Salaam Baalak Trust - working for street children

Introduction and Background
Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) has been working to protect the rights of children living in difficult circumstances for more than three decades. Placing the child’s interest first, SBT strives to provide a package of all-inclusive and quality services to children rescued from streets. These services comprise health, education, nutrition and vocational training. Given the hostile circumstances in which these children live, they often experience psychological trauma and violence which leaves them emotionally frail. Thus, mental health programme forms the pivot of SBT’s care and protection services. Running successfully for more than 18 years, SBT’s mental health programme is solely driven to help rescued children overcome their traumatic past and enable them live freely and happily in their present.
To set children on a path of holistic development, it is extremely critical to help them constructively get over the abuse, exploitation and trauma they face on streets and difficult circumstances. This transformation requires patience, perseverance, sensitivity and specialised skills to engage with children and help them express their suppressed pain and negative emotions and experience. To deliver these specialised services, SBT’s qualified and highly skilled mental health team works passionately and dedicatedly. The team under the leadership of Dr. Amit Sen (one of the leading psychiatrists in India) comprises a mental health coordinator and a team of trained counsellors. A counselor is posted at every centre of SBT to provide mental health services to children viz., counseling and individual and group therapies. SBT’s mental health programme is recognised as one of its kind given its child-centric nature and focus on professional and trained care.
The programme is continuously evolving to meet the ever changing needs of children in general and those rescued from difficult circumstances in particular. Laying thrust on equality, the mental health programme began providing services for inclusion of children with disabilities who are rescued from difficult circumstances. These children are extremely marginalised and highly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Thus, they face the double brunt of living in perilous situations and inability to raise their voice against violence and abuse being meted out to them. To this end, in the year 2015 the mental health programme expanded its scope by initiating Child Development Unit (CDU) to cater to the needs of children with neuro-developmental difficulties.The CDU is based at Aasra Children’s Home located in Najafgarh, Delhi. It adopts an integrative approach whereby the children (boys) with neurodevelopmental difficulties and in need of additional support are provided shelter along with care and protection services.

Key Objectives of CDU
CDU’s vision is to provide children with neuro-developmental difficulties a safe, nurturing environment. It also aims to protect these children from abuse and ensure early screening of their difficulties and provide timely intervention. CDU further attempts to provide 24x7 special care and emotional support to these children. The Unit operates on the ‘principle of equality and inclusion’ wherein children with mental disabilities live with typically developing children (those meeting age-appropriate development milestones) to foster peer interaction and learning. The key objectives of CDU are as follows.
1. To mainstream children with neuro-developmental difficulties and disorders by provision of inclusive services in Aasra Children’s Home.
2. To enable these children, learn basic activities of daily living (ADL) and communication skills to express and deal with their individual needs.
Target Group
As indicated earlier, CDU caters to children with mild intellectual difficulties and other neuro-developmental difficulties. Due to limited resources, the CDU houses maximum of 10 boys below 13 years at any given point of time.
Key Activities and Processes
CDU Team: CDU team includes skilled developmental therapist, supervisor and three caretakers. The supervisor oversees the administrative work, while the therapist conducts a wide range of therapeutic sessions with the children and the care takers provide food and nutrition, health and other services to children. The CDU team specifically caretakers are trained at regular intervals to improve their work performance and efficiency.
Screening and Early Diagnosis: All children coming to Aasra Children’s Home are screened using a baseline assessment interview at the first point of contact and if mental health concerns are observed then a more comprehensive assessment is conducted. This assessment is carefully done by the counselor. This assessment is critical for early diagnosis and screening of children with neuro-developmental difficulties. Following this, a focused discussion is conducted with the psychiatrist to confirm the diagnosis and ascertain if the child matches the CDU admission criteria. Upon meeting the criteria, the child is admitted to the CDU.
Provision of Holistic Services: The key services provided to children enrolled in at the CDU for their holistic development are as follows.
Therapies: Most of the children at CDU need various therapies such as sensory integration, occupational therapy and speech therapy. These therapies are provided to the children through a well-known psychiatric organisation called Children First. SBT is making efforts to provide this service in-house by constituting an inter-disciplinary team. Steps are being taken to build the team’s capacities to deliver various kinds of therapies. Apart from the specialised therapies, regular therapeutic sessions are also conducted by the therapist.
Education: Pliable educational services are provided to children keeping in mind their existing knowledge, skills and intellectual capacities. Individual education plan is prepared for each child and adhered to. Play-way and joyful methods of teaching and learning are used. Each child is given individual attention to engage them in a meaningful learning process. The CDU childrenalso being provided special education.
Special care and emotional support: A number of services are provided to children by care takers and therapist on a continued basis. Caution is taken to meet children’s emotional needs adequately so that they adjust well in the Children’s Home. These children are under constant care and supervision.
Pharmacology: Many children who need medicines are provided the same as prescribed by the psychiatrist. Medicines along with therapies show tangible improvements in children within a short span of time.
ADL (Activity of daily Living) skills training: This is an important area of intervention with children. The therapist and care takers help children learn ADL skills to make the more self-reliant. While training when children pick up ADL skills, they feel a sense of confidence and independence and show improvement in many aspects of their life.
Occupational therapy: Children are provided occupational therapy at both Children First and Aasra. The therapy helps them actively participate in activities at children’s home and other social situations. It also instills a sense of independence among children and prepares them for learning other skills.
Speech therapy: To support children with speech impairment, speech therapy is also provided. This improves children’s communication skills. Various techniques are used to enhance their communication in a conventional way. Through speech therapy children learn to express themselves well.Key Challenges
Uncertainties and restrictions due to COVID-19: The global outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in many restrictions and unprecedented changes on the lives of people. In these uncertain times, people across the world are grappling with mental health concerns. One of the worst affected groups include children and youth. The same is true for children with disabilities. They are experiencing the negative effects of lockdown as schools and therapy centres are closed. The children are confined to the CDU which has a huge impact on the education and learning needs of children with disabilities. While social distancing has been widely promoted as a key strategy to avoid transmission, but the same is not possible to strictly adhere for care takers for children with special needs who often require assistance for their daily tasks. In addition, while children may not be at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 those with disability may fall into the category of “high risk“ due to their pre-existing health conditions. During this pandemic, the centre psychologist (CDU Therapist) is also not able to visit centre to avoid transmission regularly. However, to stay connected and the centre psychologist is in regular touch with care giver and children.
Other challenges: Apart from above, the other challenges beingfaced by CDU include,
• Rehabilitation of CDU children is a big challenge as some of them are going to turn 16 soon.
• Lack of multidisciplinary team to meet the special needs of the children in context to different areas of development
• High attrition rate of CDU therapist
Stories of Change
D*15 years old came to the CDU two years ago from some other children’s home. The child was diagnosed with learning and intellectual disability. At that time the child was less active and was lacking social skills. While D was capable of self-care but was unable to express himself or needs. He had limited desire to engage socially or participate in social interaction and remain aloof. His speech abilities were present but he had limited vocabulary. The CDU team helped D to acclimatize to the environment of Aasra Home. D was then enrolled in Holy Heart Special School for his academic and intellectual development. He was simultaneously provided regular therapy sessions, special care and emotional support by the caretakers. These multifaceted efforts resulted in visible improvements in D. For instance D has now, started to speak with verbal prompts and his vocabulary has expanded. He also takes part in all activities of the Home with interest and enjoys all the group activities. It has been observed that with support of care taker now D also helps CDU team in daily activities of the Home. His cognitive functioning has also improved. The team now plans to continue these activities so that they can become more self-reliant and confident.

Introduction

Working incessantly to link marginalised children with quality education, the CHI-SBT Mobile School has launched various innovations in the year 2018-2019. The present report presents a snapshot of key services and new initiatives taken by the CHI-SBT Mobile School. These include laying special focus on linking children to vocational training, organising Aadhar card camps and galvanising support of stakeholders. Along with education services, these steps are aimed at improving quality of life of children and lay the foundation of their secured future. The CHI-SBT Mobile School Team equipped with skills of community mobilisation and education and skill training have worked hard to effectively implement these activities.

Progress Report

The CHI-SBT Mobile School covers two spots in North and North-East Delhi – an area with high concentration of slum and squatter settlements and out of school children. The two spots included Shastri Park and Seelampur. At each of these spots, three hour classes are conducted for children and alongside efforts are made to identify new out of school and drop out children not attending these classes. 

The three hour classes ensure intensive engagement with children and better learning outcomes.

Overview of Activities

The details on various activities conducted at the CHI-SBT Mobile School have been presented below.

• School Admission: The CHI-SBT Mobile School team enrolled children in formal schools. A total of 62 children were enrolled in school in the year 2018-19 as opposed to 41 children in 2017-18.

• Regular classes: Academic support is at the heart of CHI-SBT Mobile School’s operation. To this end, three hour classes were conducted at the two spots regularly. The school-going children attend their schools and come to Mobile School spots for additional help and assistance in studies. These long-duration classes ensure that children are able to engage in intensive and fruitful learning. The children also enjoy activity-based learning which facilitates strong conceptual learning among children. The activity-based learning includes learning by doing, use of pair and group activities and teaching aids. The non-formal education kit is given to the children for systematic learning. The performance of all children is closely monitored by the CHI-SBT Mobile School teachers to fill monthly assessment forms. 
• Academic Progress: Gauging academic progress of children becomes key to ensure that desired learning outcomes are achieved. During the reporting period, the academic performance of children in schools was closely monitored. Many children actively sought the support of the CHI-SBT Mobile School team and made efforts to complete their school syllabus. Every time the team is hopeful that children’s hard work will reap good results and they will pass with flying colours. In this process, we find so many children who are giving their best in academic level as we find some of children who never went to school. Given the socioeconomic deprivations these children live in, many of them demonstrate that if given equal opportunities they can excel in studies as well as children from privileged backgrounds. To streamlining the progress tracking of children education files of each and every child was created to decipher the progress. Alternate day classes were conducted so that the teachers could follow up with the school children.
• Non-formal Education (NFE) Classes: Those children who have been long out of school are not immediately prepared to cope up with the formal schooling. TheNFE classes prepare these children for formal schooling through activity based learning. These classes are conducted based on the pre-designed NFE curriculum and kits designed wherein children are provided opportunities to practice applying the skills they learn. 
• Art and Craft: Since most arts and crafts activities consist of moving fingers and hands, they help in developing fine motor skills of children and bringing out their creative side. Simple actions like holding a paintbrush and colouring with pencils help strengthen muscles and improve their control. Arts and crafts activities can enhance the children's dexterity and agility. For this reason, children at the CHI-SBT Mobile School are engaged in art and crafts. 
• School Visits: The CHI-SBT Mobile School team made 20 school visits to facilitate the admission process of new children in schools and get feedback of school going children who have been admitted earlier. During these visits the team interacted with the teachers and requested for their active support to encourage children to be regular in school and for academic support. The teachers assured the CHI-SBT Mobile School team that they will be sensitive to these children’s additional needs. During follow up, it was found that most of the children are regular in school and the support of CHI-SBT Mobile School had helped them to keep pace with the school curriculum.
• School Meetings (PTM): Teachers of the CHI-SBT Mobile School attended parent teachers meeting held in schools and sought feedback on children’s academic performance and overall progress in schools. These meetings became a forum to bring school authorities and teachers close to parents wherein children’s issues, problems and achievements could be discussed in detail. Attending PTM’s with parents has served as a platform for the Mobile School team to sensitise both the school teachers and parents towards children’s education. 
• Parents Meeting: CHI-SBT Mobile School team conducted parents meetings to discuss issues and motivate parents to send their children school daily on time in proper school uniform. In addition, significance of maintaining personal hygiene among children was also stressed upon. The team reiterated the importance of education and role of CHI-SBT Mobile School in preparing children for admission in regular schools. The team further encouraged parents to make most out of the resources and support provided by the CHI-SBT Mobile School.
• Capacity Building: For the teachers’ professional development, capacity building programmes and activities were conducted. These focused on improving teacher’s classroom performance to enhance quality of learning where teachers. These programmes helped children analyse their strengths and areas of improvement. Since most of these capacity building methods are participatory and they develop a culture of shared learning. 
• Health Check-ups: In order to minimise the incidence of infectious diseases specifically dengue and other infectious diseases such as also flu and cold, the SBT doctors regularly visited the CHI-SBT Mobile School spots and conducted a thorough primary health check-up of all children. Doctors provided medicines to those children who had fever and or needed medication after medical test and diagnosis. As per the planned schedule, the doctor visited each spot once in a week. 

• Celebrations: The children celebrated festivals such as Rakhi, Independence Day, Friendship’s Day at the CHI-SBT Mobile School spots. Sweets were distributed and children danced and enjoyed. These celebrations bring children and the team closer to each other and help them understand the significance of festivals. Teachers painted a flag on children’s faces on Independence Day and tied the Rakhi Bands on their hands. The birthdays of those children who were born in September were also celebrated. Before cutting the cake, the birthday boys and girls recited poems and introduced themselves. Children’s Day was also celebrated with lot of zeal by the children and a painting competition was organised for them. Children enjoyed and savoured these celebrations to the fullest.

• Exposure Visits: Sleepwell Foundation organised movie outings for children at the two spots. The children at Shastri Park were taken for ‘Super 30’ while those at Seelampur were taken to watch ‘The Lion King’ movie. Post the movie screening children enjoyed delicious lunch and ice-creams. Children were very happy and some of them shared that they had seen a movie for the first time in a movie hall.
• Sports Activity: Taking part in sports is important for children as it reduces stress and enhances their skills. Sports Day was held in DMRC Children’s Home wherein children fromthe CHI-SBT Mobile School participated enthusiastically.Two of the children stood first and second in various sports day activities. A girl Iram got first prize in Lemon race and Mohd.  Sahid got second position in Chess. Some of the children also participated in Ludo and Carom competitions. Participation in sports day instilled desire of being active and fit.
• Innovations
  • Vocational Training: Elder children in the community have been linked to vocational training. This is the first time that the CHI-SBT Mobile School team has enrolled children in vocational training with the intent that it will bring about a change in the overall status of the family and would motivate others families to send their girls for vocational courses and enable them to secure jobs. A long term vision is to bring about a change in the whole community through empowerment of youth.
  • Aadhar Camps:Identity proofs become an important requirement for admission of children in formal schools. To this end, Aadhar card camps were organised which doubled the enrolment of children in formal schools. A total of 20 children from Shastri Park and 45 children from Seelampur got their Aadhar cards through these camps.
  • Linking Children to Social Security Schemes: The CHI-SBT Mobile School team is also putting in efforts to link children to various government schemes so that they can avail their benefits.To this end, bank accounts of 62 children were opened. A total of 500 pan cards were made in the community for both adults and children.About 41 girls were linked with Sukanya Scheme.The Scheme is aimed at girls below 10 years of age wherein every year parents have to deposit a minimum of INR 1000 in the account of her daughter and government will give 8.4% interest on deposited money. Once the girl turns 18, 50% of the deposited amount can be withdrawn for higher studies or for her marriage. The Scheme allows deposits to be made in the girl’s name till the ageof 23 years. The Scheme thus, promote empowerment of girls.
  • Stakeholder Meeting: The team is also conducting stakeholder meetings to sensitise the key community influencers such as leaders, shop keepers and experienced people on issues of children particularly their education. The meetings are also a platform to seek their and parents; feedback around the Mobile School activities and its curriculum. The stakeholder meetings will be instrumental for sustaining community support to the CHI-SBT Mobile School. 
  • Plantation and Cleanliness Activity: The CHI-SBT team organised a tree plantation drive by planting 100 saplings at Seelampur and Shastri Park spots. Through this activity childrenlearnt the importance of conserving the environment as the need of the hour to reverse environmental degradation. The children understood that tree plantation is especially important to protect the environment against air pollution and global warming.

   

  Stories of Change

   

  Strong Resolve Reaps Strong Results

  Fahreen an 18 year old young girl hailing from Shastri Park community dreamt of becoming independent and support her family financially. Being the eldest of the five siblings, Fahreen shouldered household responsibility at a young age. Fahreen’s father is a small fruit vendor and due to their poor financial condition Farheen had drop out in Class 5. However her desire to learn did not stop. She picked up many other skills diligently such as stitching. Developing her expertise in the field, she began to stitch clothes for community people. With the help of her sisters she pasted studs on jeans to supplement the family income.

   

  Fahreen was spotted by the CHI-SBT Mobile School during an outreach visit. During the visit it was found that many young adults in the communitywere feeling left out as they did not have any information and support or guidance for training and livelihood programmes. Given this felt need of the community the CHI-SBT Mobile School team took the initiative to motivate and link youth to livelihood training programmes. Farheen was one of the very first beneficiaries to benefit from the initiative.

   

  Farheen’s mother had come to the CHI-SBT Mobile School for the admission of her younger son who is studying in a school and there she shared her concerns about engaging her daughters productively. She mentioned that one of her daughtershad passed Class 12 and the younger one completed Class 10 andthe youngest daughter was studying in Class 5. Believing in the potential of her daughters, Farheen’s mother wanted them to learn vocational skills and secure gainful employment. She shared that the training not only wanted to financially support their family but also become self-reliant. She had tried to find these course options, however, she could not find any such opportunities in Shastri Park.

   

  The CHI-SBT Mobile School extended their assistance to Farheen’s mother in finding vocational training courses. Soon the team found out that an NGO called Jamghat provided free training to underprivileged girls in stitching bags and dresses and making file folders. Upon completion of the training, they help them to provide work so that girls can earn and improve their financial condition. Farheen’s mother was elated to hear this and she immediately agreed to enrol Farheen at Jamghat. Farheen is presently doing the stitching course at Jamghat and doing well. She also aims to utilise her refined stitching skills in generating enhanced additional income for her family. She has also expressed a strong desire to complete her education. The CHI-SBT Mobile School team will be supporting her in continuing her education from National Institute of Open Schooling.

   

  A New Lease of Life

  Ali (name changed), a 7 year old boy lives at Shastri Park community with his siblings including, two sisters and two brothers. His father works as a driver and their financial condition was very weak. His parents therefore, could not prioritise their children’s education in the struggle of eking out a living for themselves.  Resultantly, Ali had never been to school. As part of the outreach activity of the CHI-SBT team interacted with Ali and his family and explained to them about theCHI-SBT Mobile School activities. The team informed them that at Shastri Park the CHI-SBT Mobile School bus reached at 10 am and classes were organised till 1 pm. Ali’s mother visited the Mobile School spot and was very happy to see the community children studying there and enjoying the classes.

   

  From the next day, Ali and his siblings started coming to the CHI-SBT Mobile School spot. Initially Ali and his siblings were hesitant but after constant encouragement by the team they began to regularly attend the Mobile School. They have been attending the Mobile School for past four years. The CHI-SBT Mobile School team enrolled Ali into Class 3 this year. For his admission, the team also issued Aadhar Card for him. Presently, Ali is has begun to go to school and he is showing remarkable progress in his studies. His sister who is in class 6 is also regularly attendingthe CHI-SBT Mobile School.

   

  Journey from Garbage Dumps to School

  Mausam (name changed) a 6 year old lives with her parents in the slums of Shastri Park. She has a sister and a younger brother. Her mother is working as a domestic helper and father is a rickshaw puller.There was often no one to take care of them when their parents went for work. Mausam and her brother longed to go to school and have someone around to talk to and play with. They felt neglected and lonely.

   

  One day when Mausam was playing outside her house with her brother, the CHI-SBT Mobile school outreach worker spotted them. The outreach worker interacted with them and explained to them that a Mobile School van comes for three hours near their house and they must visit the spot. The children initially were scared to step out of the house on their own, however, the CHI-Mobile School team met their parents and convinced them to come to the spot. Their initial experience at the spot was very positive, they were very excited to see other children of their community studying there. Mausam and her brother was extremely thrilled when they were given stationery items and toys to play. They seemed really interested towards these sessions. As a result, the children began to visit the Mobile School daily. Mausam and her brother began attending NFE classes.

   

  Mausam’s parents faced difficulties in looking after their children and sought the CHI-SBT Mobile school team’s help for admission to their children in a nearby government school. Initially, the parents were worried about the school fee and other expenses but the CHI-SBT Mobile School team assured them that they would be provided free education along with scholarship. The parents immediately agreed. Presently, theCHI-SBT team has enrolled Mausam and her brother in a school. Mausam is studying in Class 2 while her brother is in Class 1. Both children are showing keen interest in their studies. Their parents are very thankful to CHI-SBT team for their support.

   

  Future PlanIn the coming year, the CHI-SBT Mobile School team will make efforts to increase parents’ involvement in children’s education for ensuring their regular attendance at the Mobile School spots. The team also plans to organise health camps in the community to create awareness on importance of health and hygiene. Increased focus will be laid on improving teaching pedagogy at the Mobile School to improve quality of teaching and learning. Pedagogic improvements will ensure that children are able to perform well in their studies and achieve better learning outcomes