SAATHI: Kamathipura/Mumbai Central, Mumbai Web-site: http://www.saathi.org gives an excellent overview of the activities undertaken by Saathi. Also visit: http://www.indianngos.com Site Visit: June 23, 2003. Boys Shelter, Kamathipura. Getting there: I met Roshni Nair at Tardeo and we took a cab from there to Kamthipura. We reached the boys shelter around 3 pm. Since I had visited the place the year before, the main goal of this visit was to meet Roshni and find out from her about the new activities undertaken by Saathi and other updates on the existing programs. For a detailed description of the activities of Saathi, please refer to the site visit report from the previous year. Updates from the boys shelter: The paper bag manufacturing at the boys shelter was going on fairly well, but due to lack of demand, they were considering making customized bags in various colours, shapes and sizes. The entire operation is managed by Inam. The plan was to move the entire operation to another location since their operations at this center were a little too large for this place. At present the paper bag manufacturing was funded to the extent of 60% and income was supporting to the extent of 40%. The boys shelter was running mostly on funds from Dorabjee Tata trust and Action Aid. Through these organizations, Saathi is looking at 5 year funding and corpus building. Other activities of Saathi: Girl Child: Running a shelter with various activities. They want to move into advocacy and documentation of their experiences. This program has been funded by CRY, Concern India foundation and Asha. Nilambur: Saathi is looking into an intervention in Nilambur teak forest area. The plan is to work with surrendered poachers and try to find alternative means of livelihood for them, in a way that is beneficial to the region. A document detailing Saathi's plan for the first year is also available on the web-page. Valerie Tripp, an intern as a part of ISIC is leading Saathi's efforts to collect funds for this purpose. Valerie Tripp came to India from Santa Cruz, CA in September 2002. She was initially placed with Saathi, for whom she helped design the web-page. She is now in India for a year to work with the Nilambur project, especially fundraising. She is also trying to raise funds for another project called AURED, that works with hearing impaired children in Mumbai. QICCA: Quality Institutional Child Care and Alternatives: This project undertaken by CRY nationally aims to look at the critical issues regarding Child care and alternatives in various private, government and non-profit institutions all over the country. A document detailing this is available. Project Aasmaan: This project works with pavement dwellers in a slum close to the girls center in Mumbai Central. The project essentially provides remedial education to children aged 3-6 years and who are already going to the municipal school. In addition the children are also given some food. The chilren are at the Saathi girls center from 10 am-noon, and go to their school in the afternoon. This community is a ragpicking community and often they go through the cycle of pavement dwelling to ragpicking to soliciting. There are a lot of issues in this community, many of them are migrants, muslims. CCDT runs balwadis in the area to prepare the children for formal school. Fauzia is in charge of running this project. Project Gujarat: Following the Gujarat communal riots, some members of Saathi visited and counselled children who had witnessed scenes of violence. This project is over. Other discussions with Roshni: There has been a lot of debate in the NGO sector following amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act(1986) in year 2000. Suggestions were invited up to 2003 in this regard. Credibility Alliance is trying to come up with a credibility standard for NGOs. This covers all aspects of the NGO management and looked at issues and models for NGOs. Childcare, GIFT(ICICI) are part of this alliance. Sathi (note spelling) is an organization that works with runaway children at Raichur station in Karnataka. They are using Saathi as their hub at Mumbai. Visit to the Girls shelter (July 2, 2003): I had visited the girls shelter in Mumbai Central in 2002. When I got there, there were a lot of little children from Project Aasmaan in addition to the Saathi girls. At present there are 15 girls in Saathi girls shelter. Over the last year, there were 107 girls that were referred to Saathi, out of them 40 were returned to their homes (15 immediately and the rest after about 2 months). 46 referred to other institutions. A few girls are street contacts and a few are vocational trainees. The children from Aasman were taught some lessons by Fauzia, after which they had a snack and left. Since Saathi only has girls who are over 14 years of age, it was interesting to see the way the girls interacted with the children from Project Aasmaan. Roshni mentioned a government remand home in Dongri for girls under 18. This home houses over 250 girls and about 2/3 staff. They keep mentally challenged children in this center. Saathi has networked and has a right to intervene at this center. Under the special provision they go there 3 times a week and work with about 6 girls every quarter. At the girls shelter there are a few income generation activities undertaken by the children. These typically involve more artistic work than those undertaken by the boys. Some of them are artistic decorations of coasters and candle holders, and design of newspaper envelopes. The coasters are decorated using glass pieces. Shilpa, a volunteer, taught the girls this skill and they do this activity about 3 times a week. Roshni has contacted some shops in Mumbai that are willing to carry these items. The night shelter for the girls is YWCA(6 girls) and CCDT balwadis (8 girls). The staff at Saathi are: 1. Sofia: She is the main coordinator of the girls shelter. I did not get too many details about her, even though she was the one with whom I had the most discussions. 2.Kavita: Medical and night shelter attendant. 3.Pushpa: CCDT Night shelter attendant, a replacement for the previous attendant who got drunk at work and abused some of the children. This was a very sensitive issue for Saathi and they decided to fire her. However, the girls found it pretty hard at first since they had a relationship with the attendant and were a little cold to Pushpa at first. 4.Deepali: Outreach. 5.Mugdha: Joined in May. She is a part-time councillor who visits the girls 3 times a week. 6. Jeniffer: Income generation activities and the day-care center 7. Helper. 8,9. Roshni, Manzoor: They are in charge of fundraising and overall coordination. Test cases that I saw during my visit: 1. Sandhya: She keeps saying that she is going to leave Saathi. She keeps saying that she knows some other organization and has the telephone no and they will host her. The reason why she says this is that she does not get along with some other girl in the center. This case highlights some of the really sensitive issues with street children. They are often seemingly fickle and have dramatic moodswings. Each of them demand a lot of individual attention. 2. Name ? : This girl has been at Saathi for nearly 3-4 years and is one of the most sensitive and complex cases that Saathi has handled. Her parents are from Mumbai, but she is fairly determined and she visits them sometimes, but she is extremely determined that she does not want to go back to them. She was unwell when I got there, and during my time at the girls shelter she was extremely moody. For example she would not sit with the other girls while eating saying that she did not get along with them. She would go from smiling person to a really upset person in seconds. 3. Name ?: She ran away with some person and got "married". She still came back to Saathi since she has some attachment with the place. The person whom she was married to was also a street dweller and they were living on a pavement in Churchgate. All these cases indicated the challenges faced by Saathi in dealing with street children. Funds Needed: Girls shelter (same components as last year), Nilambur project and QICCA. These proposals are sent in other documents. Closing thoughts: Saathi has shown a remarkable amount of resolve and direction over the past 5 years. They are now hoping to use their experiences to promote advocacy and child care development. They are trying to spread their expertise to other regions and fields and this is very commendable. They work with a number of other organizations and the government. Roshni Nair is a very inspirational person. She is one of the most thoughtful people I have met, and is someone who can work with various situations in a very calm and collected manner. She never seems to complain about anything, whether it is working with the government, or the police or other groups. For Asha Stanford: There are so many activities of Saathi that need funding that it might be best to start looking for some permanent sources of funding for this project. For the time being, it will be important to fund the Girls shelter components that we funded last year. It will also be extremely useful to use Saathi and Roshni as resources for other projects in Mumbai.