From Child Labour to College: Support Her Future

Arohi is 7 months old. She lives with her parents and grandparents in the village of Velhale in Mahrashtra, India. Her family background is very poor. Both her parents are illiterate. The family relies on casual labour for income.

Like many rural poor people in India, Arohi’s family is very superstitious. They would use cooking oil to massage Arohi thinking this would care for her skin. Oil would also be put into Arohi’s ear as her grandparents believed this would help develop her brain.

The project team heard about Shalni when they were undertaking the projects baseline survey to judge the situation for people in the local area. The social worker who visited the home encouraged Arohi’s parents to join the project’s Care Giver Programme. This programme teaches parents proper child care practices and discourages practices based on superstition.

Arohi’s mother Suvarna joined the caregiver programme in December 2015 when she was preganant with her second child. She had not been to a doctor at any stage during her pregnancy. The programme taught Savarna about immunization during pregnancy, proper nutrition, hygiene for children and breastfeeding. She was also given access to innoculations and nutritional supplements to help with her pregnancy as well as being enrolled with the local hospital.

Now Suvarna, Arohi and her new born sister are doing well. Arohi has benefited from the skills Suvarna learned at the care giver programme. Arohi’s health has improved and Suvarna had a safe and healthy pregnancy with her second child. Without the project and you its supporters none of this would have happened.

When Prasad was in first grade, he was massively underweight, weighing only 6kg and often falling sick. His father is a driver and his mother a farm labourer. He also has two older stisters and a grandmother in his household. 

The grandmother looks after all three children, who are each just one year apart, while the parents have to work. However, she is elderly and incapable of giving all three children the attention they need.

The family enrolled in the project's care giver programme, and Prasad's grandmother especially gained a lot from the caregiver sessions. She learned many things about childcare methods of bathing, feeding etc.  Prasad's mother also attended the sessions when she could. She was shown a chart which illustrated that Prasad was not growing at the normal rate, and how underweight he was, while also guiding her on what to feed him.

He received supplementary nutrition through the project crèche worker as his parents learnt more about child health. His sisters who were both underweight, also benefited as a result.

These days his weight is up to something normal for his age, and he is engaging regularly in other creche activities, which will set him up well for school in the coming years.

Thank you for helping to change Prasad and his family's life in this way.