LACK OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE

The first six years in a child's life are crucial. It is in these years that the physical, cognitive, language and social development of the child is at its peak. Investment in early childhood care and education is essential.

Investing in early childhood care and education means providing comprehensive maternal care and entitlements, provision of crèches, child care, nutrition, immunisation and health care, pre-school education, protection and care to children, and creating child care services to release girls from sibling care responsibilities, so that they can go to school and get an education.

It is estimated that India today requires 800,000 crèches for its children. Against this, there are only 14,925 crèches, which leaves an enormous gap.

INDIA, EYES TO SEE

The collection of photographs taken by Uttam Módenes: INDIA, EYES TO SEE presented by Fundación Asha-Kiran, wishes to be a loving tribute to the millions of vulnerable children in the world, to their eyes, their smiles, their vital needs, their dreams, their often violated rights.

This collection shows many "eyes to see", all of them photographed in India; but in order to feel them you need to remember the harsh reality of a large part of humanity and open your "eyes to see".

In India there is tremendous social imbalance despite being a country under rapid economic growth. The lives of millions of children go by in the midst of misery, exploitation, neglect, lack of education, discrimination, lack of protection and extreme vulnerability. For them, life is a daily struggle for survival.

Children are tomorrow's society, and we, as adults, must accept our responsibility to them. If we want a more fair and balanced society, we must work towards it now.

In developed countries there is a growing concern about the deterioration of the rights of children. Problems such as neglect, physical and sexual abuse are mentioned relatively frequently in the media. This proximity to children’s problems "here" should bring us closer to children "there", in developing countries, so we can come to realize that both in Northern and Southern societies, children are the weakest link in society.

The right to be a child is the right to not be a premature adult - it is the right to play, to learn, to be valued and cared for. It is the supreme right to not be concerned about sustenance and shelter.

Let us build together a world fit for children. This world will also be suitable for adults.

Fundación Asha-Kiran works towards creating a world for children in which they can fully partake of all their rights as set forth by the United Nations in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We believe that a world fit for children, as a framework of reference, will be the beginning and also the result of the transformation in the way human beings live, and that it is up to each one of us to make it come true now.

HOLIDAYS AT YASHODHARA

At Yashodhara Shelter Home, all the children were busy last month getting ready for their finals. After their examinations, both oral and written, the children left the Shelter to spend their long holiday with their family – a well-deserved break after a whole year of studying and learning. 

Congratulations to the fifteen children who, due to their outstanding academic performance, also did scholarship exams.

Now it is time for them to forget the books for a while and enjoy their free time at home. Their second Home will await them with open arms when the new school year starts in June.

Happy summer break!

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOR

After going down more than 20 meters down into dark, damp trenches, Indian child miners in the state of Meghalaya slide into extremely narrow horizontal tunnels, crawl many meters through the mud, and begin their day digging coal. They tie rags to their heads to hold their flashlights and cover their ears with cloth. Boots, helmets and safety tools are nowhere to be seen.

Approximately 400 million children work in slave-like conditions in the world. To celebrate the World Day Against Child Labor on 16 April, many organizations have reiterated their plea not to forsake exploited children. In India, working children from the age of five can be found in shops, farms, factories, construction sites and private households. At times, they risk their lives to help support their families.

In contrast to the 2010 Act that requires all children between six and fourteen to attend school, UNICEF states that there are about 28 million child laborers in India. The international call is for the government to urgently pass another law to ban all forms of child labor, but even activists agree that the laws can do little to solve one of the most serious problems in India.

“We have very good laws in this country”, says a child protection specialist for UNICEF. "The problem is in the way we enforce them.” Furthermore, although the Indian Mines Act prohibits anyone under 18 to work in them, the parents of child miners say that “Our children must work. Nobody is going to give money to us”.

In 2010, the NGO Impulse reported that nearly 70,000 children were working in about 5,000 mines. A young worker claims to have seen some of his co-workers die, and that despite having seriously hurt himself once, he had to work the next day. “How can we stop working? We have to eat”, he said. The contradiction is obvious: even if the laws banning child labor are enforced, poor parents make their children bear some of the responsibility of supporting the family out of need. This need, however, is not always extreme.

Through our work as an NGO, we see that this pattern can be challenged by raising awareness among parents about the importance of education. Once it has been raised, services, tools and training must be provided so that parents will allow their children to enjoy their childhood and be schooled so they can increase their chances of escaping the ignorance-poverty circle.

Sources: guioteca / 20minutos

SOWING SEEDS OF SOLIDARITY III

This past March, my students from 9th grade decided to sing "Happy birthday to Uttam" at the end of the class and recorded their voices to send him their song. They were one of the groups that attended the inaugural lecture of IES Agar SOLIDARITY PROGRAM on 14 December, who were delighted with the information they got on India, Fundación Asha-Kiran and the answers to the questions they raised.

The part where Uttam shared his personal experiences unmistakably caught the students’ attention, as it is not commonplace for them to come this close to the founder of an NGO. Reporter Inmaculada Acién from IDEAL newspaper (published in Almería and Granada, Spain) attended the event and interviewed Uttam.

Thereafter, she published a full-page article about the event and the contents of the talk in IDEAL.
Clearly, Uttam's work is not only aimed at the children in India but also to children and youngsters in Spain, because it gives them a vision of solidarity, of creating a more just world, and learning to live from being. THANK YOU.

Here are some of the comments from the students who attended the talk:

“I think meeting Uttam and going to the conference was a great opportunity to learn about other cultures and to remind us how lucky we are to have everything we need and more.”
Alba

“Uttam’s conference seemed fantastic to me because of the way he explained things and what we learned about the NGO. We learned that it isn’t easy to run and that it takes a lot of effort and love for all the children.”
Máximo

“The conference was very interesting and I was thrilled to see the Indian children in the pictures, and the video was very nice.”
Andrea

“I thought it was great that Uttam came. That day we were very excited on account of his visit. When he got here, we began to ask him questions. Some were in Spanish and some in English. We also saw a video about the NGO.”
Esther

“Actually, we were excited about Uttam’s visit since no one like this had ever come here. At first I thought it was going to be boring, but then when I went into the conference hall I got very curious and started asking questions. It was great. I’d like to do it again.”
Valentina

M ª Angeles Arráez – Volunteer at Asha-Kiran