Volunteer abroad for street children in India
Volunteers here are welcome for a minimum of 4 weeks.
The growing number of children being born in underprivileged situations are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, illiteracy, abuse and neglect. As India struggles to provide for them, overpopulation is going to be one of the biggest challenges. In recent years, the literacy rate has increased significantly but still addressing educational standards, malnutrition and high mortality rates among children are key concerns for the authorities who are striving for the improvement in these areas. In Jaipur the overall literacy is 82.80%, but only 55.52% among girls.
The various projects supported by volunteers aim to create opportunities where children from the fringes of society can have equal opportunities as they grow up. Volunteers are needed due to an utter lack of resources and to eliminate the apathy that surrounds issues of the many voiceless children. Activities may include:
- Identifying non school going children and running a bridge course to prepare them for schooling.
- Day to day care of underprivileged children aged under 5 years old at special nursery schools (Balwadis) for the poor.
- Teaching English, computer and general arithmetic in the project areas.
- Making family visits to create awareness about the importance of education and the health hazards of rag picking and child labour.
- Organizing inspirational film shows and showing documentaries on various social issues related to children.
- Assisting in the beautification of Balwadis, schools and other social gathering places.
- Leading indoor and outdoor sports activities for children.
- Preparing paintings, posters, information charts and other materials that help in creative learning.
- Organizing painting, music and dance workshops, picnics, excursions, fairs, zoo visits for children.
|
|
Please note: Volunteers in India are not assigned to a specific project until they have arrived at the project site. There, they visit the various available placements, and make a more informed choice about their preferred placement.
This happens for a number of reasons. For example, some volunteers may be better able to help in a specific project due to previous experiences, and that becomes more clear in the field. Furthermore, there is an integrated development plan for the community, which means that a number of projects are active within a community at the same time, and we need to ensure availability of volunteers in as many projects as possible. If all the volunteers wish to work on a particular type of project, we would have too many people on one project and not enough on another.
This is why we also ask potential participants to indicate their top 3 choices when they apply. Specific daily tasks are listed on our website for each type of project. For each placement there are many specific projects - e.g. many schools, many orphanages, etc. - and volunteers are assigned according to the criteria listed above.
|
Pictures of projects in India
|
|
