LittleBigHelp works to create better opportunities for vulnerable children and families in West Bengal, in the Northeastern part of India. We work to secure basic child rights, such as protection and education and we support marginalized women through skills development work.
The projects of LittleBigHelp can be divided into five overall projects: Boys’ Home’ & Girls’ Home, Community Centers, Skills Development Projects, Computer Training for Adolescent Youth and Centre for Special Education.
The generous support of One Life Foundation will go towards three of our Community Centres. The areas are located in Ghusuri, Gulermath og Sri Krishna Colony.
For the vast majority of street children and children in the slums in India, hard work, violence and abuse are part of everyday life. Many do not attend school, they are often considered to be a labour force, they cannot access medical help, and it is common to see children as young as 4 years old, walking around in the slum alone and unattended while their parents are out looking for work or are working for 10-14 hours a day. At this time, the children are at great risk of getting trafficked (60,000 + children disappear each year in India), malnutrition as they only get the food they find themselves (in India 44% of all children under the age of 5 are malnourished), accidents as many slum areas are often located along busy roads, and illness as they roam the dirty slum, which mainly consists of plastic and waste (more than 1 million children under the age of 5 die every year in India). Furthermore, there is often great gender inequality as girls are considered less important and many are married as children (in India 27% of all girls get married before they turn 18 years).
As all children have the right to a healthy and dignified life without poverty, the focus of this project is to address some of the underlying reasons for why children and their families live in the slums. Despite the fact that schooling in India is free and compulsory, many children never start school, and those that do, quickly drop out of the school system. Without support and boundaries from home, many of these children seek to the streets. The longer the children have been involved in street life and in some cases drug abuse, the harder it becomes to help them out of that environment. Our aim, therefore, is to focus on early interventions and work with the local community and vulnerable children and promote a development in the right direction. This prevents the children from ending up on the street or in a future life in poverty.
Lisbeth in India
The majority of the adults in the slum have no or only a few years of primary education. Many also have no ID or birth certificate, which prevents them from accessing their rights as free medical or public support. If you are illiterate due to the lack of education, and maybe even come from one of the lowest castes in India, it is incredibly difficult and takes a lot of courage to seek help in a hospital or register your child in a school. The fear of humiliation and the unknown public system is often an obstacle, and the families remain stuck in poverty. Therefore, this project’s focus on creating awareness and being the link to public institutions is an extremely important part of the work we do in the slums. Knowledge, encouragement and support from the project’s team members gives the slum residents the courage to change their habits and lifestyle.
With the approach "help to self-help" this project works to create sustainable solutions that help vulnerable children and families to create lasting changes in their lives, even after the project no longer will be present in the area every day.
The Community Centres are often located on the same premises or near other LittleBigHelp projects offering skills develop training for vulnerable women and men. In this way, they ensure a holistic approach that lifts the entire slum area, and thus there can be both parents who receive an education, while their children through a Community Centre start attending school. This means that the efforts are deeply rooted in the local area, and a big difference will therefore take place after LittleBigHelp has been present for a few years.
Activities held as part of the Community Centre project:
Offer school preparation courses, for periods of 6 - 12 months for children between the ages of 6 and 14, with a focus on developing a positive behavioral change through counselling and at the same time providing daily meals to the children
Support parents in the process of enrolling their children in local schools and continuing to offer professional and social support in the form of assistance with homework and fun activities for these children.
Play and exercise - In addition to teaching, the children at the centre are kept active through creative and fun activities, as well as exercise and meditation.
Facilitate health checks for the children in the centre as well as the residents of the slum and promote an understanding of health.
Offer professional counselling for children and adults who have experienced violence, trauma, and abuse.
Create good hygienic habits among the children and residents in the slum, i.e. washing of hands, bathing regularly and using clean water.
Outreach and community mobilization - The LittleBigHelp outreach team is in the slums daily to raise awareness on rights, entitlements, health, and children's rights (including schooling and protection).
Networking with schools, health departments, municipalities and local public institutions to ensure access to residents' fundamental rights.
Ensure active involvement of club members and youth to replicate the positive changes at community level and take the leading roles as change agents.