| RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMMES » Asha Niketan Home For Girls: ...... |
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| Sr. Jothi Chetty Secretary ADF Welcoming Mayor Ghaziabad
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The wretched condition of the desolate orphan girls and commitment of ADF towards the cause of the girl child in general could not but compel ADF to start a shelter home for the girls by the inspiration of Sr.Jothi Chetty on September 15, 1996. Since then, the shelter Home has today become more of a rescue home rescuing the girl child from various difficult circumstances. The programme for the orphan girl child has shifted to the present building, christened as Asha Niketan Home for the Girls, on March 26,1999. The Home is located in the D-81 campus of Asha Deep Foundation in Shahid Nagar in Uttar Pradesh and currently shelters 51 girl children.
The girls who are admitted into Asha Niketan Girls Home come from various backgrounds, most of which are high-risk zone-situation. Some of them who have come from broken homes have already faced enormous problem, they were subjected to cruelty and ill treatment the stepmothers or exposed to sexual harassment and abuse by the stepfathers. More often they are send out to work in other families as maidservants; whereto they were subjected to over work and sexual abuses. Asha Niketan Home is a place, which provides safety and security to these girls. Orphan girls from destitute families and children of AIDS patients have found this home a place of solace and comfort. Other girls who have come from various circumstances of risk of abuses and neglect are able to see a new life opened for them for better future. There are 51 girls in the homes, who are looked after by three wardens. Girls are also more fortunate to have at times foreign volunteers living with them and get help in their studied, besides receiving much love and care. Almost all of them have passed their examination last year and have been promoted to next class. Two girls of Ashaniketan Girls Home, Laxmi and Poonam have successfully completed their school final and joined the professional course on General Nursing in Bangalore. Another girl Manjinder has completed Diploma in Nursery Teacher’s training. Presently she is pursuing her B.A. from the Delhi University.
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| Children of the Girls Home |
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| Aim Of Home |
| The aim of the Asha Niketan Girls Home is to rescue the girl child from difficult circumstances and to provide shelter, love, care and education to the girl children who get lost in the streets of Delhi, are homeless, orphans, or are living under such conditions that amount to denigrate the life of the girl child. The Home ensures holistic development of the children making them self-reliant and responsible members of the society. |
| Objectives Of The Home: |
| The objectives of the home are to: |
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Provide secured shelter to the girls;
Reunite the children back to their homes whenever possible;
Provide a home like environment to the girls facilitating their holistic development;
Provide education to all the girls in the home;
Help develop skills through vocational training, workshops and seminars to make them self reliant ;
Help develop leadership qualities amongst the children;
Empower them by creating awareness on child rights and health awareness particularly related to adulthood, hygiene and AIDS;
Provide a platform to expose their talents through various cultural and extra-curricular activities;
Provide exposure to the children through trips and summer camps and
Provide regular medical check-up and counseling services to the children |
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| A Little More About The Girls Of The Home: |
As mentioned earlier, a total of 51 girls currently live in the Home. These girls come from various states like Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh. These girls are aged between 5 years to 18 years. Table 1 explains the age wise composition of the girls in the Home. |
| Table 1: Age wise distribution of the girls in the ADF’ Asha Niketan Girls Home as on March 2008. |
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| Srl. No. |
Age group |
No. of girls in the home |
| 1. |
5 years to 7 years |
1 |
| 2. |
8 years to 10 years |
2 |
| 3. |
11 years to 13 years |
6 |
| 4. |
14 years to 18 years |
42 |
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TOTAL |
51 |
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| The girls in the Home are all victims of social and family problems. The different categories of children as per the nature of the problems and their numbers have been tabulated in the table 2 below: |
| Table 2: Nature of problem of the girls which forced them to the Girls Home |
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| Srl. No. |
Nature of problem |
No. of girls in the home |
| 1. |
With parents |
4 |
| 2. |
Semi-orphan |
22 |
| 3. |
Orphan |
25 |
| 4. |
Run away |
00 |
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TOTAL |
51 |
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| Table 3: School going children of Asha Niketan Girls Home - As on March 2008 |
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| Formal Education System |
Non Formal Education System |
| SNo |
Class |
No of students |
SNo |
Class |
No of students |
1 |
Nursery |
0 |
1 |
1st
to
5th
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1 |
2 |
K.G |
0 |
3 |
1 st ( I ) |
1 |
4 |
2 nd ( ii ) |
2 |
5 |
3 rd (iii) |
4 |
6 |
4 th ( iv ) |
1 |
7 |
5 th ( v ) |
8 |
8 |
6 th( vi ) |
5 |
9 |
7 th (vii) |
2 |
10 |
8 th ( viii ) |
9 |
11 |
9 th (ix) |
4 |
12 |
10 th (x) |
3 |
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Total |
42
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Total |
1 |
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| Apart from 43 girls, One girl of home is in class XI and Two girls are in class XII. four of the girl is pursuing Class XII from National Open Schooling. One of the girl is pursuning her bachelors degree from Delhi University. Another two girls are pursuing GNM Nursing Course from Bangalore. Thus making a total of 51. |
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| Table 4: Attendance Statement of Asha Niketan Girls Home |
| 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2008 |
| SNo |
Particular |
Total No Of Girls |
| 1 |
No of Children in the beginning of the year (1 st April) |
59 |
| 2 |
New Admission during the year |
00 |
| 3 |
Re-Admission during the year |
00 |
| 4 |
Rehabilitation during the year |
00 |
| 5 |
Pursuing Nursing Course in Bangalore |
02 |
| 6 |
Gone to meet their Relatives during the year |
29 |
| 7 |
Came back to the Home after meeting with their relatives |
23 |
| 8 |
Present as on March 2008 |
51 |
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| THE HOME FACILITATING HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE GIRLS: |
| The basic principle of the Asha Niketan Homes is to facilitate holistic development of the children. Like in the Boys Home, all the children compulsorily go to the schools run by the Society itself. As per the rules of Ashaniketan Home While 45 girls study in the Formal school, 01 girl study in the Non-formal school. A total of 27 girls also undergo vocational training courses. The girls take up courses as per their liking; currently ten courses such as beauty culture, cutting & tailoring, Computer S/W & H/W, Textile Designing, Electronics, A.C. Refrigeration, English Speaking courses etc. are available from which the girls can choose ; efforts are on to entice the girls to undertake courses which have been hitherto classified as male specific courses. Table 5 below shows the details of the children of the Girls Home currently undergoing vocational training. |
| Table 5: Showing number of girls in AVTTI and the courses undertaken by them |
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Sl. No. |
Name of the course |
No. of girls |
1. |
Cutting & Tailoring |
2 |
2. |
Beauty culture |
3 |
3. |
Computer H/W & S/W |
8 |
4. |
Textile |
3 |
5. |
Electronic & A.C. |
11 |
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TOTAL |
27 |
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A lady warden who stays with the girls in the Home takes care of the children. Every care is taken to ensure that the children enjoy their basic childhood rights of which they have been deprived prior to their coming to the Home. The children stay in a homely environment that facilitates their overall growth and creativity in the midst of love and affection.
Precisely because of this, many girls have excelled in extracurricular activities like dancing, acting, painting, dialogue throwing etc. The talents of the girls can be witnessed during the weekly Sunday School programme wherein they display various plays, skits, dances, songs, etc. and also during various celebrations and functions organized from time to time.
The Home takes care of the medical needs of the children. To develop them physically, sports and games are given a special place in the daily schedule of the children in the home. Apart from regular training to develop skills in various vocational courses as mentioned earlier, programmes to generate and develop leadership qualities in the girls are conducted from time to time. Cultural programmes form an important item in the activities in the Home. The girls are trained in various cultural programmes as mentioned above. In fact, the home is a ready reservoir of cultural programmes, which the children come out with during any function of the Society or of the Asha Niketan Church or any festivals. To give a feeling of change and a way out from the normal daily life, the children are taken out for picnics and excursions from time to time.
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ADF Shapes Lives of Poonam & Laxmi |
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This is a very good example of self determination and utilisation of support to make your life meaningful. The story of Poonam and Laxmi is same. Both girls faced enormous problem in their childhood due to social problem in their family. their lives changed after they came in contact with ADF.
Poonam is 19 years old brilliant girl. Her father is a rickshaw puller near New Delhi Railway station. Her mother has divorced his father and left with her siblings because of his alcoholism. Poonam used to stay at the railway station with her father and go for rag picking along with other street children. As she was very much keen on education, she used to spend her earning in books and copies. A social worker of an organisation noticed her on the roadside and brought her to Ashaniketan Home for girls. Her admission was furnished in home on 15th January 1998. She was admitted in N.F.I at St. James Convent School. She cleared her Xth standard with 46% marks and XIIth standard with 50.6% marks from N.I.O.S. Apart from that she has done a diploma course in Application Programming, D.T.P., Typing and Stenography. ADF facilitated her to grow as any other girl of the civil society. The foundation availed her the opportunity such as outing, picnics, and educational tour to learn many extra curricular activities and enrich her knowledge about social and cultural activities of the society. Workshop and training provided by the ADF to shaped her personality. Presently she is sent to Bangalore by the foundation to pursue her 3-year GNM course in nursing from St. George collage of Nursing. Poonam is very good dancer and participate in many activities organized by the society. She is also a very good organizer and helps other children of home in study.
Laxmi is 19 years old orphan girl from Andhra Pradesh. Her parents were killed in a family feud and her uncle left her in a Delhi bound train to seize her property. She was noticed by a couple traveling in the same train and they brought her to their house at Seemapuri. They engaged her in the domestic work and did not give proper care. Laxmi was only 12 years old at that time. She used to cry in the house. A kind neighbor reported the matter to child line, a Help line Service for the children. The official of child line brought her to Asha Niketan Home for girls. She was admitted in the home in May 1999. Though she had studied till 5th standard in Telugu medium in Andhra Pradesh, she was admitted in N.F.I in Hindi Medium to cope with system of this region. Since she was very much interested in education she completed her Xth standard from UP Board and secured 50% marks. She also cleared XIIth standard from CBSE Board with 45% marks. She has also done the diploma course in cutting and tailoring, Office Management and computer software. The Ashaniketan Home gave her all the opportunities to grow through education, training and many activities such as educational excursion, picnic, cultural programme and sports. She is a good dancer and singer as well as good leader and use to take part in many activities organized by the society. Presently she is also pursuing her 3-year GNM course in nursing from St. George collage of Nursing in Bangalore. Since she is also a very good leader and helps other children of home in study and other related work.
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| Our Plans For The Girls In Future |
As noted in the table, 12 girls in the Home are in the age range 11-13 years; 37 girls are already 14 plus. With the passage of time, as the girls grow, more will come within the age range. It is essential that arrangements be made for the marriage of these growing girls. The Asha Niketan Home for the Girls will take the full responsibility of the marriage of those guardian-less girls. Marriage will be solemnised not before 21 years, as ADF earnestly believes that the girls should be fully self reliant before they tie their nuptial knots with suitable and responsible matches. Thus, unlike the Boys Home where the boys can stay in until the maximum age of 18 years, in the girls Home the girls can stay until they are married off. |
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