Save Me
With the collaboration of Fidelity National Financial and Woman and Child Development Department, four contact points have been created in Mysore road, Bangalore urban and Hosakote Bangalore rural areas, in order to connect to every child that needs care and protection and give him/her basic education.
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At any of these contact points, it is estimated that around 60 to 70 children of labour workers are not going to school. Approximately 150 to 200 huts are in these areas, and the elder girl children are taking care of siblings, cleaning house, washing the vessels etc. They are easy target for abuse by local people and strangers. Many cases are filed through ChildLine regarding harassment. Also, there are other threats to the safety of these children, such as snakes, scorpion, stray dogs and chances to fell into drainage, water pits, bore well and holes. At Contact Point, we prevent and protect these children from all these threats by creating a safe, caring environment where the children can come to spend the whole day, play with other kids and participate in various learning activities.
Contact Points were set up in the areas where most of the low-waged migrants are working, where these abandoned, underprivileged children are mostly found. These areas include garbage dump yards, unauthorized slums, quarry working area, railway stations, bus stations, migrated construction working areas.
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Activities :
One social worker is working together with one volunteer in these areas every day from morning till evening to identify the street children and bring them to a Contact Point. Their goal is to convince the parents to send their children to contact points and engage them in learning, reading activities, making them to play games, providing recreational facilities like TV show, children motivational movie related to education and refreshing them by giving snacks. Each child can have access to educational course, developmental activities and obtain one warm meal every day. Upon successful completion of the bridging course, these children are admitted into public schools for formal education. Facilitators discuss with the parents regarding their children progress, preparing chart for each child regarding their learning level; they do parents and children counselling. If needed, these children are also connected into other shelters/care centres.
We are targeting to operate 4 contact points at 4 locations, in which every day, approximately 100 children receive our services. Out of these, we expect 80% of children will be admitted into mainstream education and settled in a public school within 12 months after joining the programme.
We also partner with other organisations to raise awareness among our other stakeholder groups in order to have a wider and bigger impact.
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Our Approach & Methodology :
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Having a good understanding of the local issues of the children, and having the right knowledge and expertise at our centres to provide the required services for our children and their parents.
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Providing safe and comfortable Contact Point locations, with a range of services offered to the children and their families (such as education, counselling, and basic meals).
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Engaging and educating the children under a safe, comfortable environment with a range of daily activities and protect them from harassment and abuses. Educating and engaging their parents also to raise awareness, as well as the societies around these centres.
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Connecting the children in need to open feeding centres, and providing educational bridging course to support integration of these children into the mainstream education system.
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Centre of Activity :
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In Bangalore urban, Sparsha Trust contact points are located at the following places:
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Mastri Palya, behind Manyata techpark, near Hebbal
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Vinayaka Layout, Nayanda Halli, Mysore Road, Bangalore
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In Bangalore rural, Sparsha Trust contact points are functioning in:
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Chimasandra, Old Madras Road, Bangalore
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Sowkyaroad, Thirumala shetta halli, Hoskote Taluk