This
year my visit to the above project run by Tomorrow’s Foundation (TF)
was in many parts. I practically dropped by whenever I could. Sometimes just to
keep the promise of taking pictures of some of the children, who were very
persistent! So here’s what happened in that month.
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This
was the general visit to Dharmadas Municipal School (DMS) where TF holds evening
classes. As soon I was there familiar faces of TF people approached with welcome
smiles. But I was caught by surprised when Sameer da asked me to name some of
the children. Of course I hadn’t done my HW! All the children 1st
came to the school, stood in proper rows in complete silence for few minutes.
This was to calm them down before any teaching/learning can start. Then there
were some announcements & they were given tiffin. Its was interesting to
observe that in this project children are not punished if they are absent,
rather they are given royal treatment in front of everyone with cold drinks or
some thing similar. This is supposedly very shameful for them. They try to make
sure that they won’t have to face this again. Also this year TF has started
giving each child a toothbrush. This time I noticed some different colored
uniforms. Turned out that DMS got inspired by TF & started providing
uniforms of their own! Also the school now sends out notes to parents if a child
is absent – this is also inspired by TF & their evening class.
Class
visit: Then
I went to all the classes & as usual the younger the children the less shy
they are. It was difficult to stop the PP (pre-primary) from telling rhymes.
They filled my hands with flowers they typically bring for their teacher. It was
enjoyable interacting with the children. They seemed to learn the subjects they
are being taught. They could answer any question I asked. However I tried to
stick to the subjects they were being taught at that time.
Parent-TF
meeting: I’m
not sure but may be this day only I witnessed a meeting of TF stuff &
parents of children placed in different hostels. It was interesting to see how
freely the parents speak their mind out & how they some times “fight”
with Ashish da. Clearly some of the mothers came from the red light area. TF
(thanks to Mamoni) has managed to instill the sense of responsibility that the
children are after all your, so you have to take at least partial care of them
& not leave everything to TF. In some cases, there were children, who had no
one from their family to visit them. If the parents present had their children
in the same hostel, they were encouraged to talk to those children, who did not
have their parents visiting them. Ashish da in fact coached such parents on what
they should & what they should not mention/ask such unfortunate children.
This
day I spent the whole day at TF office, went to the TFCP office, met with
in-charges of different cells.
TF
office: The
day for the TF stuff starts with meditation & a prayer. I hope to upload the
prayer in the yahoogroup file section sometime later. In short, on this day,
each cell-in-charge described what the cell does & how to me. I also met
with the TF admin stuff including Arup da, Swarup da (he left shortly though),
Mamoni, Ashish da & Sameer da. We discussed among other things the need
& other details of the Half Way Home project. I also came to know about City
Level Program Of Action (CLPOA)*. After spending the whole day at their
office I got a good idea on what they have to deal with & how their days go
by. We all had lunch together. (Details on the meeting later)
*City
Level Program Of Action (CLPOA):
It’s
a network of 120+ NGO’s going on for 7-8 years. They have a Child hot line
(for street & working children) 1098, which can be dialed whenever a child
is in need & help arrives pretty soon. Ministry of social justice is
involved in this & the area covered is from Barrackpore (north) to Garia
(south).
TFCP
office:
This is the place where all the cards are made. I had hard time believing that
the children designed them themselves. But after going over their workbooks it
seemed completely possible. I also saw all the different types of desktop/office
products they had made diaries, files etc. The children in TFCP are those who
are not going through the formal schooling but get coaching here so that they
can appear for the open school exam (equivalent to Xth standard board exam). I
heard about the problems TF faced initially with these children who stay within
these rooms for long hour every day & how they solved it simply by
rescheduling.
Slum
visit: In
the evening I went to visit a slum & some pavement dwellers. It was
interesting to see how some children, who had not gone to the evening school
that day, try to flee as soon as they saw us coming! Also I saw the condition in
which these children live & why they sometimes have to be placed in some
homes within 24 hr notice. Actually for one of the households (mother, son &
daughter) I saw, the mother was ill, so TF had to place the younger son in a
hostel. Within few days I heard that TF had to hospitalize the mother &
place her daughter to another hostel. Few months later from TF’s monthly
reports, we came to know that this lady had passed away. It was interesting to
see the rapport TF people have built with those in the slums & the parents.
I
was invited to their Teacher’s day program, which was planned & organized
by children entirely. It was very interesting to see the older children play
host & boss around the young ones trying have things in order. One of them
was the MC. They had cleared a big classroom of all desks & benches for the
program. The children sat in the center with the “stage” in front comprised
of few tables & some open space. The teachers & guests were on the other
side of the stage. One by one each class performed a song or a poem. The music
group also performed some songs. There were few speeches starting with one by
Arup da. It was very interesting how he made the children shout “Good
evening” as loudly & enthusiastically as he did! There was a drama also in
which children of various age groups participated with proper dress. I took some
pictures of the programs till they dragged me (practically) to “say
something”. All the guests were given a flower & pen as gifts. The guests
& the teachers were also asked to sing a song at the end. All together it
reminded me a lot about school.
On
this day I had a special invitation to lunch with Ilish (thanks to Mamoni) from
TF folks. So I hang out, talked to the children of TFCP about their study, told
them some tricks I had learnt at that point of life & took their pictures.
We all had lunch together. Then I watched the video of their annual program.
Cultural
activities: Saturdays the children participate in dance, music, drawing, yoga
& drama. In the beginning they are all put in all 5 activities. Then
according to they interest & strength they are put into the respective
activity. I joined them in their yoga class, learnt a song I heard on
Teacher’s Day, went to all the other activities & took pictures.
I
went to just to take pictures of some children in the TFCP program I missed the
earlier day. Came to know that one of the boys had won silver in all India level
kickboxing competition. He was teased a little for not getting the gold. Also
came to know how one of the children got into a fight with his father, who is in
a extra marital affair, & got hurt.
This
was the night before leaving for Seattle. I went with Ananya, my school friend
& an active Asha Kolkata volunteer to take pictures of the 1st
batch of class XI – of course by their request. Ashish da introduced Ananya to
all the teachers as “this person studies in this class” (instead of teaches
this class)!
I
saw a lot of forms for each cell on how they maintain record for each child.
I’d try to get a copy of each sample form in the yahoogroup file section some
time soon. I was also given a file full of info on TF. I’ll have to get the
soft copies & put them in the yahoogroup as well. It was great to know the
TF wants to build up their own capacity as they go along so that they won’t
have to depend on the experts in the long run. So the stuff tries to take
training regularly to gain the expertise. Also they were very frank in admitting
what their shortcomings were & they want to overcome those in future.
Education
cell: TF
team meets Calcutta Municipal Corp. (CMC) team every Thursday to set monthly
target. TF stuff also visits all the schools regularly & follows up with
each child.
Medical
cell:
The consultants get no honorarium. The cell maintains a yearly calendar,
which includes a general health camp (GHC) in Jan/Feb for 4-6 days, a General
dental health camp & a Dental extraction camp. Follow up is must for each
camp. They also do blood grouping, Vision testing & Awareness generation for
parents (twice a year) & for TF people. In addition they have Monthly
clinic, which started in Aug 2002. The children are given Vitamins, vitamin D
& A oil, iron, folic acid twice a year.
Home
visit cell: TF
gets lists of children who didn’t come to school (morning) & then follow
up daily.
School
visit cell: TF
stuff also meets teachers & head masters of other schools from which
children come to TF’s evening school. Other schools have asked for counseling
for their children.
Career
counseling cell:
They have different tests to figure out the aptitudes of the children & see
which type of work will be most suitable for them. Then they are put in touch
with respective training facilities. The children are given scholarship when
they take different vocational training. TF also makes sure that the children
attend the training by keeping in touch with the training institute.
Psychological
counseling cell:
In this each child’s emotional problems are dealt with one a case-by-case
basis. If a child starts behaving differently or has problems the teacher sends
a note to this cell & the cell-in-charge talks to the child to figure out
& sort the problem.
I found that TF
provides a very holistic support to the children & really “helps
them till they can”. They focus on the needs of each child & try to
provide the best of their support. They work with the parents & the govt.
They have a very good friendly relation among the stuff. It was fun hanging out
with the TF stuff.
The
only thing I’m not sure of is that sometimes one person has multiple
responsibilities. In that case does the person get twice that salary?
The need is there since
1. sometimes TF has to place children into hostels within very short notices
2. during the monsoon some children become homeless & hence very vulnerable, specially the older girls.
In
this project TF wants to make parents & community participate. They will
need manpower to cook, make sure kids come, look after them, cleaning – this
is where TF plans to get help from community & parents. So its better if
they can get a place near where they are working now. Since then they can get
help from the parents. Otherwise through the CLPOA network they will get help
from the local community. Due to the slum abolishment by the govt. some people
migrated but most remained since they are economically dependent on the Kalighat
area. Many decisions on this project had been taken jointly with the parents.
More details are on the actual proposal.