WaterAid project of Ruchika Social Service Organisation

A global hand wash campaign was organized by Ruchika Social Service Organization on 24th Oct'09 which continued for four days. The main aim of this program was to create awareness and spread the message on hand washing. Ruchika came out with a unique idea of spreading this message on wheel. The program covered 9 slums and eight schools in the first three days. Different activities like art competition, community meetings, demonstration on ;hand washing, street plays were organized which highlighted the message on hand washing. It is important to wash hands before handling of food and after defecation. The concluding program was held at Ruchika High School with the participation of 8 partner organisation of WaterAid.

Ruchika - Where Children Matter

What would you do if this was your child?

How would you feel if YOU were this child?

Should we wait till this little girl is lost forever?

Or would you be willing to offer your help today?

• The railway platforms of Bhubhaneshwar in India have long been a breeding ground of despair, where underprivileged children of all ages have been subject to frequent abuse, starvation and neglect - preyed upon for the purposes of child labour and even prostitution.

Since 1985, Ruchika Social Service Organization with just a handful of dedicated volunteers and an underpaid staff, has committed itself to extricating street children from their apparently hopeless lives by providing safety, nutrition and education, to give them an opportunity to grow into a world of endless potential and realize the dream of every human being - to lead a safe and fulfilling life.

RSSO maintains that the way to lead children out of this predicament is to ensure that their time is constructively utilized in learning and to equip them for a productive future, by reinforcing their self esteem in ways that bring some joy and love into their young lives.
Every child has the right to an education.

Through its innovative and varied programs, Ruchika is a Charitable Organization that seeks to:

• Provide all children with a joyful and creative school atmosphere that incorporates education and skills relevant to a meaningful and dignified existence.
• Equip children with the knowledge necessary to become active participants and positive contributors to their communities
• Create a society free of child labour, abuse, destitution, exploitation and abandonment.
  

When will children begin to matter?

It was a journey that began, as most journeys in India do, on the railway platform... when early one morning, together with an intrepid spirit in the person of a young PTI, we began telling stories to vagrant children on the platform.

Over the years, these sessions became schools conducted within chalked boundaries in a corner of the platform, song and dance sessions amidst throngs of passengers, a supplementary nutrition programme during school hours, personal hygiene and medical care for the children, advocacy amongst the children's families and then the mainstreaming of these children into conventional schools.

Today I am asked to draw conclusions from these journeys, journeys with a host of halting and nervous steps, numerous wrong turnings and several blind alleys. So the conclusions, if such they be, are rather in the nature of empirical hind- sights, subjective and relevant only to our experience.
The three most significant of these can be summarized thus...

Schools for working children should have absolutely ZERO barriers, whether physical ( e.g. walls) or of day to day organization ( e.g. Of rules and regulations); and should require MINIMAL disruption of the children's existing routines. i.e. schooling in their space, their time, according to methods and with curriculum closely related to their life-experience.

The schooling programme should incorporate transition from the Platform School with its informal, activity oriented format , to Mainstream Schools' traditional structured methods of teaching. For this to be successful, the transition in teaching methods of the informal school to the formal school should be gradual. AND there should be a sponsorship programme thereafter which incorporates provision of books, uniforms and continuing monitoring cum counselling relating to the child's progress in the mainstream school.

For older children who are unable or unwilling to enter into mainstream schools, the best school would be a programme of vocational training equipping them for entry into the workforce. Their entry into the earning fraternity becomes a visible symbol for others to emulate and and will encourage other working children to at least try going to school.

As such, RSSO has set up an extensive network of schools, vocational training programs, shelters, non-formal education centers, crèches, and a crisis helpline, all with the aim to assist children in claiming their right to education.

In all its activities, RSSO recognizes and understands the totality of the lives of the children it serves. Acknowledging that the complex demands of simple survival often preclude a child's ability to attend regular school, RSSO offers a style of non-formal schooling that takes these issues into account, making education accessible, meaningful, and significant for even the most deprived child.

Through its innovative and varied programs, Ruchika seeks to:

• Provide all children with a joyful and creative school atmosphere that incorporates education and skills relevant to a meaningful and dignified existence.
• Equip children with the knowledge necessary to become active participants and positive contributors to their communities.
• Create a society free of child labour, abuse, destitution, exploitation and abandonment.

...and you can help make this a reality.

Visit us at http://www.ruchika.org/ to see how you can help a child in need