Street to School - Mainstreaming Street Children

Dear Friends,

2014 has ended with the speed of an Olympian 100m dash!! 

We  have barely had time to catch our breath before we have  begun the New Year with in house training for all our staff, tuitions in Math & Science for the children sitting their Board Exams this year in February, 45 children sitting for the 1st NIOS Exam at our very own NIOS Centre, new children waiting to be mainstreamed in March ..........

On behalf of Aasraa Trust's Board of Trustees, Staff, Volunteers and Children our heartfelt thanks to  you for your support through 2014, without which our work would not have been possible.

Aasraa News:

Wings and Street Smart Come Home to the Haven:The ‘Haven’ in Indira Nagar is now the epicenter of Aasraa Trust. The Street Smart program, the senior Wings program, the NIOS program, the Boys Shelter and the main Computer Center are now located at the Haven! It is three storey structure with class rooms which allow us the space to offer a better quality of education to the children. A room per class is an absolute luxury after teaching on the pavements.  A huge thank you to all who helped us in achieving this milestone.

From Begging to English Reading: An English presentation was made by our oldest street children who a couple of years back spent their entire day on the streets begging, rag picking, inhaling whitener. It was an emotionally overwhelming moment when Santosh (paraplegic) started reading the story of Aladdin, followed by Roshan, Kamlesh Guddu & Malti.

DEEPAK (abandoned, hearing impaired) joined Bajaj Institute:Deepak has now been admitted to the Bajaj
Institute of Learning for the Hearing Impaired. This is the next step inthe right direction. We thank Nav Prerna Foundation for helping him to settle down. He will be an excellent scholar. Last week he was made class monitor for the first time. He was so proud!

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon: 20 children participated in ADHM on 23th November 2014. It was a great exposure for our kids, who went on stage chanting:  'Bhiksha Nahin, Shiksha Dein', (do not give us alms, give us an education).

Exposure Visit to ‘Four Points of Sheraton’ Hotel:Our children had a great opportunity to visit the premises of Sheraton Hotel, Rajpur, Dehradun where they saw the facility and introduced to the hospitality sector by different department heads of Sheraton.  They kindly offered to train some children inclined towards hospitality at the Four Points in Dehradun after they pass Class XII.

The strength of education and the dignity of skilled work will define the future for Aasraa’s children. Thank you again for your continued support.

Wish you the very best for 2015.

Warm regards,

Shaila & Neelu

AASRAA

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119/1, Vasant Vihar, DehraDun 248006; aasraatrust@gmail.com; aasraatrust.org 

Children’s Day    

Nehruji’s fondness for children led the 14^th of November, his birthday, to be declared children’s day in India

While it is good to recognise this, it is important to realise that every day is, in fact, children’s day

Children must be loved and nurtured every single day; they must be looked after and encouraged to be the best they can be each and every day

To safeguard the future we must celebrate their existence and plan for their education, moral and academic continuously.

Every day as it begins and children open their eyes, we at Aasraa strive to think what we can do better; what can we do for these bright wonderful children who come from backgrounds of neglect, abuse and poverty, to make their future brighter and more secure; how can we make a lasting difference to their lives?

We use the word education too easily. We all know that to break the poverty cycle there must an outside intervention, that intervention being education. The law says children must attend school till the age of 14.

Is this enough? Do we just walk into the slums, wave a magic wand, tell all the illiterate parents from the labouring classes that their children must have an education and voila, all the children of the slums and streets will be bathed, fed, put into uniforms, homework done and sent off to school every morning?

Where is the desk, the lamp, the light for children to study? What if earning money for food is more important than attending school? What if there are 60 children in a classroom and there is no teacher? What if there are younger children at home who need to be looked after? What if a child has no parents? What if the child has run away from home because of abuse and is living on the streets?

At Aasraa we think of these issues all the time. The various programs under Aasraa’s umbrella cater to these different needs in terms of shelter, timing, level and attainable skill sets.

We struggle continuously to convince parents of the need for an education; that it is important for their children to be able to read the direction of the bus so they do not travel blind through life.

We struggle to make children interested in learning. No child will apply him or herself if they are bored.

We struggle to raise funds for their medical treatment and food and winter thermal clothing so they can attend school. No child can learn if they sick, hungry or cold.

Every day at Aasraa is children’s day. We think and we plot and we plan each day to make a difference; to give each child a chance to live with pride and dignity.

Every day is children’s day.