3. Child Care
The children are the future of the nation and just as delicate buds, they too especially the underprivileged and unfortunate ones, need careful nurturing and care in order to blossom to the fullest. The environment in which a large percentage of Indian children live in is unstable and fraught with difficulties. The rural child especially is confronted with a myriad of problems: lack of opportunities, illiteracy, poverty, parental neglect, ill-health, inadequate healthcare and many others. The poverty trap captures many such innocent, and poor children who are then forced into child labour in order to earn a livelihood, and, to put it quite simply – survive. However, this action is in itself self-defeating as many have to sacrifice their education – thereby denying them movement up the economic ladder – in order to support their families.
However, the road ahead is not completely bleak. Launched with the bold aim of improving the lives of thousands of rural children is 'Child Care' – one of the several initiatives under the umbrella of the Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care Programme. 'Child Care' aims to function in a unique manner to balance the ugly reality of their poor condition - by providing health and nutritional support - along with the necessary provision of education, both moral and academic.
'Child Care' is managed by the Shrimad Rajchandra Educational Trust.
A large number of the babies born in rural areas are premature and underweight, with a birth weight of 1½ kg. or less. Many, thus, need ventilator support - at times, for as long as a month. In fact, many of the infants and children admitted to the Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital (SRH) are severely malnourished and highly susceptible to infection.
The SRH has started a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which is one of its kind in the entire Valsad District. The NICU serves sick, newborn babies who are born prematurely or underweight. Generally, these babies would not survive if this facility is not available in a rural setup such as Dharampur. However, due to the NICU they can now look forward to a bright future. Advanced Neonatal Care is also provided to the babies by a specialist neonatologist backed by well-trained, dedicated NICU Staff.
The NICU includes facilities such as:
- Mechanical ventilation for children with respiratory distress.
- Warmers and phototherapy units for individual babies.
- High sterility areas for isolating vulnerable babies.
The NICU goes a long way in providing unique treatment, at highly subsidized rates, to needy, unwell newborns.
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Orphanages & Aanganwadis
Shrimad Rajchandra Divinetouch conducts value-based education for children aged 4 to 15 years. Sessions are also held for rural schools, orphanages and aanganwadis.
The project also includes 'Quasi Adoption of Orphanages'. School children who grow out of the orphanages generally do not pursue graduation, and are highly vulnerable. They need guidance, support and resources to become self-reliant. This is a major focus area of future activities. Aanganwadis are also quasi-adopted and supported by providing value-based education.
Mid-day Meals:
This project involves the provision of highly nutritious hygienic meals, made by the Ashram, every day, to those children from the 10th to the 12th standard, who travel a distance of more than 15 kilometers to their schools, from far-off villages. This serves as a boost to the concentration levels of the benefited students, and is also a very attractive incentive for children to actually attend school.
Milk for School Children:
Tribal adivasi and other poor children attending school do not get their daily sustenance and the required nutrition that milk provides, milk being expensive and difficult to procure. This project undertakes the rehabilitation of cows to schools, which provides milk and milk products for consumption by the school children.
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The Shrimad Rajchandra Grameen Ramatotsav is an annual rural inter-school sports competition organised for underprivileged school children in the rural areas of south Gujarat. This event has seen the participation of over 16,500 students from more than 80 schools across the district of Navsari, Valsad and Dang in south Gujarat.The competition includes various sports like cricket, volleyball, track and field athletics, chess, carrom, kho-kho, kabbadi, tug-of-war, women's pot race and yoga providing the rural student with an excellent platform to develop not just physical fitness, but also the values of team spirit and sportsmanship. Imparting such values shall eventually assist them excel in their chosen sport and reach the national level.
The Grameen Ramatotsav has been instrumental in serving as a stepping stone to several participants who stand to excel at State level Championships. In the year 2010, Nikita Laljibhai Choudhary, a student of Pratap High School, Vansda secured a gold medal at the State level Athletic meet in the 1500 metres race. Bhavan Bhavsar, from the same school, had also been selected for the nationals in hand ball. Another participating school, Pipalkhed High School, was crowned the National Champion in kho-kho.
For the first Shrimad Rajchandra Grameen Ramatotsav, a letter of commendation was received from the Hon. Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi. Click here to view the letter
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A learning difficulty is a neurological disorder. Children with learning difficulties are as smart as or smarter than their peers, but they face difficulty in reading, writing, spelling and organising information if they are left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in a conventional manner. There are over ten million children in India and over one and a half lakh in Mumbai with such learning difficulties. Teachers and parents find it increasingly difficult to do justice to such children and educate them adequately.
Child Care aims to provide the right support and intervention to children with learning difficulties so they may succeed in school and go on to be successful in life.
The activities under this project include:
- Conducting workshops, seminars etc. to create awareness among parents and family members and help them accept their children willingly.
- Providing the children with integrated care. This involves professionals working together and helping to arrive at common decisions along with the family on the correct care and management of the child.
- To assist them by providing diagnostic assessment and remedial facilities and guiding them to counselors and special educators.
- To create parent support groups to cater to the needs of parents and encourage them.
