around redlight areas (Turbhe and Ghatkopar) through early childhood and remedial education interventions; and achieving sustainability through training & equipping of parents and community champions.
• To facilitate a better learning ecosystem for children in government homes through the Sahaara Remedial Education; and with training & equipping of Home staff; so that the children gain academic and life skills leading them to fulfill their dreams.

Key Activities:

• Remedial & Supplementary Education
• Youth sessions
• Nutrition
• Awareness and Counselling to prevent school dropout
• Awareness sessions and counseling about hygiene and WASH behaviors
• Life skills training and access to vocational training courses

Achievements of the Project:

• 61 and 157 children are regularly attending early childhood education and remedial education respectively in Turbhe and Ghatkopar education centres.
• 30 children have been mainstreamed into an English medium school in the beginning of the academic year 2022-23.  
• 114 children are regularly attending remedial and supplementary education in Government Homes.
• 19 children are being provided with college education sponsorship.
• 1 youth was enrolled for vocational course in Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery.
• Life skills sessions were conducted in both the centres on topics like Moral Stories, Craft activities, and Social Emotional Learning focusing on worry, sadness, and happiness.
• Children and parents attended Mental Health awareness session on the topic of Stress
• Youth Camp was done successfully for the first time for children from Turbhe and Ghatkopar education centres. External as well as internal speakers were invited. The theme of the camp was - Be Unique. The topics covered were on Leadership, Self-Esteem, Impacting Community, and Where there is a will there is a way.
• All children were gifted piggy banks to encourage the habit of saving.
• A training session on Slow learners was conducted and proved to be beneficial for the teachers.
• Christmas celebration was done in a school that educates children with disabilities. Children from our education centre performed for them and gave them gifts.
• Government School principal (Primary section) appreciated Sahaara teachers’ support with school classes in the absence of the school teachers.
• The aftercare home superintendent appreciated our help towards college students in the aftercare home.
• Government Girls’ Home superintendent gave special thanks for arranging the Mental Health Awareness session for staff.

Challenges:

• It was difficult to conduct Hindi & English classes smoothly in Ghatkopar education centre as 1 teacher was on maternity leave and 1 new teacher had to be recruited. However, the teacher on maternity leave has now resumed and 1 new teacher has been recruited.
• Children are increasing in number at Ghatkopar education centre; therefore, the place is not enough for them. To overcome this, a new centre has been identified.
• The attendance in Adult Literacy gets affected when there are frequent social events in the community.

Impact Story:

Title: A family that stays together, grows together

This is the story of a 9 years old girl named Aarya*. Aarya lives with her family in Ghatkopar slum area. There are 5 members in her family and she is the eldest sibling. She is studying in Grade 4.

Aarya’s parents were going through a tough time in their marriage and were having frequent fights. One day, her mother left the family and went to live with her parents. When Aarya’s mother left, no one cared to look after Aarya, hence she used to roam around all alone.

Our Sahaara staff noticed this and spoke to Aarya's grandmother to get her admitted in the Ghatkopar Education Centre in 2021. It was observed that Aarya's attention span was very low and she was quite weak in studies. Whenever the teacher used to teach, she used to be inattentive and unable to concentrate.

When Sahaara staff spoke to her, they came to know that Aarya misses her mother a lot and due to this she is not interested in studies. The staff tried to work on increasing Aarya’s attention span through interesting teaching methods and activities. They also talked to her grandmother about the issue. When our staff explained the importance of family in child's healthy growth of life, she was ready to talk with her daughter-in-law and to solve their internal family problem.

Eventually, Aarya's parents worked on the issue and are now living together again. This also helped improve Aarya’s mental health and is actively participating in the class.

The staff recognized the issues Aarya was facing and took active steps to help the child develop and have a safe future. Aarya dreams to become a great dancer.

* Name changed to protect identity.

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Name of Project: Preventing school dropout of 400 children in India

Project Period: Ongoing

Specific Objectives of the Project:

• To facilitate a better learning ecosystem for vulnerable children in and around red light areas through early childhood and remedial education interventions; and achieving sustainability through training & equipping of parents and community champions.
• To facilitate a better learning ecosystem for children in government homes through the Sahaara Remedial Education; and with training & equipping of Home staff; so that the children gain academic and life skills leading them to fulfill their dreams.

Achievements of the Project:

• 11 children from Project Pragati and 7 children from Project Pratham passed Grade 10. This is the first time 100% of the children graduated successfully. They were felicitated and appreciated in the education centre.
• Nutrition program has been started at Pratham Education Centres where children are provided with mid-day meals. The children are enjoying delicious and healthy food.
• Teachers attended the training session organized by Child-line on Safety of children in Government home, and how to take care of our body, mind & surrounding.
• Annual function at both Pragati and Pratham Education Centres went well. Government authorities appreciated our efforts on the event.
• Summer Activity Camp at both Pragati and Pratham Education Centres went well. Students actively participated in Summer Activity Camp and enjoyed a lot learning many new things throughout whole camp week. Government authorities appreciated our efforts on the event.
• Youth workshop on communication skill was very effective & each individual participated actively in the session.

Number of beneficiaries: 301

Key Activities:

• Early childhood Education
• Remedial Education
• Youth sessions
• Nutrition
• Awareness and Counselling to prevent school dropout
• Awareness sessions and counseling about hygiene and WASH behaviors
• Life skills training and access to vocational training courses
• Raising community educators and volunteers through parent & youth training

Challenges:

• To conduct regular classes are difficult because of unstable electricity at Pratham Education Centre in Turbhe. We have set up inverters in our centres to curb this issue.
• Timings of school and special classes is clashing and hence it is tricky for teachers to conduct proper special classes for the children in need.
• Some children went home for summer vacation and thus were not able to participate in the Summer Activity Camp.

Impact Story: A change in Perspective

Each student is special in their own way. A teacher comes across students of different calibers, intellect and various interests. Similarly, in December 2020 one of our teachers met one of the boys named Yuvraj aged 15yrs. He seemed very confident and outspoken, to him life was easy going at Chembur Children’s Home.

He was greatly under the influence of Bollywood movies and to him the difference between real life and “reel life” was blur. For Yuvraj, life was also kind of a Bollywood movie wherein he was so motivated to secure marks like the movie character ‘Munnabhai’ from the movie ‘Munnabhai MBBS’. He was under the impression that it is possible to achieve success quickly if one takes the shorter route. His ambition was to be a gangster or as it is colloquially said, ‘a don’. Yuvraj wanted to be a don and acquire possessions easily.

The teacher wanted to show Yuvraj a different perspective of success. During one of the lectures, the teacher found an opportunity to talk about a great influential legend, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who went through mountains and valleys of struggles in life to carry out his education. The teacher shared about how Dr. B.R. Ambedkar reached the peak with utter determination and commitment despite being in dire straits. This example really moved Yuvraj as he could relate to it.

Gradually, Yuvraj started taking life seriously and regularly kept asking the teacher about what should he pursue post SSC. After studying with much dedication, he has secured 54% in his SSC examination and now has been enrolled to an ITI course. Today, Yuvraj is more concerned about how he would excel in the course that he is doing and be the best in the same. He is more positive and focused about settling in life by achieving success in the right way. The boy who once wanted to be a don, has now turned into a diligent student with hopes and dreams for the future.

*Name changed to protect participant identity.

Links:

• Visit our website
• Like our page on Facebook