Children of the World (India) Trust, (CWB), supports various interventions to bring about changes in the lives of underprivileged, abandoned, destitute and differently abled children
Adoption
Vishwabalak Kendra – our Child Care center – is a home full of love, comfort and warmth. It is always our endeavor to provide children who come in here, with an environment conducive to growth, development, and most importantly, happiness. The Central Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), a nodal body for coordinating the adoption of Indian children, introduced an online portal in 2015, to centralize in-country and inter-country adoptions in India. Children of the World (India) Trust has integrated these procedures into its adoption processes. We abide by the rules and regulations regarding adoption, modified and passed in 2017. This has helped avoid multiple registrations and facilitated a quick and transparent adoption process for families keen to adopt. Our procedures include:
Adoption procedure
For detailed information on adoption procedures, please visit the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) website at http://cara.nic.in/
Pre-adoption services
“Parenthood requires love, not DNA!” Adoption, as we know, transforms the lives of children, as well as that of parents. At Vishwabalak Kendra, our efforts focus on ensuring that every child that comes into the Center finds a loving and caring family. In accordance to the law, this should happen by the age of six at the very latest.
Pre-adoption counselling is provided as part of the adoption procedure. The social worker plays an important role in counseling potential adoptive parents to ensure that they are prepared for greater responsibilities. Our counsellors also provide support to families when children demonstrate emotional and behavioral needs.
Post-adoption services
Post-adoption services are a mandatory requirement of the adoption process to assess the family that is beginning a new life together. In accordance with the regulations, a social worker visits the family every six months, over a period of the initial two years and prepares a report. These progress reports are subject to scrutiny by external authorities. Counsellors at CWB aim to address any issues that the new families may face, in the context of strengthening the bond within the family. CWB also provides coaching on parenting to new parents.
Child Care Center
Our Child Care Center is a large, airy, two-storey building, curtained by trees in front and surrounded by greenery on all sides. It has several rooms branching off from a central courtyard lined with broad verandahs. The first floor of the centre includes a study room, a playroom, a sensory stimulation room and a recreation room.
Care for differently-abled children
Differently-abled children are given therapy, care and education that is individually tailored to meet their needs. Here, at the Center, we piece back together their childhood through hours of physiotherapy, speech therapy, counselling, remedial education, medical support and loving care. The well-ventilated rooms of the centre on the first floor also have bright and spacious play areas attached to them, alongside a terrace garden to provide children additional space to move around.
Medical interventions are of the highest priority — a team of doctors and visiting specialists monitor each child's motor and sensory skills. Children receive multiple therapeutic inputs until they achieve functional independence or age-appropriate maturity.
Neonatal nursery
A neonatal nursery, fitted with warmers, pulse oximeters, air purifiers, autoclaves, phototherapy units, oxygen cylinders and other emergency equipment is a cool, hygienic and calm oasis for pre-term babies. Newborn babies, who are malnourished or underweight, are placed in individual cradles, snugly wrapped in blankets. The caregivers are experienced in handling these babies and give them all the love, care, and the human touch which is so essential for these children.
Sponsorship
Under the aegis of our Sponsorship program, CWB’s objective is to support children and youth, living with their families, to become socio-economically, emotionally and physically healthy adults. Our Sponsorship program aims at ensuring that underprivileged children get the necessary education and support to become independent and self-sufficient. Nutritional support provided to the children under our program also contributes to improved learning abilities for children. The objective is to ensure that families and communities support and augment the healthy development of their children, thereby contributing to the development of their surroundings.
Key objectives
- To provide educational, health and nutritional services to sponsored children and their families
- To support need based projects in the communities where our sponsored children and their families reside
- To prevent the disintegration of families due to socio-economic reasons
Criteria for selection of sponsored children
- Single parent families due to the death of either parent
- Single parent families due to desertion by either parent
- Family with low income/unemployment
- Family with alcoholism, drug addiction and/or gambling problems
- Family with either or both parents suffering from major or terminal illnesses
- Physically challenged children
Community Outreach
Our endeavors at Children of the World (India) Trust have made an impact on more than a lakh of people in the communities we work in. We provide support through:
- Community kitchens
- Community health programmes and nutritional services
- Women's development activities
- Balwadis (Pre-school activities)
- Day care centers for working mothers
- Vocational training courses
- Income generation schemes for women
- Mental health interventions and counselling
- Programmes for children with special needs
- Programmes for senior citizens
- Youth development projects
- Adolescent empowerment programmes
- Excursions and educational visits
- Workshops for extracurricular activities like sports (both indoor and outdoor), arts and craft, dance and music
Education
CWB reaches out to 1,500 children, of whom 199 secondary and higher secondary students are given financial support for private tuitions. Students are also supported through special classes. Our classes for grades 1-7 are attended by 513 children, while 104 children attend our balwadis at the quarry sites we work at. We also sponsor 199 children for professional/ vocational/ technical courses. Our education sponsorship programs are active in the Shivaji Nagar slum area, Shiravane, Karave, Darave, Nerul village, IT colony, Kukshet, Rabale, Sarsole, Nerul nagar, Bonsari and at three quarry sites namely MG nagar, Ramesh Metal and HP.
Nutrition
As part of our community outreach programme, Children of the World (India) Trust provides nutrition to various beneficiaries in the areas we work in. We have 15 community kitchens providing 719 children with nutritious meals. Another 985 people are provided supplementary nutrition every month, to augment their diet. This latter group includes under-nourished children, anaemic / pregnant / lactating mothers, senior citizens and individuals suffering from HIV, cancer or other major illnesses.
Women Empowerment
Women empowerment is an important part of our community outreach initiatives. Up until now, we have helped set up two Mahila Mandals and 47 Self-Help Groups with 799 members in our project areas of operation. We have helped set up 32 women through income-generation activities which has enabled them to become financially independent.
Youth Center
CWB's most recent and exciting initiative was to set up a Youth Center for the children and youth we sponsor, to give them a space to acquire new skills and to learn to be economically productive. The Center also provides them with a peaceful place where they can concentrate on their studies without being disturbed. The objectives of the Center are manifold:
- To provide a conducive environment to adolescents and youth — girls and boys — to focus on their academics
- To organize workshops, awareness sessions (especially on prevalent social issues), aptitude testing, career counselling and guidance sessions for the youth
- To impart computer literacy and support student education with the help of referral books
- To enable students to prepare for competitive exams - this is determined by their interest areas and aptitude.
- To organize art and craft sessions and other learning activities
- To organize exposure visits to places of interest
- To impart trainings on leadership and personality development to the youth
In addition, CWB also supports and facilitates the education of children/ youth with the aim of making them employable and self-reliant.
To achieve this, we:
- Provide financial and material assistance
- Conduct support classes and special programs to enhance learning
- Organize trainings and capacity building sessions for the youth groups
Elderly care
Our community medical camps are organized for children, their families and the elderly too. CWB provides support to the elderly through medical interventions for cataract surgeries, diabetes and Tuberculosis (TB), to name a few major illnesses.
Comprehensive Health Programme
CWB supports the treatment of around 230 people every month. Cases are followed up with referrals where required. Medical dispensaries are held in our project areas, and community sessions on health awareness are conducted periodically.
Our TB project at one quarry site has identified 135 patients, of whom 65 are still under treatment. Our support services for TB patients include:
- Medical investigation of suspected TB patients and their family members
- Regular check-up for patients, monitoring their weight and general health
- Counselling services
- Supply and monitoring of medicines with the support of Urban Health Post
- Providing special nutritious meals, protein powder and lentils
We also have an ongoing dialogue with the community through meet-ups, street plays and poster exhibitions focused on improving the environment and healthcare.