Transform the Lives of Children in Gujarat, India

Create A Safe Space for Children

Shaishav as it means ‘childhood’  in local Gujarati and some other Indian languages , works to protect childhood of disadvantaged children of Bhavnagar city and other children of the state as well. Our programmes are focused on prevention of child rights and child protection so that the children can develop to their utmost potential and become a sensible and responsible citizens of the nation. We have adopted an approach of making children themselves leaders and address the issues pertaining to their lives. Balsena  - children’s community based collectives and Tarunsena – community based collectives of youth are at the fore front teams conducting various activities for deprived children in community areas of the city.

In the quarter of March – May 2016 Shaishav organised multiple activities for its Balsena and Tarunsena members.

• UNICEF has awarded Shaishav for providing technical assistance to some of the UNICEF partner organizations. Thus Shaishav conducted number of trainings for those organizations of Gujarat where in 417 adult village volunteer team member and 2154 children of total five grass root organizations acquired trainings on child rights, right to protection and right to education. Children also enjoyed various activities in child fairs organised in collaboration with the host organizations.
• Similarly an exclusive training on project method learnings was organised for the teams of Dahod, Gujarat based organisation ‘Adhar’.
• Tarunsena along with other Shaishav team members organised Balmela (fun fair for children) for Gram Seva Trust, Navasari Gujarat. The theme of the fair was focused on child rights and science where in 955 children of Navasari district learned some basic concepts and theories of science through simple yet interesting games.
• Shaishav conducted training on child rights for High School children at Bhavnagar which was attended by 58 children.
• A training cum awareness program arranged at Ahmedabad on 'Child Sex Abuse' with the help of Prerna Trust, Mumbai was organised on 4^th February and 43 adult facilitators participated from different organizations of Gujarat.
• Apart from trainings of other organizations and community people and children Shaishav also puts its consistent efforts for capacity building of its team members. In order to provide exposure to national level forums the organisation provided opportunity to eight team members and tarunsena volunteer to participate in National Symposium on Gender on 8-9^th March at Vadodara.
• Similarly other two team members of Shaishav participated in National Consultation on Adolescent Health on 10-12 March at Karmasad.
• Nevertheless an intensive training on self defense ‘Wenlido was organised exclusively for women team members of the organisation during 3^rd and 4^th April.
• 10 member of Tata Institute of Social Science visited Shaishav during last week of March.
• Shaishav organised self-defense 'Wenlido' training for 128 Adolescent girls in March.
• ‘Balsena’ the children’s collective organised various activities in different cities every week during this period including trainings on child rights, Right to Protection, Science fair, Adolescent Training, Exposure Visit to the city, Celebration of Holi festival, orientation for examination preparation for school going children, meetings, Safety Walks etc. in which over 2000 members of Balsena had participated.
• Our community programme team organised 2 days camp for working children (labour) to motivate them for education.
• Celebrating Worlds Womens Day, Shaishav organised an interactive session with one of the famous Gynecologists of the city Dr. Lata Shah exclusively for adolescent girls and women of the city. Dr. Shah gave some basic information about womens health and hygiene. She also cleared queries of participants.
• The Child Helpline team of Shaishav solved 52 cases of varied issues of children in last three months. All these cases were having different issues including shelter, medical treatment, school admission, Abuse, counseling, ---- etc.
• Balsena team organised co-operative life skill game fair for two schools of Bhavnagar and 375 children of 1^st to 8^th std. had participated in this training in April.
• Shaishav organised public awareness programme on 30^th April National anti-child labour day at important place main market --- of Bhavnagar and address the public about the issue, distributed pamphlets and conducted Sign. Campaign. The Programme was successful and highlighted in local Television channels as well.
• In April and May the organisation conducted summer camps to utilize summer vacation of school children for creative learnings. Total 228 children of the city participated in two camps.
• In addition exclusive sessions for adolescents were organised in which the participants were given orientation about ‘online safety’, personal safety and counseling for examinations.

Thus this period was more on capacity building of Shaishav’s team as well as teams of partner organizations of UNICEF, some other organizations and also for children themselves.

Thank you all for your encouraging and persistent support

• Photos.ppt (PPT)