Symbiosis International University

Name : Lakshay Arora Subject : Service Learning Prn No. : 12021021058 Submitted to : Ms. Preeti Bhaskar

Love Care Foundation

Address : Chamber no.1, Nanda Tower opposite Pacific Mall, Kaushambi,

Ghaziabad. Pin Code: 201001 Contact number : 01166738361

Introduction

Love Care Foundation is a non-profit, non-government, voluntary organisation committed to improving quality of life of unprivileged children. The organisation provides direct and indirect care to more than 17000 children in India. The foundation team comprises of educated, experienced, self driven and committed professionals, motivated with a passion to make a lasting, positive impression on the lives of economically & socially challenged children of our society.

Its Vision
The Vision of Love Care Foundation is to create a happy, healthy and productive world for our children; free from hunger, poverty & social injustice.

Its Mission
Love Care Foundation works with a Mission to bring about a positive change in the lives of unprivileged children by - employing transparent, meaningful & productive initiatives aimed at - providing them access to quality education & healthcare, thereby contributing towards their better tomorrow.

Objectives

Love Care Foundation works with the objective of realizing holistic development of economically & socially challenged - children through deployment of meaningful development programmes designed to improve their quality of life. The various programmes & initiatives are aimed to provide the basic life necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, education, health, hygiene and nutrition. Besides being imparted with basic primary education, good moral values are inculcated and children are taught to live with dignity and self-respect. They are also sensitized about their individual civic rights and their responsibilities towards the society, so that tomorrow when they enter into adulthood, they do so with their best foot forward and resultantly turn out to be an inspiring epitome of success, happiness and self-reliance, worth emulating by one & all in their social order.

FocusAreas

Love Care Foundation focuses on 4 different sectors which are as follows:-

1. Education
Child Development Programme

Love Care Foundation has undertaken the task of working at the grass root level to help in areas of Child health, Child abuse, Child labour, and several other children issues like Shelter, Education, Health, Day Care Centers, Child Rehabilitation, Child Rights, and Street Children issues. A quarter of a million of Delhi's children, living in slums or on the streets, do not go to school. The Foundation is running special Love Care Schools in various slums around Delhi and the NCR region to provide value based quality oriented education to the children. The Balwadi Programme takes care of children in the Pre-school years through non-formal education projects which include early intervention programmes for children between 3 to 6 years; and also some non-formal classes for children between the ages of 6 to 14 years. The books and other creative material are provided to the children who are also taught various art and craft activities. The teachers are trained and committed to the cause of bringing a change in the lives of underprivileged children and youth. We also support functional literacy and education programmes for the youth and young adults along with Family Life Education classes to adolescent girls which increases one's awareness on a range of issues from healthcare to appropriate social behaviour to understanding one's rights. With the aid of illustrations, models and multimedia we teach them basics, personal hygiene and then greater topics like analytical skills, personality development etc. For an emerging and developing country like India, development of underprivileged children and youth holds the key to the progress of the nation itself.

Adult and Womens Literacy Programme

The Foundation is running some adult literacy classes in the evenings at various slums in and around Delhi. Various awareness programmes are held for the uneducated people like labourers, street vendors etc. addressing issues relating to healthcare, poverty, population control, unemployment or human rights and also local matters of immediate concern like safe drinking water, hygiene related issues and importance of cleanliness at home and in the surrounding areas. The Foundation undertakes several social service campaigns like Gender Discrimination, Legal Awareness and Property Rights, Political Awareness and Participation, Unemployment and Human Rights issues. Women are mentored on topics of Prostitution, Reproductive and health issues of women, Right to Good Health and Nutrition, Savings and Micro Credit, Violence against women, Women Empowerment, Women's education, Child Care, training and skill development to help them cope effectively in society.

2. Health MedicalCamps

Love Care Foundation very frequently and fervently conducts free, onsite medical camps for economically & socially challenged children. In these camps clinical services like BP (Blood Pressure), BMI (Body Mass Index), OPD consultation are provided to children absolutely free of cost and moreover the services are being provided in their residential establishments which generally happen to be slums and ghettos.

HealthAwarenessCamp

Prevention is better than cure and Forewarned is forearmed; nothing proves these two old time adages better than health sensitization of our tiny tots on ailments, diseases and health issues that tend to pose a grave hazard to their health & welfare. We call on authorities on different health issues and they enlighten the young ones via their interactive lectures and health talks. Kids are made aware on preventive aspects of malaria, dengue, food poisoning, water & air borne infections besides being made aware the advantages of sanitation & personal hygiene.

Anti SmokingCamps

The deleterious effects of smoking are known to the educated and literate. India has 12 % smokers of world, as per 2009 census every year 9 lac Indians die due to smoking , there is a law that bans smoking in public places & smoking is major cause of cancer, heart, lung diseases and is known to adversely affect every organ in the human body. The fact remains that every adult active chain smoker of today was a light adolescent, passive smoker at some point of time in the past. Generally most people take to smoking during their educative & formative years and children living in slums and on streets are known to pick up this bad habit earlier than their well-to-do peers ; hence it is only rational and natural to arrest this menace in its early stages only. With this perspective in mind, Love Care Foundation recurrently conducts anti-smoking campaigns in the garb of interactive talks, audio, video & pictorial presentation on smoking where the children are made aware of the detrimental and damaging effects of the decaying habit and encouraged to lead a healthy and vice free life.

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a condition which occurs when there is a deficiency of certain vital nutrients in a persons diet. Malnutrition refers to the situation where there is an unbalanced diet in which some nutrients are in excess, lacking or in wrong proportion. Simply put, we can categorize it to be under-nutrition and over-nutrition The deficiency fails to meet the demands of the body leading to effects on the growth, physical health, mood, behaviour and other functions of the body. Malnutrition affects all age groups but is more common in developing countries and among children, elderly and pregnant women. The World Bank estimates that India is ranked 2nd in the world of the number of children suffering from malnutrition. Despite Indias 50% increase in GDP since 1991, more than one third of the worlds malnourished children live in India. Among these, half of them under the age of 3 are underweight and a third of wealthiest children are over-nutrient. One of the major causes for malnutrition in India is gender inequality. Due to the low social status of Indian women, their diet often lacks in both quality and quantity. Women who suffer malnutrition are less likely to have healthy babies. In India, mothers generally lack proper knowledge in feeding children. Consequently, new born infants are unable to get adequate amount of nutrition from their mothers. Love Care Foundation has taken up this issue which is a concern at the national level. It is providing voluntary services in the field of prevention, awareness and treatment. They conduct regular health camps for screening children and women in the slums and provide them with necessary medicines. Proper guidance and advice is given to them about the right kind of nutrition they need for a healthy diet. Nutrient based supplements are distributed to the children in the slums. Malnutrition in children is not affected by food intake alone. It is also influenced by access to health services, quality of care for the child and pregnant mother as well as good hygiene practices.

3. Vocational Training

Love Care Foundation supports programmes that aim at imparting skills to the youth and young adults so that they can gain access to employment opportunities. Aim is to enable them to engage themselves in any occupation, profession or any other means of livelihood so as to improve their economic conditions. The Foundation provides vocational training to low-literate youth in the following areas: o o o o Basic Computer Training Beauty culture Sewing, cutting & tailoring Art and Craft

There are trained teachers who teach the necessary skills to the youth and young girls of the community The girls can become freelance beauticians or open an in-home tailoring service. Computer courses provide government-backed JSS certificates by which the young boys and girls have the flexibility to get jobs or set up their own business and so are able to earn a regular and decent livelihood. The important thing is that these courses equip boys and girls to earn twice as much as what their family would earn combined. Vocational Training is thus a powerful tool. By making the destitute financially independent, it breaks the cycle of poverty, breeds confidence, self-respect and turns marginalized youth into responsible citizens of society. Moreover, it is possibly the single most effective program for the upliftment of women, according them the ability to chart their own destinies.

4. Slum Development Projects

Face to Face Programme:The FACE TO FACE programme is an initiative

taken in most of the schools all over Delhi that sensitizes privileged children of the society and motivates them to contribute their individual support and care towards the cause of the less privileged helping them to join the main stream.It brings together children from both the backgrounds affluent and deprived, in an attempt to foster in the affluent children a sense of responsibility towards their less privileged counterparts, early on in life.

Self-Reliant Workshops:Workshops are conducted in the Slums and

Schools adopted by the Foundation in order to bring the children together and grow with the sense of responsibilities within them.Several activities are conducted under the guidance of seniors which help children to grow up learning new and creative modes to earn livelihood and to become self-reliant. They are taught to make Candles, lanterns, windmills, bead jewellery hand made paper products, toys, paintings and many more enjoyable activities through which they learn methods to enjoy sustainable life.

Food time... We believe in sharing:A specially prepared lunch is shared

by the group of slum children. All the children sit together and thank to God for the food they are about to eat and promise not to waste a crumb. This activity is aims at providing and awaking the children about the benefits of healthy and nutritious food. A relaxed environment is created which allow children to have healthy conversations with the other children of the same age group hence knowing each other better outside the boundaries and restrictions.

Budding Artists: A series of objects are made, which encourage the

children use their fingers deftly for creating various objects from paper, string and straws. There are limited resources that are readily available to children in communities for making objects of fun. Paper, string and straws could be more readily available than expensive toys. Using these materials, the trainers teach the children to make fun objects like YoYos and windmills. These exercises aimed at increasing concentration and also introduced geometry, patterns and origami. Making your own toys, naming them and having fun with what is available is the essence of the exercise.

Step by Step Methodology

Mr. Dadroo spent 6 inspiring years in the beginning of his career at SOS Childrens Villages of India in the late nineties. SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental, social development organisation that provides family-based care for children in India since 1964. It advocates the concerns, rights and needs of children. More than 6000 children and young people live in 33 SOS Children's Villages and 27 SOS Youth Facilities in the country. Mr. Dadroo worked under the dynamic leadership of Late Mr. J.N.Kaul (President) who greatly influenced his thought process at the time and subsequently led him to consider moving into the social sector and thus Love Care Foundation was formed. The Foundation is a non profit, non Government voluntary organization committed to improving quality of life of under privileged children. The various activities aims at providing basic life necessities of food, clothing, education, hygiene and nutrition to help in the holistic development of economically and socially challenged children. Mr. Dadroos objective has been to help these less fortunate children live a life of self respect and dignity through education and moral values inculcated to them. He has been actively involved in organizing health camps, educational fairs, organizing vocational training programmes and special classes in the backward and slum areas of Delhi NCR to help sensitize people about their individual civic rights and responsibilities towards society. He is a committed individual who believes that society can progress as a whole only when people from all strata of society can contribute to their development by working collectively.

Sources of Funds

Love Care Foundation raises funds to ensure that many services we provide throughout the country continue to be available. The main cause of your contribution will help many children to start the new future. Many children are sleeping on roads and need a protective, secure and caring environment to grow. These children are confident and full of hopes. Please donate to help them realise their dreams. The funds for Love Care Foundation are drawn from the friends and family of the founder members and other members working for the welfare in this organisation.

Some of its Supporters are:-

Problems Faced

1. Lack of Funds: Love Care Foundation lacks in certain aspects when it comes to generation of funds for the organisation. Due to negligible involvement of the government for the funds, this organisation has faced a lot of problems to function its working. 2. No government involvement: Mr. Sunjoo Dadroo said that Love Care Foundation has been established just 2 years ago and thus, according to a law, an NGO should be at least established 3 years before for the government to provide funds. 3. Lack of Volunteerism/Social work among Youth: The basic characteristic of NGO is volunteerism. In early days, youth are making their career in volunteerism but that enthusiasm seems to have faded these days. The extent of volunteerism is declining day by day and turning it into professionalization. Even the young graduates from social work are interested in making their career in professionalism. This leads to lack of efficient volunteers in NGOs. 4. Inadequate Trained Personnel: It is believed that the personnel working in NGOs may be of personnel working in such organizations is a sense of dedication and commitment and interest in the social services. NGOs earlier were assumed to be served by unpaid social workers imbued with the spirit of service and did not require any special education or training. But the present trend who are having professional education are not interested to work with NGOs. Their vision has been changed and they are interested to work in urban areas only. Therefore, it is very difficult to get trained persons who are either willing or trained to work in the rural society where most of NGOs work.

Aid / Help from Government

Mr. Sunjoo Dadroo said that Love Care Foundation has been established just 2 years ago and thus, according to a law, an NGO should be at least established 3 years before, for the government to provide funds. Thus, there has been no help/aid/assistance provided by the government to Love Care Foundation.