TEACHERS' TRAINING

Training always helps to bring about positive changes and improve current skills in any profession. The teachers from Yashodhara Shelter and the Day Care Centers for Laborers’ Children have already gone through a lot of training, some of which has been conducted in the premises and some at other locations.

We planned new training for teaching- as well as non-teaching staff who are equally involved in the children’s educational progress. The subjects covered in the training are related to education and the process of education, understanding of child psychology, and coping with life situations. The objective is to promote positive changes and improve skills in the education field, upgrade teachers’ knowledge about social issues related to children, introduce innovative teaching methods, and improve the school atmosphere so that children won’t be uncomfortable in the classroom.

Keeping all these aspects in mind, we designed a specific curriculum for these two-day training program, which eight teachers of the Day Care Centers and one social worker attended.

The first day, we focused on the social issue of corporal punishment. In this regard, we covered the need to develop healthy discipline policies and practices in schools through a participatory approach, various situational interventions to stop corporal punishments whenever required, and build awareness about corporal punishment through posters, pamphlets, exhibitions.

On the second day, we covered the national and state Curriculum Framework of Education, constructivism, continuous comprehensive evaluation, stress management among students, discipline, co-operative learning and creative teaching. The stages in all the sessions were self-introduction, key-note address, orientation lectures, group discussion, sharing session, question and answer session, and individual and group assignments. All the teachers enjoyed the training and found the sessions very useful.

COMMUNITY CENTERS PROJECT

During the 2008-2010 period, the Day Care Centers project in Hadapsar community involved activities specifically designed for children under 14. Thus, the Centers became the safe and protective environment street children need to live childhood experiences that provide the necessary resources and encouragement to become part of society as autonomous and capable individuals.

Given the excellent results of the project, our new goal was to turn the Day Care Centers into Community Centers that would meet the demands of community development as a whole. The increasingly alarming finding that the wellbeing of children can never be complete if work is not also carried out with the rest of the community has led us to expand our range of activities to support parents and the community as well, so that their conditions of extreme poverty and exclusion can be addressed.

Without neglecting direct care to children through tutoring and education campaigns, the new direction of the project will allow us to go from 80 beneficiaries (the children who attended the Day Care Centers) to a total of 2000 people, including the children, teens and adults in Hadapsar  community.

MEN ALSO NEED TO BE LIBERATED

Efforts to tackle gender-based violence against women In India have hitherto concentrated on empowering women to assert themselves. But this one-sided approach insulates men from the process of transformation and does not offer a way out of the patriarchal mould. Men’s violence and aggressiveness are often due to these cultural modes, as images of masculinity are linked to the notion that men with ‘power’ are ‘real men’.

There is a tacit acceptance of gender violence, even from women, in all spheres of Indian society. Two years ago, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) highlighted the finding that 55% of women did not consider it wrong to be beat by the men in their homes, and 51% of men felt that they had a right to beat the women. 

There have been few sustained efforts at changing attitudes related to masculinity. Dominant forms of masculinity in men must be challenged at a young age. There is a woeful dearth of safe platforms for men to talk about problems that give rise to violent behavior, including those relating to sexuality. Gender-positive male role models are also needed.

A project launched by MAVA (Men against Violence and Abuse) provides safe, non-threatening platforms to young men so they can open up, communicate, share their fears, thoughts, dilemmas and concerns, and come into contact with new ideas about men and masculinity. While collectively addressing gender issues, the project promotes alternative models of masculinity that are gender-equitable.

 ‘Opening up’ in men is much more complex than in women. Men often do not have any experience, confidence, or even vocabulary to describe their innermost feelings. By involving a pool of experienced men who are willing to share personal insights with the young men in MAVA’s project, this process of ‘opening up’ is encouraged. This includes a yearly magazine featuring firsthand experiences of men communicating their anxieties, vulnerabilities and other issues related to masculinity. Nevertheless, it takes guts to renounce patriarchal privileges and step down from a dominant position.

In many schools, gender education has been introduced as a value that needs to be instilled. However, there is lack of effective teacher training on the subject and a lack of child-friendly methods. Moreover, politicians have been stalling efforts to provide integrated sexuality education in schools. 

Men are seen as part of the problem, but unless they are seen as part of the solution, there will be no significant change in the status of women. Men, too, need to be ‘liberated’ from the shackles of patriarchy. It calls for a paradigm shift in viewing the ‘women’s issue’ as a ‘gender issue’ by all concerned.

Source: infochangeindia

FOOD AND NUTRITION PROGRAM

The Food and Nutrition Program is designed to link the government's Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Asha-Kiran Shelters Foundation, as the ICDS does not cover the dwellers of the area where we work. Thus, our project plays an important role in supporting ICDS strategies by reaching beneficiaries more effectively and providing inputs to parents for their children to develop emotionally, physically and socially.

The objectives behind this activity are as follows: creating nutrition awareness among the people, particularly women and adolescent girls; providing information about achieving adequate nutrition within available means; explaining the importance of non-food factors like hygiene, sanitation, safe drinking water etc., and giving information about existing health, nutrition and welfare services for their best utilization.

Approximately 20 mothers attend the monthly meetings of the Food and Nutrition Program. The activities in each session include showing how to prepare low-cost and nutritious recipes with available foodstuffs, discussing the importance of growth, monitoring and child nutrition, using the new WHO Growth Standards, and organizing of mini exhibitions at the district level, nutritional quiz competitions, a nutrition rally, puppet shows, street plays, etc.

The activity revolves around the following topics:

. The functional significance of malnutrition
. Basic facts about food, nutrition, and improving diet at a low cost
. Nutritional needs of different age groups
. Nutrition of pregnant women and nursing mothers
. Promotion of breast feeding
. Infant feeding
. Preparation of instant infant foods ans supplementary foods
. Nutrition of pre-schoolers, school children and adolescents
. Home treatments for diarrohoea
. The importance of immunizations
. Principles of hygiene and sanitation