Goonj through Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti, an NGO based in Khandwa district started the initiative in 2008. The interaction began with a workshop at Khandwa where the Goonj's director Mr. Anshu Gupta shared the Vision of Goonj and visited certain locations to assess the need for resource support. Social Workers, Media Personnel and Villagers were all present at this workshop.

The decision was reached to initiate Goonj Program in selected villages of Khalwa tribal Block of Khandwa district, Child Labor and Street Children of Khandwa city and HIV+ patients of Khandwa and Burhanpur districts.

INITIATIVES

Vastradaan Program:

The program was initiated in villages of Khalwa district. The Dalit youth of village Langoti resorted to road side plantation while villagers of Salidhana took up the farm bunding work.

It was first experience for many of us to learn the potential of clothes in facilitating a development process. The resident Mongia Community that resort mostly to begging and quilt stitching and daily wage earning decided to bund the pieces of waste land around their settlements. Anshuji's simple logic impressed the community that if they cleared the pebbles and stones they will have fertile land. The community volunteered and took out time to clear the land.

                 Barren land                    Steps developed by the villagers..

They sowed maize and had a bumper crop. This was a great happening. The area already reeling under acute Food Insecurity and consequent malnutrition and deaths of children, this crop production proved to be a support to their Household Food Security. Another step was that the community volunteered to construct a step on the hillock adjacent to their settlement. This slope proved often dangerous to women who had to fetch water from downstream and one of the women broke her back. They built the steps on the hillock and now fetching water has become simpler.

This experience motivated us and villagers. The Salidhana community has begun digging a well. Goonj has supported a part of wages through food grains while rest is the voluntary labor contribution. The well has been dug up to 20 feet and the community is expecting that once the water is had it will solve their long standing drinking water problem. This community initiative has prompted the local Panchayat to commit that once the well is completed it will take up the concreting work.

In another village Mathni, a Forest village, the approach road has been very bad. The tribal community decided to patch up the potholes and clear the boulders on the roads connecting their hamlets. Once they initiated the road repairs, the Forest Department was prompted to declare that it will soon construct a concrete road.

The HIV+ families have also been benefited. Cloth for work has been begun among them.

Suhklal is a daily wage earner and hardly earns 20-25 rupees a day to make the ends meet. This income according to him somehow meets his daily bread but has hardly anything to meet the needs of the cloth. When he heard of Goonj initiative, he decided to do something extra. He took up the responsibility to disseminate information on prevention of HIV/AIDS in his neighborhood and assist the new cases to get proper care. This earned him clothes for his family. He says earlier I used to be reluctant to go to meetings as I had no good clothes, but now I feel happy and confident.

Malnourishment Relief:

Khalwa Block is basically a tribal block and has been the victim of continued malnutrition and deaths of children. It has been happening year after year and this year the catastrophe rose to more than 60 children dying in three months in just a dozen of villages. Spandan powerfully advocated the issue and the media across the nation criticized the government apathy. This built up the substantial pressure on the government to undertake relief and the whole district machinery was on roll to bring the severely malnourished children from the villages to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers. Hundreds of children were brought in mere two months. The facilities at hospitals ran short and the mothers and children had no basic amenities like a change of cloth, diapers or sanitary napkins. The Goonj support came very handy at this time of emergency. The mothers and children were provided clothes, sanitary napkins and soaps to make their fortnight stay at an alien place.

At this moment of catastrophe, 40 families who had lost their children due to malnutrition were provided grain support as they confronted acute household hunger that devoured their children.

Child Friendly Anganwadis:

It was a time to work out long term strategy to address the perennial issue of malnutrition. It was strongly felt that the rural Anganwadis be made a child friendly place. The Anganwadis run by Women & Child Development Department had turned into a mere "Dalia" distribution centers. The children would not stay at centers where they could receive the essential services like pre school education, health checks, and immunization and referral services. This was one of the key reasons behind obstructed development of children. Goonj support was mobilized to turn the Anganwadis into child friendly centers. The effort began in five centers in Khalwa tribal block and has already begun to show impact. The retention time of children in these centers has increases at least four times since they received dresses, toys, utensils and creative educational materials. We intend to extend this effort to at least 100 Anganwadis.

We discovered what change those toys would make to those dying and struggling for life and death children. The severely malnourished under-five children in Nutrition Rehabilitation Center depicted a demise picture. The children dull and wasted stared the ceilings and were frightened to see the doctors, nurses and equipments. They had all but nothing to make them smile or creative, so needed for their early recovery.

The Goonj toys made a world of difference. Those dull and wasted children as if rose to life and there were smiles all round when they received those toys. It certainly assisted in their early recovery. In this time of emergency the easy sanitary napkins had another use. The napkins were used as diapers to clean the child. It was a great obstacle as hospitals had no provisions for diapers and keeping the children clean became essential for treatment.

This initiative also sparked enthusiasm and participation of mothers. In village Roshni , the mothers and children celebrated a new festival called "Anganwadi Diwas".

 

 

It was a time of cheer as the women and children participated in the day long program with dresses received from Goonj and children were overjoyed with clothes, toys and biscuits and a grand community lunch. The mother volunteered to clear the surroundings of the Anganwadis, something which they had not done earlier.

School to School Program:

For this purpose the program has been initiated in three child labor schools and a home for street children. Clothes, toys and educational materials have been provided. On eof the schools at Lohari Naka has seen a tremendous change. The attendance has increased and children have begun to stay longer at the centers.

When Jaishree a child labor received clothes she had mixed feelings. On one hand she ws happy but on the other hand questioned the teacher whether she received the clothes for being poor. The teacher explained that she has not received but earned the clothes. This was intriguing for Jaishree. The teacher explained that since she visited the school regularly, did her home work, passed her tests she deserves a recognition and the clothes she received is a reward she has earned for her hard work. This overjoyed Jaishree and she wears her clothes with a sense of dignity.

When children of two Child Labor Schools were involved in a drawing competition they were very excited as they received drawing sheets, color pencils and crayons. It was a near dream for them. The drawing focused on domestic violence on women. The children drew their heart and the pictures stunned many on the creativity of these deprived children.

Seema Prakash

Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti

Khandwa (MP)