Education & shelter for homeless children in India

New Rainbows

Dear Readers aka the extended family of Rainbow Homes Program.

The very purpose of these reports is to share with you the newest exciting additions and impactful journeys that we make as an organisation when reaching the maximum number of street children. One such wonderful addition to our reach and extent is placing a new Rainbow Home in Domlur Area of the metro city Bangalore. This report talks about how Mahadevi, a girl aged 13 found happiness, shelter, care, protection and a new world where she can read, write, question, and explore herself and the world around her.

Mahadevi, 13 lives in Domlur Rainbow Homes in Bangalore. Its been six months of exhilarating journey for her here, where she was first brought in from the streets where she roamed and begged around bus stops and railway stations with her parents. Mahadevi had never learnt to read or write, never known what schools are like or how one speaks in different languages, hers being regional Kannada. The newest Rainbow Home, home of Mahadevi currently hosts 27 girls of different ages, all belonging to the poorest of poor, nomadic and street situation families. Never been enrolled into school, Mahadevi is currently pursuing her Bridge courses, which helps her to gain the time she lost on par of a normal student her age. When talking to her teachers, she's seen making remarkable progress. She says numbers are very interesting and so are the stories she learns in her English lessons. When she first came to the home, she was a shy but always a cautious girl on her feet. One thing that we learn from these children is that streets have already made them into a fighter, a quick and constant vigilant person of their own. It is now our responsibility that in the homes, they come out of their shells and let down their guard a bit to live and laugh with the children their age. Mahadevi now freely socialises with her friends in the home, her three sister committee, where she has an older and one younger Akka (sister). During meetings with her parents, she properly addresses them and reflects on her bonds with her mother and father and how she plans to support them when she grows up. Having built up a stronger base in numbers and basic English and her regional languages, the home mothers have started planning Mahadevi's enrollment in a school by the start of next session. Her child progress report as maintained in all the Rainbow Homes highlights her attributes like quick thinking, socialising, self-confidence as a person. When asked about what she loves the most in the home, she tells her tales of delicious food that she eats every day with her sisters.

Over the course of the build-up of this Rainbow Home, it has the current strength of 27 young girls aged from 7 to 15. Even being new, the project Incharge Mr Santosh makes sure the homes never stay mundane in its everyday activities. They have an all-time arrangement with international volunteers from Spain, and abroad to teach children Mindfulness, sports, dance and music. Other activities since the month of its inception in April 2018, the home has participated and conducted activities like Yoga class, Meditation class, Iron and colour Therapy, Craft Class, Bharatanatyam and Singing class, Monthly Birthday Celebration, Outings, All Religion Festivals, Counseling Facility from Banjara Academy. And also an appointment of a Counselor. Once in a month, the home conducts health camp for the girls. 

From Organisational POV, the home in its build-up stage is self-sustainable when it comes to creating its own image with stakeholders like local schools, school Teachers, volunteer, Visitors, Donors, and Locals. The smiles and peals of laughter and the jovial nature of the girls create a happy home and good bonding with its residential staff of 9 members, where the two home mothers and counsellor are every girl's top favourite. An international volunteer who is a regular in the homes states " this rainbow home provides Nutritious food, Homely feel, Friendliness, Cleanliness, Good Environment...I have personally experienced it in the food I ate and the girls I taught."

Apart from local resource mobilisation, what the home truly needs is a corpus to build better facilities and infrastructure which is rather slow because of lack of funds. The challenges Mahadevi's homes currently faces include Blockage of Drainages, Lack of Toilets, No proper Bathrooms, Lack of rooms, Scarcity of Drinking water.

The other challenges faced by the homes social mobilizers, in particular, are; parents, they change their residence and contact number, often without prior information, making it difficult to make follow up. We hope your continued support with talking about us to your friends and collegues will bring in more awareness and inlcusion of people from far and beyond to help these young'uns in reclaiming their rightful childhood and help them become strong independent , empthatic and responsible global citizens of Urban India.

Greetings, dear reader

Firstly, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, whose donations, time and efforts have helped make a positive impact in the lives of Ishika and her friends at Rainbow Homes and Sneh ghars in eight cities all across India.

Ishika, aged 14 is a bright and sporty rainbow home girl who studies in 8th standard at St. Mary's School, Delhi. Coming from a very poor upbringing, she belonged to a vulnerable family with an alcoholic father and abused mother, where both of them used to quarrel and indulge in extreme domestic violence and instability. Sadly, the mother burnt herself to death, where the doctors couldn't save her. This incident left her and her brother aged merely 5 and 3 years respectively, with nowhere to go. Soon after, they lost their father, their aunt and uncle, the surviving guardians were incapable of taking care of the children. After admission into rainbow homes, she and her brother (admitted in Sneh ghar) have been living in comprehensive care facilities of Rainbow Home model where the care, given is focused on: education, nutrition, healthcare, futures, and protection. Now she's bloomed into a girl with extreme potential in sports, creativity and education. Among the list of subjects, her favourite is English, because the teacher, in her opinion, goes out of her way to help the children to come at par with fluent English speaking children. Her very recent achievements include: heading the sports team as middle school -  Sports Captain at St. Mary's. Being a keen and quick learner, her interests lie in Rugby, Football, Athletics, and Dancing. On being asked about her present living and future options she says: "I am happy and I love to stay here at Khushi Rainbow Home. I don’t need to be loved by my other relatives forcefully”. She hasn’t figured out what exactly to become in life but says she would love to become dance teacher if her aim of becoming an English teacher doesn't work out by any chance.

Apart from Ishika, her friends (Rahul, Amita, Naina, Heena too, have excelled in various areas from education to extracurriculars.

Educational Achievements
Looking particularly in cities like Delhi Rainbow Homes & Sneh Ghar, all children passed their academic exams for the year 2017-18 except a few, who could not pass due to certain reasons like health issues. From older groups, 4 children got promoted to class XI, and two to class XII. We enrolled all children of futures group (aged 16-18yrs) in learning courses of their interest such as E- Accounting, basic IT, Spoken English, French-speaking course, IT Expert, Web Designing, Beautician training and more. Facilities of a remedial class were provided to all children for each and every subject. During vacations, we planned a theme-based project where teachers focused on reading, writing, speaking and confidence building where 5 children showed impressive progress. Now, they can read and write efficiently as per their grade level. 

Extracurricular: At least four types of talent mentoring or enrichment activities were introduced to homes covering all or maximum children through professional tie-ups by organizations in - Art and Craft, Music, Dance, Sports, Yoga, Martial Arts and Theater. We also ensure and celebrate major festivals of all religion manifesting the universal feeling of secularism and fraternity. Recreational activities such as outdoor exposure trips are also conducted on regular activities based on Life skills, and knowledge. 

Like Ishika, her friends from Patna, Bihar Rainbow Homes (40 children from age group 9 to 16yrs.) participated in a workshop focusing on combating disasters like earthquake. This short training was organized at Muskurahat Aman Sneh Ghar. Dr Shrawan (Trainer on disaster preparedness) and Mr Utapan provided information on disasters, its impact on the larger population and the reason behind the occurrence of an earthquake. It was an activity based training where children enacted possible preventive steps during an earthquake

Links:

• Introductory Note on Rainbow Homes Program - ARUN
• Official Website