Who We Are
In Jaipur alone there are about 50 thousand children on the streets. Studies and observations about street & slum children in several cities including Jaipur in India highlight the magnitude of this problem.They are mainly in the formative group of 6 to 15 years and most of them are illiterates and school dropouts.
Society for health, Education and Vocational Training for Slum,Street,and Poor Orphan Children (SHRESTHA) was established under Rajasthan Society Registration Act.1958 with the overall aim and objectives of helping and supporting children especially Slum, runaway, orphans and street children in Jaipur.
SHRESTHA is successfully implementing its various activities and programs through which children are being provided with and supported for fulfilling their Educational, Socio-Psychological Counseling, STIs, HIV/AIDS Counseling, Skill Building, Vocational Training, Rehabilitation and Referral requirements.
We work with children and their families living in an established slum
area on the outskirts of Jaipur, in the desert state of Rajasthan.In this slum area, the families are from different states, including
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They live in houses made with
mud or in less substantial tent-style homes. Families tend to be fairly
large, with typically five or six children, so there’ll be an average of
about eight people in each household, sharing one single room.
People in the slum area do not have a fixed job. Instead, they’ll do
garbage collection, shoe polishing, begging and lots of similar work to
try to generate an income. They generally do not earn enough money to
fulfil their daily needs. Often, parents are not able to provide food
and clothing for their children or even medicine when children fall ill.
The children want to go to school and
study like ‘normal’ kids, but their parents don’t earn enough to send
them to a good school. These children have lots of talent and are eager
to learn but their family situation means they’ve often no choice but to
work along with their parents.
Breaking the cycle
Shrestha works to
break the cycle of poverty that diminishes these children’s life
chances. Without a good education, their economic prospects will be as
limited as those of their parents, sentencing them and their future
children to a similar life of hardship.
SHRESTHA is getting support
and motivation from various concerning government departments and other
agencies Our project aims at identifying underprivileged children
especially from slum areas, streets & orphans and then providing
them with formal as well as informal education, Health & Hygiene
education, Vocational training & working for their Personality
development so as to create opportunity for these children to develop
themselves as responsible citizens of the country & further helping
them to live into main stream society.
SHRESTHA is dedicated to helping impoverished children lead healthy, fulfilling lives and reach their full potential into adulthood – and you can help.
5
