:: CREATIVE HANDICRAFTS ::

Community Development

Capacity \| Community \| Economic

Objectives
To organize communities in order to build themselves sustainable and self-reliant where they can live with dignity. To extend relief to the poor. To tackle social and environmental issues and to provide local services.
Programs
Sponsorship program for children Crèche for the children of the working women Balwadis/playschools Balvikas Kendra / Child Development Centre Saving and credit groups Adult education program Health awareness program
1. Sponsorship program for children
The biggest worry for most of the parents in the slum community is to get their children out of the spiral of poverty and social exclusion so characteristic of their lives. In particular, the parents feel that they have not had sufficient education and that education is the key to empowering their children. However, they do not possess the means to educate their children. Hence, we have this sponsorship program through which individuals can sponsor the education of a deprived child. Through the sponsorship program around 150 children manage their educational expenses. It is managed in collaboration with a Spanish NGO called “Tramundi”. The sponsorship program was the initiative of a Spanish volunteer, Ms. Natalia Campo, back in 1997 realizing that the best way to deal with the misery of the women in the slum was to help them educate their children. Contact for sponsorship: Those abroad could contact: raquel@tramundi.org
2. Crèche
Most of the women of Creative Handicrafts are mothers of very small children. They have been bringing their children along with them to the production centers. This had inversely affected the production of all the centers, as well as the health of the children. Hence, CH established a creche to take care of the children while their mothers are at work. The children are provided with nutritional assistance while they are at the crèche. The women have bigger school going children as well. They are given day care before and after their school hours and a teacher takes care of their tuition as well. All these facilities leave the mothers at peace while they are busy producing products for the fair trade shops all over the world.
3. Balwadis/ Play schools
Surveys conducted in June-September 1999 in the slums adjacent to the organisation and the tribal colonies not so far away from CH brought to the notice that a large number of children in the age group of 4 to 10 have not been going to school. The major problem wa the lack of interest among the parents to send their children to school. The immediate response of Creative Handicrafts has been to initiate play schools to create a habit of schooling among the children and an awareness of the necessity of schooling in the minds of the parents in these communities. The first step was to create this discomfort in the minds of the parents. As a result, play schools were begun in the slum communities and the tribal colonies and the teachers of these play schools make sure that the children are placed in local municipal schools after a year or two of their attendance at the play school. This also provides the organization an entry point into the new areas of slum communities to bring about the economic-socio-cultural change that the organization is striving to bring about. There are 10 such play schools run by Creative Handicrafts today which accommodates around 300 children
4. Balvikas Kendra / Child Development Centre
The centre has been catering to various needs of both school going and non-school going children from a particular slum community of beggars. The objective has been to help the children develop their overall personalities, as they do not have the opportunity and space to do this at home. They are assisted with food, educational expenses and medicine. All the children come to this center in the morning and they are given a breakfast at the center. Then the study of the children are taken care of by three teachers who are present at the center. The children then go to school in shifts and come back to the center for their lunch and study. They leave the center in the evening. The result of this venture of CH has been immense as the children have been performing consistently well. It is unimaginable for the parents of these children who are beggars to see their children graduate from schools with good grades. This has changed the mind set of the people of this community. There are today 100 children who are attending and 60% are girls.
5. Saving and Microcredit Groups Program
Saving has not been a natural habit for the people of the slum communities given the level of poverty. On the other hand, borrowing at exorbitant rate of interest is second nature to them. Many women of the slum communities have become a prey to the loan sharks. To counter this Creative Handicrafts have initiated the micro credit program for the women as a safe and secure way to invest in their futures.
6. Health Awareness
Health though said to be the wealth of the human persons it is the most neglected among the poor and the deprived. The State does not care about their health as the hospitals are built for the rich and the well rather than for the poor. The poor rather die of lack of health care. CH cannot build a health care system for the people of the slum communities that it is working for. However, CH makes an attempt to create the necessary awareness among the communities, especially women, with regard to the need to take care of the health. It concentrates its effort in organizing free health care camps, health check ups as a preventive measure.
7. Advocacy and Networking
It is impossible to bring a change in a country that is so vast unless networks are built and the fight for a just world is more and more coordinated. Hence, CH is part of several networks and lobbying organizations. It is part of the fair trade movement world wide and other networks like the world social forum, etc.