Temporary Residential Care and Partial Support for Children at Risk
When there is no sort of support of parents/extended family for various reasons, a child is received into Navajeevan’s direct/residential care, at first on a temporary basis. Following the prescribed legal process, children are placed into family style group care homes, providing opportunities of education/skill training & emotional support, preparing child and family for a re-unification, or motivating child for family foster care, or adoption especially in the case of orphans.
“Partial Support” is then provided for these children placed back with families – with continued partial economic-technical-social-emotional-legal support of Navajeevan. This include partial financial help on one-to-one basis, plus counselling/emotional & school follow up; help to obtain basic documents and benefits under various Govt’s schemes as well as sponsorship. This continued contact with the children is essential to prevent them falling prey yet again to exploitation and abuse.
Navajeevan’s intervention on behalf of the street based children began in 1989 at the invitation of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) and UNICEF. Navajeevan has not failed in its mission – from 1993 to 31st March 2020, 50,992 children at risk were rescued and put on the path to independence and self-worth. Of these, Navajeevan home-integrated 32,210 children. Since the year 2000, Navajeevan has rescued a further 8,817 child labourers (5,439 Boys – 62% & 3,378 Girls – 38%).
A particular example of this temporary residential care is that specialising in de-addiction. There is an urgent need to work with the State Government, to help reduce and prevent substance and social media use disorders. Navajeevan established (with the help of BSNBB) the Vimukthi Orientation Camp to rescue street based children suffering from the substance use disorders. Navajeevan also organises training for its city counselling teams so they can better help the children suffering from these disorders, as well as to conduct prevention measures – covering a minimum of 100 local schools a year.
On the 6th of February 2021 Mrs. K. Dhamayanthi IAS, the State Government Principal Secretary, visited Navajeevan’s residential home called ‘Chiguru’ on the banks of the Krishna River and had an interactive session with children and team members of various projects including Child Safety Net (children parliament members, supportive adult volunteers, women and child welfare), together with evening tuition centre teachers), street presence team, school and college children, former street children who had benefited from the de-addiction camp at Vimukthi.
After the interaction, she expressed satisfaction and appreciation of Navajeevan’s work with various groups of children. She and others attending the session were moved by the sharing of experience of the boys who had benefitted in their lives from Vimukthi de-addiction camp.
Affirming great confidence in Navajeevan’s interventions, the Principal Secretary requested that the Navajeevan Team take a lead, with her Dept., in the prevention of substance use disorders among school and college and village children; also, to continue to provide support services to children and youth who fall victims to the disorder.
