Programme

Child Participation

The concept of children’s participation has evolved over the last decade but the perception has not been able to make a significant impression in the collective mindset of the social and political institutions and the individuals who comprise of them. Most initiatives and interventions have arguably been confined to children’s rights organizations and activists, and need to be appreciated and accepted by the mainstream society and the state in order to be scaled up. This is largely because of a lack of conceptual understanding and the appreciation of the value and practicability of children’s participation.

Schools currently face many challenges: reshaping the workforce, succession planning, personalization, standards, accountability and school improvement being just a few. Back up education support, can help school students effectively tackle these issues. It’s a well-known truth that girls are very much neglected in Indian society. Civilization is running towards development but there is no change in gender biased mentality. Many examples are there where girls are not properly treated by their families. Girls are not going to school, whereas their parents send their sons to school. Our constitution gives the same rights to every child, but on ground reality is different , Jabala is focussed on this issue and are working on empowerment of girls.

Jabala has 6 Child Protection Centres (CPCs) in different slums and red light areas of Kolkata. Child Resource Groups have been formed in every center to reach out to other children in distress, do case follow-ups in court and take part in different child rights campaign, counselors regularly counsel these children, have FGD (Focus Group Discussion) and one to one sessions with the children on the issues of abuse and HIV/AIDS. In the process of mainstreaming of the Child Resource Group various aspects of their protection and development are looked into. We indulge in various activities like work readiness training in which the acquire skills like catering management, selling skills etc, livelihood opportunities like poultry training etc have been explored also education, the integral part of any development has been looked into.

The philosophy of the organization rests on the premise that children should cherish every moment of their association with the activities of the centre. Since education has limited scope of being innovative the organization always filled the gap by inventing new methods that will help children learn better. The organization always tried to instill some values and confidence in the children, which they are not usually expected to have. Constant effort had been to understand the psychological bent of mind through use of colour, music and other finer activities. In the initial years the children were presented with plants and they were asked to personify the plants and interact with them, take care of them. This was done to inculcate the sense of belonging, which the children lacked.

The bonding between the family and the children by asking their mothers to aware of the activities the children were indulging in. Moreover attempts were made to develop a stronger bonding between the mother and child. The child was asked to take photographs of their mothers. The organization still believes in overall development of a child more so on the mental development so that a child behave normally and find love and happiness and feel life is worth living.

Programs are:

Non-formal education to children to prepare them for formal schools
Jabala works with the government to help these children get enrolled in schools.
Coaching support is provided to ensure that the children do not fall behind and eventually drop out.
The centre works on the model of a place where the student will come in the evening, and study for few hours.
When the children start nearing the age of 18, work readiness training is provided to them in addition to regular education. This help them sustain their livelihood by indulging in productive trades.
Cultural therapy like painting, singing, dance, games is conducted to enhance the confidence of children, and especially girl children.
Outings/picnics carried out for children.

Target Group:-

Students who belong to poorest of the poor family.
Children who do not get proper guidance from their parents/family.
Adolescents’ girls group who may be the victim of child marriage or domestic violence.
Dropout / irregular students.

Student Selection Procedure

The students are selected on the basis of

Family survey report conducted to identify the following target group.
Discussion with the parents to get consent to get their children enrolled in the Centre.
Discussion with the local counselor / Local Self governments.

Activities

Education

In Centres Jabala provide to the children back up educational support to improve their educational status and for drop out management. We also provide the education and dress materials to the children.

Jabala follows the coaching process comprises of three elements:

Planning- developing short and long term module to help the selected children participant achieve their goals
Conducting- delivery of special coaching.
Evaluating-evaluation of the programs, participant development and coaching. This element may result in adjustment of your their coaching.

The five coaching levels are followed

The facilitator is qualified to assist more qualified coaches, delivering aspects of coaching sessions, normally under direct supervision
The facilitator is qualified to prepare for, deliver and review coaching sessions
The facilitator is qualified to plan, implement, analyze and revise annual coaching programs
The facilitator is qualified to design, implement and evaluate the process and outcome of long term/specialist coaching programs
The facilitator is qualified to generate, direct and manage the implementation of cutting edge coaching solutions and programs

Cultural Therapy

Cultural therapy is an integral part of our support system. Through various cultural workshops attempts are made to nourish their creativity and give them the freedom to express their feelings. Children are given a platform to showcase their talent in the cultural programs organized by the centre throughout the year. The movements and expressions prove very fruitful as tools of self expression. Moreover the music soothes the listeners and dance is claimed to be an effective vent for inner frustrations and pain. The sessions also provide them with not only a learning of the arts imparted but also help them evolve as persons through interactions with the facilitators and also among themselves on a different line of thought.

Reputed group theatre actors Goutam Mridha and Bindia Ghosh regularly conduct drama workshops. The children make their own scripts and participate enthusiastically. The workshop is made interesting through various games and activities. Other than these cultural programs, regular dance, drama and drawing workshops are held in the centre. Drawing workshops are also held regularly where children are encouraged to express their feelings through colours.

“Learning how to draw” should be a discipline taught as early as possible as it teaches young children a fundamental life skill: how to ’see’ and from there think in a focused, simple and clear way . . . ideally beyond the surface of appearances.

The Importance of Drawing here is that the ability to ’see’ helps to ‘visualize’ and from there to find solutions to any question or task at hand, solving possible challenges in advance. This helps to develop a healthy, natural way of decision making and common sense within the young children and sooner or later a personal Style. Just as sketches capture ideas and are as such materialized moments and visions of the mind, these Drawings… that seem to have an unfinished touch and often – but not always – are the pre-stadium for some major Artwork…, do in fact contain the essence of what is to follow. All the students of Kalabagan Centre regularly participate in drawing classes and sketch the colour of joy.

Dance Class

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performancesetting. It can help effectively in trauma management. Trauma profoundly affects body and mind, yet most psychological approaches are verbal. Nonverbal approaches bring a symbolic working-through, resulting in changes in brain activity. This panel taught experiential approaches like imagery and movement, stress management and existential/integrative therapy in the context of military culture, and from a growth perspective.The Dance provides a framework to support them in recovering from a traumatic experience. It allows the body to soften and open releasing anything that they have not processed, anything that they have been holding on to. It is a very gentle process, and yet very deep and powerful.

Meditation

Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody that is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When children learn about themselves, watch themselves, watch the way they walk, how they eat, what they say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if they are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation. Meditation is generally an internally-invoked, personal practice, which an individual can do by themselves.

All the students practice meditation to increase calmness and physical relaxation, to improve psychological balance, to cope with illness, or to enhance overall health and well-being. The desired purpose of each meditation technique is to channel normal waking consciousness into a more positive direction by totally transforming one`s state of mind.

According to the participants, the simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation helps them to overcome their stress and find some inner peace and balance. Meditation can also help them to understand their own mind. They can learn how to transform our mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is the purpose of the transforming meditations. Various postures were taken up in meditation. Sitting, supine, and standing postures are used.Meditation also helps them to understand their own mind. They have learnt how to transform our mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is the purpose of the transforming meditations.

Exposure Visit

Jabala organises the Joyful Learning Tours so that children of Kalabagan centre can visit historical, educational or other places of interest to observe and learn from their activities. The main objective of this program was to enhance knowledge of the children through exposure visit. Besides that Jabala also organised a picnic to celebrate a joyful holiday. The said children also participated in various Cultural Program, Christmas Party, Art workshop for their better experience

Work Readiness Training

The work readiness training is meant to build the confidence and skills of adolescence / youth in order to define and work towards clear career goals. Jabala seeks to shift the mindset and behavior of youth from a mindset of “I can’t” to “I can” and give them the skills to be successful in their career planning and job hunting/creation efforts through the work readiness training program.