Humari SmartshalaIn Program Humari Smart Shala, Sahyog care for you aims to be improving the education eminence in schools, to offer access to digital literacy and labs and to improve infrastructure in schools. The school therefore becomes the epicentre of information and awareness which will in turn improvise the standard of living in the community, also ensure child right to protection, health care, early childhood care and quality education, their participation in governance, safe and healthy living environment, and improved income of families for betterment of children’s future.
Bal Panchayat (children’s parliament) is an idea to bring the children together to strengthen their voice and leadership skills and make them the change-agents in order to prompt their attention towards issues which affect children directly or indirectly. The motive behind forming and facilitating Bal panchayat is to promote the right of participation of the children and their unheard voices may be heard.
Sahyog care for you runs remedial education centers to teach children living in slums. However, Sahyog believes that education, though important, is not enough for the overall development of the chilld, and hence has created Bal Panchayats. Sahyog has 5 groups with 54 children from different slum areas of Delhi. In these Bal Panchayats, children practice the right of participation by expressing their views on issues that affect them and by making plans on how to go about resolving these issues.
Not only the children of Remedial but also children from formal schools and from within the locality are encouraged to become a part of the Bal Panchayats where they can present relevant issues before their teachers, family and community.
All the children from the remedial education centers and locality are brought together and are explained the importance of unity. Following this, all the children who want to be a part of the Bal panchayat meet and decide the name of Bal panchayat and the children are informed about the working core group. The children decide how many will be in the working core group and the members of the working core group are decided by election. Children who want to become part of the committee address the Bal panchayat and explain how they are a suitable candidate. Elections are done under the supervision of an adult representative of Sahyog to form a Bal Panchayat.
Every Bal panchayat is oriented on leadership, team work, unity and is sensitized on issues related to them and other social issues. A monthly Bal panchayat meeting is organized by Sahyog on the date decided by the Bal Panchayat. All the Bal panchayats of different localities are brought together and a district Bal Panchayat and working core group are formed by election. The district Bal panchayat conducts quarterly meetings.
In the meeting of the Bal panchayat, members discuss about the issues they are facing in their area and then they discuss how these can be addressed. They also seek suggestions from members as well as from the adult facilitator present in the meeting. After discussions they prepare an action plan for the same and in further meetings they plan for follow up.
During events such as World Day against Child Labor, National Anti Child Labor Day, World Environment Day and others; Bal panchayat organize rallies, human chain etc. to spread awareness about relevant issues. For example, on World Environment Day, Bal panchayat organized tree planting, they also participated in different Campaign which has helped in increasing the coverage of campaign.
CHILD BANK is a bank for the children, by the children and of the children. 15 years old Tannu from Sultanpuri center has an account in the bank and her small pleasures of childhood are not held hostage to the priorities of her poor family. “Last year during festivals, a few relatives had visited us and had given me some money which I had saved in my account. Later, I took out the money to buy some new clothes for myself,” said Safiya from Udyog Nagar. The accounts of children of Sahyog were opened in Corporation Child Bank and managed entirely by children. The bank now has four accounts of children aged between 9 and 16 years living in slums of Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Bawana and Udyog Nagar in its Delhi branch. “Any child below the age of 16 can open an account with a minimum balance of Rs 5. It helps them learn about savings and not waste money on unnecessary things,” said by-12-year-old Sapna from Mangolpuri, who is the assistant child volunteer manager at the bank. The children have assigned themselves posts in the bank, maintain cash books, ledgers and pass books of each account holder. These bankers park the savings money, which is around Rs. 5940/- now, in a bank run by elders. The bank also has an executive committee that sanctions loan for an applicant and checks whether the requirement is genuine. “We ask for an application from the child for any transaction which exceeds Rs. 200.
The application needs to state the source from where they received the money or why they need to withdraw the amount,” said 13-year-old Mousam from Bawana, the secretary of Bank. The icing on top is that loan comes interest-free. And the bank provides 10% yearly interest on savings. Neha from Mangolpuri said she had taken a loan from the bank to set up a game stall in the fete they had organized. “I had set up a glass and ball game stall which was a huge hit. I also earned some profit on it which I deposited in my account,” she said. The Banking Concept is an initiative of Delhi- based organization Sahyog care for you, which work with underprivileged children. Gen- Secretary of Sahyog care for you Mr. Shekhar Mahajan said that the NGO has linked all the process of children’s bank with a national bank that manages the money and interest on savings. “There is no fixed time frame for repayment of loans. However, we motivate them to cut down spending on unnecessary items and repay the amount within the same financial year,” said by- Bushra from Udyog Nagar. Most of the children’s parents work as laborers or domestic helps. Coming from a background with limited resources, these children have learnt the importance of savings. “Most of us usually withdraw money from our accounts to buy new clothes or books and notebooks or any other item which our parents cannot buy for us,” said 14-year-old Hunny, a student of Mangolpuri Centre. The children also organize membership drives, going from house to house, to create awareness among children about savings and also sensitize their guardians.
Sahyog care for you aims to improve the education eminence in schools, to offer access to digital literacy and labs and to improve infrastructure in schools. The school therefore becomes the epicenter of information and awareness which will in turn improvise the standard of living in the community, also ensure child right to protection, health care, early childhood care and quality education, their participation in governance, safe and healthy living environment, and improved income of families for betterment of children’s future. Sahyog care for you is implementing its child development programs with a sustainable holistic approach covering all the core thematic areas (i.e. Child protection and participation, Education and ECCD, Health and WASH issues, HES and DRM) in the government schools Of Delhi. Sahyog is also providing assistance to the schools by showcasing effective, scalable and demonstrable models of TLMs (Teacher Learning Methods) in all the thematic areas. Identification of Schools under the proposed areas and program activities on following basis.
Household composition The criteria sought to determine the size and structure of the household: Size of house areas, number of people living in household, age and sex of the members of the household, relationship, marital status, orphan status, etc.
Income Individual or household income was calculated on a daily, monthly or annual basis and sometimes according to the strength of the work (income of the man, woman, or children). Usually the reason for poverty was the uncertainty of the income, its absence, low level, sometimes assessed in relation to the number of members of the household.
Occupational Status Certain occupations were targeted as indicating poverty (fisherman, itinerant vendor, domestic worker, sex worker, and beggar). The type of remuneration (wage earner, day laborer, casual worker, self-employed, unpaid) and the employment status (employed, retired, unemployed) were the judgment criteria.
Food Security Malnutrition and its associated signs were used as criteria in some experiences. Element considered was the number of meals in a day, sometimes specifying their quality.
Health & Hygiene status When health status was used as a criterion for poverty, it involved getting information on illnesses contracted over a given period of time, their duration, and the presence of chronic illnesses or other specifics. Some experiences also took into account physical and mental disabilities that prevented the person from being able to work.
Education Education was assessed from the degree of literacy, the language spoken or the level of education of the area. The number of children not attending school was also an indicator.
Access to basic Water/Sanitation services Access to basic services (electricity, running water, basic sanitation facilities) at home as well as in schools was used as a criterion. We targeted schools where the maximum percentage of workers is laborers, rickshaw pullers and daily wage workers in which the income is not sure. Most of the population under this category has migrated from Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern U.P. and Haryana and belong to schedule caste. Muslim population in these areas is quite high.
Sahyog care for you will work in the school to provide the appropriate facilities necessary for proper education of the children. Main thematically areas of work:
The aim of this project is to be recuperating the education significance in those schools, where HCL volunteer staff studied in their childhood, to offer access to digital literacy &labs, to improve infrastructure and provide other facilities in the schools. The volunteers of the HCL is implementing this school development programs with a sustainable holistic approach with all the core thematic areas (i.e. Child protection, Health and WASH issues) in the primary or secondary schools. Sahyog, as a partner of in 'My School' programme, has been instrumental in providing on field assistance, for the successful implementation of the project by providing the inputs in form of advice, guidance and timely modifications in the interventions, is yet another aspect in which Sahyog has played a vital role. Even Sahyog organised workshops on WASH, Sanitation and hygiene, child sexual abuse and Menstruation & hygiene with 7500 children, teachers, parents and community in My School Programme at Pan India level
Help needy school children - Donations in Kind
Sahyog Care scaled the initiative already run in Delhi, now at PAN India level which was spread in Chandigarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
The initiative of the JOY OF GIVING experienced by the privileged class children to give back to the society or community. This mega drive was intentionally started in the month of March when the school sessions end for the children and they are eagerly waiting for the new session to begin with all new demands of books, bag and stationary items.
We encouraged the students to participate in it and help the underprivileged children by contributing their old School Bags/ Stationery/Books and uniforms etc. They demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the community by collecting their old used items to needy school children.
This initiative was a success with 18 organizations participating helping in the collection drive benefitting around18205 children.
The Joy of Learning (JOL) program was conceptualized keeping in mind the aim to build peaceful and sustainable societies through education. This programs works with the student to build skill set required for the standard he/she is studying. It bridges the existing learning gap and take the innovative approach to raise the learning level of students of class 3rd, 4th and 5th. It works on different parameters and asses on the skill set conceptualised and designed specifically for the primary level student.
The core element of JOL is EMPATHY. Various studies across the World have proven that ‘empathy’ is the one quality which when nurtured in individual, can create positive societies. Reimagining classrooms, curriculums through an awareness of empathy, builds a positive learning ecosystem and facilitates socio-emotional development of children. JOL is the first intervention in India to integrate ‘empathy’ in government school education.
Wall O Books is a library of different kind. It is a library on a wall where the books are kept in a simple, innovative shelf made of empty sacks.
The initiative aims at providing books to children of our centres, to inculcate reading habit, enlighten their minds and acquire knowledge. The books are normally donated/ provided by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. The children help in setting up libraries at the centres. The library members (Centre children) appoint a librarian amongst themselves. The librarian is responsible for maintain the library and ensuring books are returned on time.
Children can borrow books, read the stories and return the books. In a meeting of library members, every month, the children are asked to give a two line moral / learning of the story read by them. The name of the child giving the best moral/learning is displayed in the library. Children are also encouraged to write stories and tell them to other members.
Sahyog, in association with the Rotary Foundation of Delhi Rajdhani, initiated the project ‘Education on Wheels’ with the aim of providing basic education to all. Our beautifully designed van is stocked with study material, drawing books, educational charts and other interactive art and craft material to engage children in constructive activities and hone their creativity skills. The trips are conducted in the areas of Raghubir Nagar, Punjabi Bagh and Mangolpuri to undertake various activities for the children.
Our teaching method consists of conducting interactive story telling sessions, encouraging role-plays and two-way interaction. These classes are filled with interesting ice breaking dance sessions providing children the opportunity to break from their monotonous life. Encouraging creativity, these vans carry drawing books and crayons to help children learn basics of alphabets, vegetables, fruits via art. Believing in a practical approach, the teaching pedagogy revolves around activities while providing social education regarding hygiene and good habits using a pre-class pledge for students
