Salaam Baalak Trust - working for street children

Introduction

Street children are deprived of protective environment of family. Article 20 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of such children who cannot be looked after by their own family to special care. The Government of India also accorded serious attention to provide protective environment of children in need of care including street children through enactment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and subsequent amendments to the Act. The Act in its Section 37 provides for establishment of shelter homes for children in need of care and protection.  Significance of shelter homes and residential centres for street children is immense, given the exploitative, violent and hostile situations they face in cities. Shelter homes or residential centres act as safety nets protecting street children from sexual abuse and exploitation, physical violence and child labour.

SBT Residential Centres are Unique

Unlike orphanages, shelter homes and other child care institutions, full-care and short stay residential homes provide an enabling environment to children to realize their potential to the fullest. An attempt is made to educate and help children develop intellectually at these centres. However, children who are not inclined towards academics are not pushed towards a definite career path. Children are provided opportunities to develop their hidden talents and skills. They are encouraged to pursue dance, puppetry, acting, painting and photography as well.

Brief Overview of Different Centers

Centre Catering to Boys or Girls

Brief Overview

Aasra Boys

Aasra was the first shelter home started by SBT. With a capacity of 50 it caters to boys of five to 18 years. The home was set up under the JJ Act, 2000.

ApnaGhar Boys

It is a short stay centre, where 30 children come stay short duration and then they are either restored or posted in a long stay home. The home was set under the JJ Act, 2000.

DMRC Boys

DMRC Children’s Home was established as part of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s corporate social responsibility. The home houses 125 boys from the age of five to below 18 years.

Old Delhi Railway Station (ODRS) Open Shelter Boys

ODRS is an open centre catering to 30 boys. It is a short stay centre, where children come stay short duration and then they are either restored or posted in a long stay home. The home was set under the JJ Act, 2000.

Arushi Girls

Arushi was first girls’ shelter home under SBT. It is an initiative to offer 24 hour shelter to 50 girls between the ages of five years to 18 years living on the streets.

Udaan Girls

Udaan was initiated with the support of Give 2 Asia in March 2010. It started with eight girls and currently shelters 60 girls at a time.

Activitiesand Progress Update

Understanding the importance of ensuring a safe environment for children, SBT runs full-care residential homes for girls and boys who live on streets. Aasra, ApnaGhar, Old Delhi Railway Station Open Centre (ODRS OC) DMRC Children Home are home for boys; Udaan Home and Arushi are shelter homes/residential centres for girls. Besides serving the prime purpose of providing a ‘safe living space’ to children, residential homes offer a comprehensive package of services including food, education, medical care, mental health and psychological support. Children’s admission in the centres is ascertained after they are duly presented in CWCs as per the provisions of the JJ Act, 2000. Identifying the unique background and needs of the child, individual care plans are drawn for each child in these centres. Regular academic, psychological and medical assessments of the children are done to provide individualised education and health facilities. Full-time mental health professional and medical coordinator are appointed in the centre to provide psychological support, counselling and facilitate medical check-ups and treatment of children, respectively.  The continuum of care and protection services provided at the residential centres have been depicted in the Figure below.

In the year 2016-17 a total of 2271 children (192 girls) were provided shelter in six shelter homes of Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT). Approximately 10% childrencame to open shelter directly or without Chile Welfare Committee(CWC) referral.

• SBTGeneral_ReportResidential_CentreFeb072017.docx (DOCX)

 Salaam Baalak trust mental heath programme.

 The key objectives of this project are to:

• To extend psychological support to children rescued from the streets and ensure their emotional and mental well-being
• To provide adequate support to children with learning and developmental challenges by enrolling them to special schools and enrolling them in professional institutions for therapeutic treatment

In the reporting period of the project, following key activities have been conducted by the project team.

1. Referral Sessions: Thesesessions are being conducted with the children who need regular counselling and face psychological difficulties and clinical symptoms.The appointed mental health team member conducts detailed clinical assessments and if specific problems are found then the case is discussed in the core group meeting for a clear diagnosis. Following this management plansare made and discussed with the concerned staff members. These plansarebeing implemented by the combined efforts of the team comprising of a psychiatrist, psychologist and social workers.
2. Psycho Social Counselling: The sessions are being conducted for children through informal discussions and problem solving. The issues currently being addressed during these sessions include, behavioural issues, anger and aggression management, sex and sexuality, emotional issues, drug abuse, relationship issues, academics, religion, belief systems, anxiety over a career decision among others.
3. Group Sessionshave been regularly organised to address psycho social issues. These session have been conducted in groupsofeight to 10 children. The sessions are mostly arts based to provide a non-threatening environment to children and enable them to share their problems and solve these through collaborative learning. These sessions have been instrumental in helping children heal at their own pace.
4. Enrolling Children with Special needs in Specialized Institutions: The children with learning disabilities have been enrolledin institutions likePrabhat Resource Centre and Orkids School for special educationand St. Stephens hospital for speech therapy.
5. Extending In-House Academic and Psychological Support: The teachers and social workers at the centre are providing academic and psychological support children with learning disabilities and they are regularly monitoring their progress as well.

Child Development Units (CDUs): The units provide children with neuro-developmental difficulties, a safe, nurturing environment and aim at early screening of mental health problems followed by carefully planned interventions. These were set up in September 2015. At present the CDU is covering eight boys with Autism Spectrum andattention deficit hyperactive Disorder.

attached is a report on this programme

• mental health programme (DOCX)

Introduction

Street children are deprived of protective environment of family. Article 20 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of such children who cannot be looked after by their own family to special care. The Government of India also accorded serious attention to provide protective environment of children in need of care including street children through enactment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and subsequent amendments to the Act. The Act in its Section 37 provides for establishment of shelter homes for children in need of care and protection.  Significance of shelter homes and residential centres for street children is immense, given the exploitative, violent and hostile situations they face in cities. Shelter homes or residential centres act as safety nets protecting street children from sexual abuse and exploitation, physical violence and child labour.

SBT Residential Centres are Unique

Unlike orphanages, shelter homes and other child care institutions, full-care and short stay residential homes provide an enabling environment to children to realize their potential to the fullest. An attempt is made to educate and help children develop intellectually at these centres. However, children who are not inclined towards academics are not pushed towards a definite career path. Children are provided opportunities to develop their hidden talents and skills. They are encouraged to pursue dance, puppetry, acting, painting and photography as well.

Brief Overview of Different Centers

Centre Catering to Boys or Girls

Aasra shelter home Boys

Aasra was the first shelter home started by SBT. With a capacity of 50 it caters to boys of five to 18 years. The home was set up under the JJ Act, 2000.

Apna Ghar open shelter Boys

It is an Open shelter, where children come stay short duration and then they are either restored or posted in a long stay home. The home was set under the JJ Act, 2000.

DMRC children’s home Boys

DMRC Children’s Home was established as part of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s corporate social responsibility. The home houses 100 boys from the age of five to below 18 years.

Old Delhi Railway Station (ODRS) Open Shelter Boys

ODRS is an open shelter catering to boys. It is an Open shelter, where children come stay short duration and then they are either restored or posted in a long stay home. The home was set under the JJ Act, 2000.

Arushi shelter home Girls

Arushi was first girls’ shelter home under SBT. It is an initiative to offer 24 hour shelter to girls between the ages of five years to 18 years living on the streets.

Udaan shelter home Girls

Udaan was initiated with the support of Give 2 Asia in March 2010. It started with eight girls and currently shelters more than 70 girls at a time.

Activities and Progress Update

Understanding the importance of ensuring a safe environment for children, SBT runs full-care residential homes for girls and boys who live on streets. Aasra, Apna Ghar, Old Delhi Railway Station Open Shelter (ODRS OS) DMRC Children Home are home for boys; Udaan Home and Arushi are shelter homes for girls. Besides serving the prime purpose of providing a ‘safe living space’ to children, residential homes offer a comprehensive package of services including food, education, medical care, mental health and psychological support. Children’s admission in the centres is ascertained after they are duly presented in CWCs as per the provisions of the JJ Act, 2000. Identifying the unique background and needs of the child, individual care plans are drawn for each child in these centres. Regular academic, psychological and medical assessments of the children are done to provide individualised education and health facilities. Full-time mental health professional and medical coordinator are appointed in the centre to provide psychological support, counselling and facilitate medical check-ups and treatment of children, respectively.  The continuum of care and protection services provided at the residential centres have been depicted in the Figure below.

Future Plan

SBT team plans to improve the existing quality of services through increased networks, better opportunities and staff capacity building. The team is making concerted efforts to reach more number of children in the coming year.

pls see attachment for more details 

• SBT update (DOCX)

Introduction

Most of the children living and working on the streets are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation and abuses having detrimental impact on their physical and psychological development.[1]To enable these children lead a normal and healthy life, it is essential to help them overcome the pain and psychological trauma of living on the streets. This realisation in the early stages of evolution of SBT, motivated the founding members to use theatre and out station tours to form rapport with street children and help them catharsis to move on and start their lives afresh.[2]

In the year 2015-16,the girls from Arushi were taken to a trip to Manali, Himachal Pradesh. The five day trip (June 19-25) to the picturesque hill station was both a refreshing and enriching experience for girls. In the bounty of nature, not only the girls but staff members accompanying them forgot about their mundane routine life and rediscovered themselves. A total of 38 girls and five staff members went from Arushi.

Activities

The girls left Delhi around noon on June 19. The hours spent travelling were long but interesting with short tea, snacks and girls interacting and bonding with each other. The girls reached the hotel ‘Mountainvilla’ in Manali (Nehru Kund) at 8 a.m. on the morning of June 20. The girls settled down in the accommodation and to give an official start to the activities envisaged during the trip.

• Exploring Manali: The girls began the day in Manali with a walk in the army cantonment area and explored the local places in Manali around their hotel.
• Indoor Games: During the evening, the girls danced, played badminton, ludo and chatted their heart out forming new friendships and rekindling the new ones.
• Tourist Attractions: As part of the trip the girls visited the famous Jogni Falls. The water at Jogni was ice-cold and the girls splashed themselves wet. The only concern was that most of the girls had not brought an extra set of clothes with them and it was already raining, with there being a high possibility of the girls falling sick by the time they reached their hotel. So, they took take another break on the way and sipped some tea to keep themselves warm.

The girls also visited Solang Valley and enjoyed the indescribable beauty and lovely weather of the valley. Through cable car rides the girls were able to get a breath-taking top view of the valley. Some girls donned the ‘pahadi’ dresses and got their pictures clicked. Another worth-seeing spot visited by the girls was Roerich Art Museum and Gallery. The girls walked a distance of 3 km to see the gallery. They admired Mr. Roerich’s novel ideas and exquisite works of art. The girls also visited theHadimba and Vashishta Temple.

• Shopping: Each one of the girls was given Rs. 100 to spend at their leisure with each staff member having been put in charge of 9-10 girls for enable girls to shop. The girls headed off to the Mall Road, to shop and explore the place a little more.
• Educative Sessions with Girls: The staff also conducted educative sessions with the girls. The sessions centred on the historical importance of Himachal Pradesh and how tours and trips helped in fostering values of self-reliance and cooperating with others. A drawing competition was organised for the younger children.

Outcomes

The tour comprising an ideal mix of enriched learning and fun and frolic and paved the way for all-round development of children. The successful outcomes of the tour were:

• It improved and enhanced learning among students about the place visited, importance of conserving nature and world around them.
• Latent talent development and skill enhancement of children as children were provided with opportunities to showcase their drawing and painting skills and gained confidence to share their views in a group of people.
• Active participation in these visits further led to improvement in overall life pattern of children, through reduction of stress and negative emotions; using untapped mental and physical energy and strengthening the feelings of team building and team spirit among them.

• tour report with pictures (DOCX)

Introduction

SBT provides a continuum of care and protection services to children who once lived on streets. Children rescued from streets are exposed to physical and psychological violence, insanitary conditions and other bad influences. Many of these children fall prey to substance abuse and end up being addicted to drugs, viz., marijuana (gaanja), smoking, alcoholism and smelling spirit, flute or cough syrup. To be able to help these children lead a normal life one of the first step is to introduce them to a de-addiction programme. This helps in bringing their mind and body out of the influence of intoxicating agent and enable children to do a reality check. They become capable of understanding the harmful effects of substance abuse, reasons for quitting the substance use and get a brighter picture of future lying ahead.

Once the children normalise and are enrolled in residential centres and contact points they are introduced to a set pattern of life. One of the important component of this set pattern is to link them with mainstream education. Since, most of the rescued children are out-of-school with substantial educational gaps; bridging these gaps become imperative. Keeping these factors in mind, de-addiction of children addicted to drugs become a core and essential interventions at SBT. SBT consistently motivates and facilitates children access to de-addiction facilities.

Programme Activities and Progress Update

Continuing the activities of last quarter SBT laid a specific focus to reach out to children who had fallen prey to drug addiction in 2016.

• Identifying and motivating children: SBT team stepped up efforts to identify children living and working on the streets and who are vulnerable to drug addiction and substance abuse. Many of these children and adolescents who were consuming drugs were wasted and remained intoxicated. The staff members faced a lot of difficulty in motivating and counselling these children. The team members initiated the process of seeking agreement by convincing the family members including parents of these children. For those who were on their own, the staff convinced them whenever they were in these senses.To convince the children and their parents, staff members made recurrent visits to explain the ill-effects of drugs on health motivatedthem to join the drug de-addiction programme. Post, the informed consent children were motivated in a friendly and humane manner about the benefits of quitting drugs and leading a normal and healthy life.
• Enrolling children for de-addiction programme: SBT in association with Muskan Foundation enrolled the children for the programme, which involved staying at the de-addiction facility for a period of six months. Along with the de-addiction treatment, children were provided hygiene material, clothes during their stay and food and nutrition. Most of the children came out of the programme clean and de-addicted.
• Follow-up and re-lapse: The team regularly remains in touch with the de-addicted children to avoid cases of relapse. Although a few children who again fell prey to substance abuse were motivated to go for a second in line de-addiction programme. The success rate of the second line programme is very high.

During the Financial Year 2015 to 2016, 49 children from SBT were referred to Muskan foundation for de-addiction and 11 adults were providedde-addiction services through to AIIMS de-addiction centre, Ghaziabad.Since, February-May 2016 a total of 9 children and adolescents have been successfully de-addictedunder the programme. SBT team is regularly following up with these children to minimise relapse.

The break-up of children residential-centre wise is as follows.

Details of Children Enrolled under De-addiction Programme (March 2016 to May 2016 )

Referred to De-addiction

ODRS Open Shelter     6 boys

GRP                            2 boys

Kishalaya                     1 boy

Total                             9 boys

Challenges

SBT has faced a lot of problems in the last quarter to convince children to opt for drug de-addiction. These involved convincing children and their families to opt for drug de-addiction course. Children were not ready to give up the known devil, despite multiple visits and one to one interaction. Consequently, the turn out in the last quarter was low.

Future Plan

Drawing lessons from the last quarter,the SBT team plans to intensify its efforts to create awareness about harmful effects of drug abuse among vulnerable children and prevent substance abuse among them. The team will make efforts to increase one to one interaction and counsel children who are abusing drugs to opt for de-addiction course and once they come out clean the staff would engage them to educational and vocational training activities of the SBT to prevent re-lapse.