The National Association for the Blind (NAB) asked Youthreach for a counsellor to help children resolve day-to-day problems. Neha Malik, a psychologist with Manas, started volunteering with NAB once a week. Seeing how well it was working out, Youthreach requested Neha to visit Navjyoti who were also in need of a counsellor. Neha agreed and counselled children and women for a couple of months. Thereafter, she started counselling the children of another organisation called Karm Marg.

Alumni students of Deepalaya seeking jobs, needed career counselling on how to apply for jobs. Dr Raja Shastri, director, CRM of Amity University agreed to do a session with the children. 26 alumni were part of this workshop in February 2005. The workshop covered topics such as writing and interview skills and how to select a career. Dr Shastri designed a psychometric test as per the need of the participants. The students found the session very useful.

English Training at Mobile Crèches (2001)

Mobile Crèches (MC) needed inputs in spoken and written English. In 2001, Pincha Singh, a Montessori trained teacher first conducted a pilot study and then drafted a curriculum that provided MC teachers a guideline, which would enable them to introduce English at the primary school level. She visited all the centers and subsequently conducted 4 workshops for the staff. She has been monitoring the progress of each centre, constantly advising and helping them over the past 5 years. Pincha is now a volunteer coordinator for Mobile Creches and orients all Youthreach volunteers who want to volunteer with MC.

Health Camps (2005)

Dr. Shroff ’s Charity Eye hospital, Daryaganj conducted an eye camp for children of Salaam Baalak Trust in January 2005 at Kishalya Centre, NDMC Park. A team of 3 doctors visited and a total of 181 children were screened. Of these, 161 children had normal vision and 20 needed medical intervention. While SBT made all the logistical arrangements the hospital has committed to provide any treatment; glasses or surgery completely free of cost. Doctors have requested the organisation to send the children to their hospital for further evaluation. They were very happy with the arrangements and Mr. Dasgupta from Dr. Shroff ’s Charity Hospital says he is very keen to “work out an intervention programme for all the children on the streets in SBT’s area of operation”.

Panchshilla Ladies Welfare Association provides free medical services to the disadvantaged. Some of the members of the Association are doctors themselves. Medicines are given free or at a very nominal cost. They also conduct free lab tests. Youthreach introduced National Association for the Blind (India) to the Association and since then NAB (I) sends their girls for check ups to them. The Association was very helpful when one of the girls needed an immediate check up for high fever. The doctors provided the best of care. One of the beneficiaries said, “We have availed their facilities a number of times. They have treated us with due consideration”.

Theatre Workshop (2004)

Radhika and Feizal Alkazi with some friends conducted a theatre workshop for 15 students of National Association for the Blind (India). It was conducted with the objective of providing a platform for the participants to express their emotions and frustrations. It was also aimed at developing leadership qualities and comradeship. Small skits based on the above themes were developed and enacted. Based on their learning’s from these workshops, the girls gave a performance at Dili Haat in January 2005. The topic of this performance was ‘the problems and harassment faced by visually impaired people and how they deal with this’, for example, the harassment at market places, on the roads, by rickshaw pullers and problems faced by a visually impaired student studying in a school for sighted people. The students from NAB were very excited and confident about giving this performance.

Soccer Programme (2003-2005)

Youthreach started a soccer programme in association with India Youth Soccer Association, and AIS (as a sponsor) with 60 children in 2003. In 2005, 180 children played soccer twice a week and on Sundays at Vasant Valley School. The objective behind this programme was to provide, training and coaching to children who earlier did not have a chance to participate in a sport. 4 organisations participated in the league, Karm Marg, Salaam Baalak Trust, VIDYA and Deepalaya from November 2004 to May 2005. Each child was given a soccer kit and football boots. Most children had never played football before and kicked a ball for the first time in the pre season coaching in November. It has been an amazing experience for all the children to learn this game professionally. Already one of the boys is being trained to become a soccer coach.

Art & Craft Workshop (2004)

Seema Kaul conducted a workshop on art and craft for the teachers of Vidya & Child. In October 2004, a total of 9 teachers participated in the workshop and they learnt to make different things like ‘snow man’ ‘bandhanwar’ and puppets. The medium of instruction was Hindi. The teachers enjoyed attending the workshop and were very appreciative of the resource person, as one of them said, “She was very patient and explained things nicely”. Seema was quite satisfied with the way the workshop was conducted and she lauded the enthusiasm of the teachers.