Partner Organizations

Mobile Crèches

The construction industry is the second largest employer in India, but the workers who toil ceaselessly to build modern India are virtually invisible.  They work long hours and have no access to proper housing, sanitation, electricity or even water.  

While the parents change the skyline of the cities, the children are left to fend for themselves amidst piles of rubble and construction material.  By the time they are five or six, they are burdened with a whole range of demanding chores including looking after their younger siblings.  Having migrated with their families from state to state,some children do not speak the local language, making it even harder for them to attend school. It is these children to whom Mobile Crèches reaches out with the following goals:  

• To provide a safe environment on hazardous construction sites for children between the ages of 0 to 15
• To provide preventive and curative health care and nutrition
• To encourage the children’s creative skills  
• To initiate the children into the mainstream of education and provide them joyful learning opportunities
• To prevent child labour  

Mobile Crèches came into being on a crowded construction site in Delhi in 1969.  Growing from that one original location, the organization today covers 5000 children in 60 centres in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune.  At each site, a day care centre is built adjacent to the construction site amidst the tin shacks that house the workers and their families. The education curriculum is aimed not only at literacy but also on orienting the child towards basic health habits. Language and concepts are developed through various monthly projects, story telling, dramatics and games.  The childcare workers are health care workers, teachers, friends and substitutes for mothers all rolled into one.

Being nurtured on a series of construction sites or in unsanitary slums, with minimal nutrition and no medical facilities, the migrant child is often malnourished and diseased.  Mobile Crèches has structured its supplementary nutrition programme taking into account the above-mentioned factors. Doctors visit the centres once a week and curative and preventive health care is a major part of the programme. The health care services also extend to the community.  Pregnant and nursing mothers are given special diets and first aid is provided to the members of the community. Family planning advice and hospital referrals are examples of other services provided. 

Volunteers will be assigned to one of Mobile Crèches 14 Pune sites. They will have the chance to assist with the care toddlers, do activities and songs with the preschool students and help the older students with their studies. Additional opportunitiesmay arise such as an overnight children’s camp and the all-staff gathering.   

An alarming number of children amongst India’s urban poor still remain without an opportunity to receive formal education. The mission of Door Step School is to bridge this divide, using innovative programmes that will bring education to these children and help them make the transition to literacy and a brighter future.   
 

Established in 1988, Door Step School works with marginalized children who lack the support needed to go to school and successfully stay in school. The aim is to eradicate illiteracy and to improve the quality of learning at the primary level. Convinced that if illiteracy is to be tackled effectively, the beginning has to be made with children, Door Step School runs the following programmes: 

Pre-School: Getting youngsters ages 4-6 to have fun learning so that they are more inclined and better equipped to go to school.  
 

Study Classes: For children that attend school and need help coping with schoolwork, a little guidance and a sanctuary for learning can make all the difference. 
 

Non-Formal Education: Sadly some children cannot attend school because they have to work. Classes are conducted close to where they live or work to cater to their special needs. 
 

Libraries: In reference libraries, kids can have access to books and magazines, see fun documentaries, pore over maps and even work with computers. 
 

School on Wheels: Bringing a school to the doorstep of those who would otherwise go without it, the aim is to give street children a chance to experience what learning is all about and how much fun it can be.

Volunteers with Door Step School will serve as assistant teachers in Door Step’s programmes. Volunteers will help teach English, as well as leading arts, games and activities for children & adults.