Re: Site Visit

At the outset let me state that this blogpost is done on the behest of Asha Berkeley for whom I did the site visit.  I have removed all the names to protect privacy.

Last Saturday (30th Jan 2020)  I visited Mera Sahara in NOIDA.  Ever since we have to mark our attendance I have stopped doing site visits during the weekday. to far flung places.  For example, to go to NOIDA itself takes about an hour or more depending upon the traffic.  As I would not be in the University the entire day, I would have to take casual leave, which are limited and  I want to save them for my visits to visit Chennai. I do long for the good old days when we worked without fear.
So when Asha Berkeley approached me for a site visit, I asked them whether it is open on Saturday!  It was and so it was on Saturday that I did the visit.

I have been visiting Mera Sahara on and off for many years now.   This was my first visit in two years. One of the points I was very glad about was that they had not changed the location of the school.  Generally, NGOs find it very difficult to rent space.  The owners keep increasing the rent by 15% every year and after a year or so it become unviable to rent that space or else the owner will ask them to vacate because they have a more lucrative offer.

So, Mera Sahara for some time now is located in a 3 floor house.  The biggest advantage of this house is that it is secured.  Once the children, the doors are locked.  No child can leave the premise without specific permission.  The rent of the house is Rs 35,000 per month.  The owner has been gracious enough not to raise the rent for the past couple of years.  Previously, all the classes along with computer center and the Sewing school was housed in this building.  I think last year (because when I visited in 2017 they had only one building) when the funding situation was good, they rented another place and moved the computer center as well as the sewing school to this place.  I can see the logic- space was not sufficient for all the activities- but they have have to now raise additional Rs 20,000 per month for this center.  This stretched the budget.

 

Regarding the Mera Sahara school- They have pre-primary A and B, a creche, and classes 1 to 5.  This runs in the morning.  In the afternoon, they have also have a tutorial center and an adult education center.  Abut 170-180 children (both shifts) attend Mera Sahara.  The uniforms are provided by a company.  The mid-day meal comes from Sai Mandir. The children are also provided with some nutrition when they come in the morning as very often most of the children do not have breakfast.  Also with economic downturn, many of the poor families are now doing with one meal a day.

 

There are seven teachers and the school follows the UP board curriculum with some additions.  For example, after the CAA, they have mandatory for the children to learn about the Constitution of India.  Children from class 3 onwards also learn computers.  For this, they walk across to the new center (it is about 5 minutes away) where they are taught computers. 

 

One of things they really lack is space/place for children to play sports.  They compensate for this by having many other activities like music, dance and arts & crafts.  One of their teacher is very good at these things and she does it with the children.

 

When I visited, the children were preparing for the final exams.  The teachers were finishing the course work or giving them tests.

 

In the evening, they Adult education classes as well as tutorials.  The tutorial classes are run for children who are going to school but need help with the course work.  Some of the morning children also come to the tutorial classes. 

 

As I said earlier, one of the main things about this building is the security as the doors are locked once the children enter the building.  Nithari, in the past, has seen many child trafficking cases but in the past few years the rate of incidents have come down.  Mera Sahara engages with the community at many different levels and they have been working on this area for a long time.  So now they are seeing success in terms of reduce rate of child trafficking incidents.  The organization also runs Health Camp, Dental camp and they also managed to do breast cancer screening.  For these events, they work with the doctors and hospitals so that it is free of cost.

 

The children do pay Rs 100 for Mera Sahara but very often they pay for one month and then for couple of months they do not pay as the parents do not have the money.  The computer center also offers computer classes for other people in the community.  Again a nominal fee is charged.

In addition, they have also added open school program.  They hold classes for children who are enrolled in the open school. However, the open school needs to be registered with NIOS.  They have done this but the registration as well as examination fee needs to be covered by Mera Sahara.

 

They have also started a center in Kausauni, Uttarakhand.  There are 40-50 children in this center.  They started at this at the request of a villager.  He came to Mera Sahara to provide with weaving looms and went back to Kausauni.  And decided to start a school like Mera Sahara there too.  So Padmini and Vimla visited that place and for the past two years a they have put a program together.  The classes are held in the verandah of villlager's house.  This is free of cost.  They have two teachers and a ayah.  They also need a headmistress for the center.   Right now, the teachers are not being paid or are being paid very nominal amount.

 

I feel Mera Sahara has expanded their activities a lot. The financial situation is in dire straits. They used to get funds from companies.  However, the government is encouraging the companies to form foundations.  So instead of giving to NGOs, the CSR program has been converted into foundations. This essentially implies that companies can no longer support NGOs.

Mera Sahara wants to focus on Kausauni lot more because the children come from remote villages.  They are Dalit children being bought up single mothers.  The father are either away earning livelihood in the cities or they are in army.  Many of the children have lost their fathers.

It needs to be see how they overcome this financial situation and how they expand their activities in Kausauni.