Projects in India

Day Care Centers

The Indian name of Day care centers is ‘anganbaris’ that means ‘Courtyard’. The Anganbaris are created by the government as a focal point for delivery of services at the community level including nutritional supplements, vaccines etc to children below six years of age, pregnant and nursing mothers and adolescent girls.

These centers are located within the village or the slum area itself and also serve as the meeting place for women’s groups and mother’s clubs for promoting awareness and joint action for child development and women’s empowerment.

However, these centers are lacking behind in achieving their goals as they are ill equipped, under staffed and poorly managed.

Volunteers can render a helping hand to the anganbari workers by being an additional human resource in the existing set-up.

Volunteers can assist the workers in their daily activities as well as initiate certain new activities for instance, monitoring the growth chart of every child, maintaining health card of every pregnant woman visiting the anganbari.

Volunteer’s activities include:

»   Personal attention and care to the children coming to the center everyday.
»   Assistance to the local worker for record maintenance for each child based on health, vaccination, growth and nutritional condition.
»   Preparing and feeding the children a nutritious meal everyday with the help of a local worker.
»   Continuous survey of all pregnant women and new born babies in the area for regular health check ups and vaccination.
»   Creating a colorful and enjoyable environment for the children with games, stories and other creative activities (all support and training for such activities would be provided)
»   Developing the motor skills of the little children by making them to use their body parts in various games etc.
»   Emotional support and counseling.

Education

Due to poor economic condition of the marginalized population of India, majority of their children are often discouraged to attend schools and compelled into a life of labor or caring for their young ones. Some of these children attend the government schools which are under-funded and poorly managed.

Volunteers through community awareness campaigns are able to motivate parents of the children to realize the importance of education and send their children to schools regularly.

Volunteers would assist the teachers in schools in educational enhancement activities for the children from 6-11 years of age specifically in the areas of basic English, Mathematics and enhancing creativity.

Volunteer’s activities include:
»   Regularly teaching the children English and Mathematics in the schools.
»   Creating a playful environment and enhance the creativity of the children through painting, playing games, singing etc.
»   Working with teachers in creating low cost teaching material and train them in making education more fun for the children.
»   Each volunteer to take responsibility for everyday attendance of the children with an aim to improve overall interest in the school and reduce drop-out rate.
»   Ensuring regular health check ups of the children in each school in cooperation with the local doctors and hospital staff.
»   Creating basic hygiene awareness amongst children on a regular basis for healthier living.

Afternoon Activities:
In addition to the above, there are a number of optional activities to our volunteers that would have a wider impact on the community and create a better environment for cross cultural exchange:

»   Conversational English teaching to adolescent girls and grown up women.
»  Basic computer teaching to adolescent girls and grown up women.
»   Volunteers can take up maintenance, renovation and decoration of the various work places.
»   Local workshops on Indian cooking, Indian dressing, yoga and meditation, henna painting, Hindi language classes are organized.

Empowerment of Women

Poverty, dependency, illiteracy and superstitious beliefs victimize thousands of women in the Indian society. The hardships caused by adverse environmental conditions and the weight of tradition aggravate their disadvantages.

There are numerous other reasons as well, why the Indian women have so hard life to live in and so less opportunities to grow and develop -

»   Female infants are often denied the same food, education and medical care as boys. As a result they suffer from malnutrition, poor health and lack of education.
»   Many poor families, who can’t afford to pay dowry to their daughters, choose to murder their female infants as the dowry is a symbol of status in the society.
»   Domestic violence is common and a serious problem.
»   In remote villages, witchcraft accusations and punishments still occur.
»   Sexual harassment and discrimination at the workplace is common.
»   Early marriages also contribute miserably to their hard life.

Government and non government organizations (NGOs) are taking steps to protect women and female children from the ill ailments of the society.

They are being imparted with informal education and skill development trainings to make them self reliant and bring them into the mainstream of the society.

Volunteers organize special sessions such as- teaching conversational English, basic computer training for the adolescent girls and adult women.

These kinds of activities help the women to develop their skills and knowledge and above all their self- esteem and confidence that helps them in getting better employment and respect in the society.

Health Awareness

India is a densely populated country where a large number of people live without access to the basic education and primary health facilities. The situation is more complex in rural villages comparing to the urban areas.

Their houses are poorly established and do not have proper supply of water and electricity. They somehow manage little water from resources available at the distant places and hardly think of having shower, clean their cloths and renovate their shelters.

In addition to their poor socio economic condition, another major cause of their sufferings is lack of education and public awareness.

In rural areas pregnant ladies don’t go to hospitals for delivering their baby. They think it is more complex then to take help from the local mid wife. Most of them have more number of children than the well to do people. They don’t follow the small family norms.

They think that children are the God’s blessings and are not to be stopped from coming to this world. Their children don’t go to schools. They don’t pay attention towards their personal hygiene and health.

This is due to lack of resources and public awareness of making the optimum use of available resources.

As a result, they are malnourished and often fall sick. Due to poor economic condition they are not in a position to pay their medical bills and after little struggle, most of them pass away in their fifties.

Volunteers can play an important role in promoting health awareness in this community.

They work hand in hand with the local coordinators of the community organizations in organizing health camps for medical check up, giving vaccinations, supplying nutritious supplements and deliver the informal tips of health care in the schools, day care centers and give message to the people to adopt small family norms at community centers.

These kinds of activities help the otherwise ignorant and unaware community to empower them with the knowledge and resources to improve their overall quality of life.

Construction

Due to poor economic condition, a large number of Indian people are not in a position to construct their own house. They manage to make temporary shelters to safeguard themselves from cold, rain and extreme summer temperature. Most of the times they sleep in open area.

The condition of government buildings like- primary schools, day care centers, primary health centers and community centers especially in the rural areas is quite poor. Also, they are poorly managed.

Due to this, the community especially the children loose interest in using these public places meant for providing basic education, health facilities and carrying out activities for community development.

Volunteers while working with the community do not hesitate in initiating an endeavor to renovate these places of common interest.

They repair and beautify village day care centers and primary schools by white washing the walls, drawing useful pictures, paintings that help the children and the community in learning in an easy and better way.

Volunteers help in preparing playgrounds and sports facilities, making much needed benches and desks.

In addition to this, volunteers show their interest to help the community they work with, in improving their living conditions by constructing more stable ceilings and walls, leading community awareness initiatives to clean littered garbage, plant trees and place dustbins in and around the villages.

By all these activities, children get motivated to attend the schools and day care centers regularly and community becomes more active in improving their surroundings and living conditions.

Sports Coach

India, being one of the most populous countries of the world has a large population of children. Due to lack of motivated, dedicated and trained sports staff, most of the children do not get opportunity to join any kind of sports activity in their life. One of the live examples we can see, even after holding 1/6th of world population, India stands no where in winning medals in the Olympic Games.

This large population of children is in desperate need of volunteer’s assistance as they do not have a structured environment to spend their free time.

Volunteers by designing and organizing various sports activities like- preparing track and field, coaching the local games such as volleyball, football and cricket, organizing sports tournaments among the schools or the local clubs, would be able to create healthy and happy individuals.

Active participation of international volunteers in sports and social development activities would play a meaningful role in motivating children and their parents to realize the importance of sports in their life.

The programme will be divided amongst sports coaching and other valuable community work based on the volunteer’s preference.

This activity certainly benefits the children to develop their health, confidence, inner skills and have fun and excitement.

Also, they are able to learn discipline and team sprit to improve their overall personality.

In turn, the volunteers find an easy approach to socialize with the local people and experience the amazing culture of this wonderland.

Support Street Children

India is holding 1/6th of the world population and nearly 15 per cent of them do not have proper shelter, basic education and health facilities. They don’t have work and other source of income to meet their two times bread.

Either they go out for begging or throw themselves into the streets to collect garbage, pick the rags, steal some things or fall in the net of drug traffickers for want of money.

A major portion of this kind of people is the children in the age group of 5 to 15 years. They have never been to school.

Generally there life begins from the streets and ends up in the streets. They live a life that is void of love and warmth, safety, protection and parental care.

The government administration is also reluctant towards them. As a result, they are malnourished, often fall sick and without proper medical care, most of them pass away in their fifties.


Active involvement of Volunteers with the community can bring a meaningful change in their life by creating an environment conducive for their holistic development.

Volunteers would give them basic education, health awareness tips, organize medical camps with the co operation of local doctors and the nursing staff, recreation by means of play and fun and above all the love and affection to bring a smile on their faces.

This helps them in developing their skills and knowledge, confidence, self esteem and respect in the society.

Presently, they are a big responsibility on the other communities. But, by becoming a useful instrument and self reliant they can be a big asset to the community and overall the nation and live a dignified life.

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