Get 10 000 children out of labour and into school

An update from our partners shows the intense and holistic work undertaken these past months, to ensure children are not left behind due to the effects of the coronavirus. The team share:

"We’ve continued to to health awareness outreach in our communities about COVID-19.   There is still fear of COVID and in the new variants are also spreading in the area.  

The people who left jobs and came to villages are slowly returning back to cities and those who lost jobs are still in this area.  The local people are still finding it difficult to get work opportunities, as many small and medium size business houses are not yet fully functional.  People working in unorganized sectors are still not getting work on a regular basis so their financial condition is still very sorrowful.  

For our students, 8th to 10th std. classes are offered 4 hours a day at present but the attendance is very low.  This affect the studies of children badly. Our education department plans to conduct exams based on the six months studies carried out. Teachers want to complete the studies but it is a challenging circumstance.

The work we have been focusing on includes::   

1. Disaster Management:  In 20 villages, Disaster Management Committees are formed and with their active involvement we did awareness raising, preventive measures, support to poor families, support for medical help, quarantine of people who came from cities and their arrangements, poster exhibition and display of posters in the prominent places, coordination and help from Govt, home visits etc. work was done by NISD volunteers.  
2. Provided Educational Material to Poor Girls:  The primary schools are not started but some teachers are taking efforts to teach children through various methods like mobile, by notes, homework etc.  But poor children are finding difficulty as they do not have educational material like notebooks etc. to complete their studies or taking notes etc. As parents are already poor and financial condition is badly affected they are not able to provide educational material to their children that also by visiting the town and by spending money on travel etc. in this risky situation. We provided basic education material to hundreds of girls.
3. Home Visits:  Our staff made home visits to 155 girls for distributing them Self-learning material and explained how to use it so they can continue their studies.  Our staff also visited 297 parents and agreed with them for their girls to continue their education.  
4. Health Camps:  We have organized 22 camps so far in the project villages and checked and distributed medicines to 969 poor patients.  During the health camps awareness was also carried out for COVID related issues.   Out of these, 12 patients are referred to town based hospitals for further treatment.
5. Self Learning Material:  Though the Government decided to continue classes by using mobiles or by organizing classes for a few hours a day the response for this was very poor, for various reasons.  To overcome this problem we, on a pilot basis, adopted another strategy of providing self-learning material to the 8th, 9th and 10 th std. girls of three villages i.e. Javale Baleshwar, Phokhari Baleshwar and Sawargaon Ghule. In that self-learning material was designed with the help of teachers, and got printed and distributed to 155 girls.  This proved very useful for the rural girls to continue their studies, and get it checked by their teachers. Both the teachers and girls are happy with this system and thus girls are brought in the process of education.
6. Distribution of Sanitary Pads to Adolescent Girls:  Schools are not functioning properly so we distributed sanitary napkins to 709  village adolescent girls at schools and those who are not attending schools to their homes.  Additionally, we distributed a health book, also organized by these girls so they can learn about their health.
7. Preventing Domestic Violence:  Due to the effects of COVID-19 there has been an increase in domestic violence cases.  We have collected data of such cases, paid home visits, counselled the affected women, discussed with them and with their family members, and tried to mediate with the help of local leaders and groups.  Thus we've provided counselling to 89 women who are victims of domestic violence.
8. Formation/ Capacity Building of Self Help Groups (SHGs):  We organized 34 SHGs in the new project villages and built their capacity by training them on record keeping, benefits of their unity, loan, etc. We are also trying to help these groups to link with the MSRLM scheme started by Government.
9. Distribution of Seeds to Poor Farmers:  Poor farmers also experiencing the blow of the COVID situation. To support these poor families in this difficult situation we have provided seeds to 25 poor families so that they can take crop and will have some income out of that to feed their families. We’ve also provided them with guidance and technical knowledge, so soon they will have crops in their hands. The farmers are grateful for this support as no one is there to help them in this difficult time.

Your support of this project has helped up provide this holistic response to our pupils and communities. Thank you.