Transform the Lives of Children in Gujarat, India

Dear,

Greetings from Bhavnagar, Gujarat where children are actively taking charge of making their communities safe for children to grow up in.

Your generosity is bearing fruit in these children's lives in very visible ways! Balsena, the children's collective, had some impressive achievements in the previous quarter. From sharing pamphlets informing children about the child-helpline, to marching against substance abuse in their communities and conducting a leadership camp, they have been doing a tremendous job not only being advocates of change but also being the change they are advocating for.

 Highlights of the Quarter

Children's Leadership Camp, 3-5 February

17 girls and 49 boys attended the 2 day long residential leadership camp organised by Balsena with the support of Shaishav. The children were trained in decision making, leadership, and essential life skills. The children planned the child rights audit to be done in their communities. Find out more at https://goo.gl/t0xVPz

Lokshala's (The people's school)

Two schools have a combined enrollment of 163 children of vulnerable communities in Khumbarawada. Children receive support with basic literacy as well as life skills education at our 'Lokshalas'. Find more at https://goo.gl/orXCXL

The Balsena Alumni meet

On Republic Day, we had a reunion for around 30 Balsena alumni, who are now 'change-agents' in their communities. In addition to joyfully reminiscing their favorite Balsena memories, participants shared how Balsena impacted their lives, equipping them with essential skills to be an active part of their respective communities. Check out our collective “de tali” (high five) https://goo.gl/eRjb4W

Children's rally against substance abuse

Substance abuse plagues slum communities like Khumbarwada. To counter this, the Balsena kids took initiative to spread awareness about the devastating effects addiction has on health. The rally was well received by the community as well as children and youth of Khumbarawada. See the youngsters in action at https://goo.gl/CYJtqB

Balsena representation at the National Children's parliament

Sanjay (14), a Balsena member represented Bhavnagar at the National Children's consultation organised at Delhi. He played an active role in advocating for ‘Life below water' (SDG 14) as he grew up as a benefitting from water sources and life in it.

Thanking you for the continuous support

The Shaishav team.

Since its inception Shaishav endeavours to transform the lives of the children of disadvantaged groups in Bhavnagar city. Balsena – the children’s collective is a forefront brigade of the organisation through which community children actively participate and transform their lives.

In September the Annual function of Balsena was the most important and awaited day for all Balsena members. This time children celebrated the day with lots of fun supplemented with some good learnings too. Some of the children prepared some recipes in small groups and sold those items to other children. While having fun doing this, they also learned the lessons of cooking and marketing their own food items to other children and thus could develop their salesmanship inherently. Around 300 children enjoyed the day with fun and delicious foods prepared by their friends only.

October was a month of festivals in Gujrat. It was started with Navaratri, which is the largest dance festival in the world when all the children, youth and women perform Garba – a folk dance in a traditional and ethnic costumes as well as pray to the Goddess of power and prosperity. Shaishav also organised Garba for Balsena children in different areas.

Similarly there was a celebration of Last Moon of the year (According to Indian Leaner Calendar) near sea beach along with a dinner. Besides we also had celebrated Diwali festival with community children at Balsena points in the areas.

In October a team of Balsena accompanied by some of the Balsena organisers visited a Tamilnadu based ‘Shakthi Vidiyal’ organisation. Total 12 participants went for a four days visit to the organisation and learned about different programmes and activities of the organisation. It was truly a good learning experience to all of them to learn about the ways that Shakthi Vidiyal adopts to overcome the challenges and effectively.

Shaishav hosted two Balmelas for the children of Balsena. 417 children participated and enjoyed using their creativity to make Diwali cards, decorate diyas, and making beautiful rangolis.

Balsena children celebrated the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – the Father of the Nation on 2^nd October. They read the stories of Gandhiji in groups and learned about his life by organisers.

In November, Shaishav observed Child Rights week from 14^th to 20^th November, which is a celebration of signing of UN Child Rights Convention. The team visited the children, their parents and other community people in different areas for awareness generation about child rights. Total 4255 adults and 2647 children were visited during the week.

In November Tarunsena - the youth wing of Shaishav was honoured a programme by India Youth Foundation in collaboration with UN Habitat. Most importantly the programme is selected from hundreds of application across the nation. The programme would focus on child development activities in different parts of the city where the youth of the city especially from the community areas would take lead. They would also run Area Resource Centre to provide different vocational trainings and other trainings to children of the community areas.

Another landmark of Shaishav in November was launch of Lokshala programme. Shaishav started a community based learning centre in Kumbharwada area where children would get complementary education through trained resources in a unique and child friendly manner. Moreover, they would also have an opportunity to undergo life skills trainings and other trainings at this centre. Prior to the launch, the team conducted extensive exercise of IEC through parents meetings and street play to sensitise the parents about the importance of education and make them aware of the new Lokshala.

Apart from this, America India Foundation (AIF), Gujart organised a three days intensive training of trainers for its partner organisations in Gujrat about Child Rights and Child Protection. AIF invited the executive director and founder trustee of Shaishav – Parul Sheth and Falgun Sheth as resource persons for the trainings. Thus this training enhanced the knowledge on child rights and child protection among the participant which would finally benefit the children across the state. 

Thus it was the most significant and interesting quarter with number of new and innovative activities and programmes. And Shaishav as a child rights promoter would continue to add many more such programmes and activities.