Swadhar

Supported by: Wipro Cares

About Swadhar

Swadhar envisions a society wherein women in distress and underprivileged children are empowered to uplift themselves and become responsible members of our society. Swadhar seeks to help and empower women in distress along with a focus on the holistic development of underprivileged children. We aim to improve the quality of life of individuals and families through education, guidance, training, and counseling.

Specific objectives

• To help, guide, and counsel women in physical and emotional distress or need. Providing them with legal, economic, medical, and emotional support. Also to provide the guidance and counseling that would help them become self-reliant.
• To create awareness among women about how family life and their relationships should be. Making them aware of their rights, concerning their rightful place in their own families and the society at large, and about the importance of creating an identity for themselves.
• To provide support to children who need care and protection, and thereby ensure their survival, well-being, and development.
• To provide support for the overall development of children with special support for the girl child. Extending the necessary financial assistance, counseling, and emotional support to make the same possible. Making provisions for training and vocational guidance, and creating awareness of their rights and responsibilities.
• To ensure equitable access to learning opportunities, improved learning outcomes, and skills for the holistic development of underprivileged children from early childhood until 18 years.

Locations of the project funded by Wipro

This includes two communities in the Pune Municipal Corporation, namely Sargam Chawl and Joshiwada; and three communities in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, namely Bijlinagar-1, Bijlinagar-2, and Morwadi.

Program updates

Our projects include:

• Family counseling center: This center attends to women and men in distress
• Phulora: This is a life skills education and vocational training for adolescent girls and young women
• Girls’ education support program: Under this program, we provide financial assistance to girl students in schools/vocational institutes/colleges.
• Mohor: It is like a crèche, day care center, and night shelter. It also includes a school for children of sex workers
• Rays of hope: This scheme is aimed at the rehabilitation of HIV/AIDS-affected and infected children
• Akshardeep: We offer a range of services under this project that includes education support classes, E-learning modules, early childhood development, and balwadi facilities. We also conduct a Right to Education (RTE) Act awareness program. We also conduct a resource center for nomadic communities.
• Aksharsparsh: This is a reading class program in government and private schools.
• Asha Community Center: This center formulates programs for community development.
• House of Smile: This is a program that offers guidance at the family level

Project highlights

Balwadi: This year the Project team reached out to 166 children from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas. A project-based method was used to teach children. In ‘Chala English aiku ya,’ or what translates as ‘let us hear some English,’ simple poems and rhymes, and basic instructions in English were shared with children. Teachers conducted Shanticha Path, an activity to help children learn how to concentrate and meditate. A one-day picnic was organized in a nearby garden for Balwadi children during this quarter.  The children played various games and enjoyed a lot.

Support class: The project team reached out to 333 children through Support classes. The 74^th Republic Day was celebrated across all centers with enthusiasm. The Indian national flag was unfurled at all the centers. The events included patriotic songs, folk dances, and speeches. Through these events, our children revisited the priceless contribution of great freedom fighters.

Science helps children explore the world around them, as well as observe and understand things. It opens up new and wonderful ways of thinking.  We try and promote learning through doing- science experiment activities regularly with children. On 28 February 2023, we celebrated National Science Day with great zeal and enthusiasm. More than 80 children demonstrated various science-related experiments and confidently explained their models. The efforts of the children were appreciated by all. Everyone congratulated them for putting in their best.

Parent meetings were organized at each center to explain the progress of children, upcoming events, and the support expected from parents. The importance of attending classes was underscored. A total of 100 parents attended such meetings.

Resource center: Activities were grounded by the resource center in outreach mode at all the locations. Children of various support groups and Balwadi benefitted from the same. Theme-based activities on various subjects were conducted. Storytelling through an audio-visual medium was undertaken. Material based on Rabindranath Tagore’s famous work Sahaj Path was also shared. In this quarter, we emphasized the importance of indoor and outdoor games. Importance was also given to child rights and child safety. Under an initiative named, ‘Let’s do something new’ we helped children create new interesting things out of waste material.

In the post-Covid period, we observed behavioral issues among children. So, we decided to add Jijivisha activities to the ones already being conducted by the resource center. Jijivisha fellowship enables socio-emotional learning (SEL). It also fosters skills in the form of collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and effective communication. It seeks to develop self-esteem and empathy by using art forms like poetry, storytelling, theatre, and visual arts. Jijivisha activities are organized every Friday with children from the support classes.

SOL activities were showcased in the month of March. All the artworks made by children were displayed in the class. Children performed drama and dance. They also recited poetry. During this showcase, we observed that children had become more confident and could share their thoughts and learning in front of others.

RTE awareness: Right to Education (RTE), awareness sessions were held with parents, and with their help we succeeded in admitting children to school. Palak mitra or ‘active parents’ helped to increase parents’ participation during Poster exhibitions, school visits, and home visits to track absentee children. They also followed up on problems relating to entitlements and transport facilities. The project team conducted sessions with parents on documents required for 25% reservation, the importance of preschool, and parents’ participation in child education.

The Palak Mitra group made an action plan to solve the problems mentioned by the parents in the parents’ meeting and worked on the action plan. They met principals and corporators in connection with the same. A total of 28 Palak mitras reached out to 152 parents through RTE sessions across PMCWe organized poster exhibitions in 2 communities in PMC, namely Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Shivrai Nagar. A total of 73 parents visited the exhibition. A total of 132 families were made aware of the RTE Act through home visits.