From Despair to Hope: A Story of Connecting Three Siblings to Learning

01/05/24

Success Stories

23

“I was neglecting their rights and solely focused on fulfilling my own needs. I am forever grateful to Ba l Raksha Bharat for showing me a path to live a better life’, expresses Alfiya’s, Ayan’s and Sahiba’s mother with a grin.

In the Khajrana area of Indore, Bal Raksha Bharat runs a Multi-Activity Center (MAC) to address the various needs of children, with a special focus on their learning and education. The family of these three children resides near this Centre and they braved a life of poverty and hardships. Their parents struggled to make ends meet, even needing to resort to begging alms to sustain the household.

The father has been suffering from a stroke for four years. The family lived in a rented house but even that was snatched from them as they couldn’t pay rent. To add to their woes, due to an episode of waterlogging, all their belongings and documents were destroyed or washed away. This left them in further distress, as they had no documents to reapply for their children’s education online.

After hearing all these hardships, the team from Bal Raksha Bharat, immediately contacted local authorities to provide social and economic assistance to the family. This ensured that their livelihood continued and the children, who should have had books in their hands at this age instead of begging bowls, were enrolled in the Multi-Activity Centre. In coordination with the local authorities, our team initiated a care plan for this family and some others like them.

Following intensive home visits and counseling, the parents stopped involving their children in begging. All three children were enrolled in the Multi-Activity Centre. They underwent a pre-test at the centre, as they had never attended school before and started their education from Level 1.

Initially, all of them were disinterested in studying and faced difficulties. However, with effort from out team, they gradually developed an interest in education. They were provided with drawing books, colours, toys, and other material to make them feel comfortable at the MAC and various fun activities were organized to engage them and steer them towards learning. Within a month, the children started showing a change in their attitude towards education. They began taking active interest in learning and completing their homework on time.

The Multi-Activity Centre was regularly visited by our local Community Mobiliser Kaisar Ajim and Academic Support Fellow (ASF) Reena Singh, who provided counseling to Alfiya’s, Sahiba’s, and Ayan’s parents. They were oriented on the importance of education, health, cleanliness, child rights, and social security schemes. The children’s father started coming to the Centre once a week, feeling happy to receive updates about their children’s progress and seeing them picking up learning.

“A definitive transformation occurred in my children. Seeing this, I feel a renewed hope for life. I realize now that I was doing wrong by involving my children in begging due to our financial situation”, mentioned the father.

He further added, “My wife, who was illiterate, also participated in the literacy drive. She took the examination at the Government Urdu Medium School, in Indore. Additionally, four members of my family also gave the examination, fulfilling a dream for us all, which was made possible through the acceptance and assistance provided by Bal Raksha Bharat team and other authorities.”

Bal Raksha Bharat is one India’s leading child care organization, dedicated to ensuring the holistic well-being of marginalized children, youth and their families. Our role as an enabler focuses on delivering quality services such as health, nutrition, education, social protection, skill-building, and livelihood to the last mile, ensuring every child and youth in India benefits from government developmental initiatives.

Through innovative intervention models like Multi Activity Centers (MAC), we aim to serve marginalized children and youth in both rural and urban hard-to-reach areas. Our focus is on their holistic development, encompassing survival, protection, education, and dignified livelihood through a life-cycle approach. We stand committed to building a comprehensive program for children in villages, contributing to the vision of building a Developed India (Viksit Bharat).

Soumi Halder

Manager-Program Campaign and Communication, Programme Support

“With over 20 years of dedicated experience in the social development sector, I am passionate about championing child rights and community empowerment through innovative communication strategies. I am Manager for Programme Campaigns and Communication with Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children)."