SOS Children’s Villages of India has a preventive intervention designed to protect children who are at the risk of being abandoned or losing parental care known as Family Strengthening Programme. Under this programme children belong to socio-economically vulnerable cross-section of society i.e. children of single women, widows and below poverty line families. The main aim of FSP is to uplift families out of the vicious cycle of poverty and help them reach self-reliance.
Located less than 100 km from New Delhi, Nuh remains Haryana’s only district to figure in the Niti Aayog’s list of the 111 most-backward districts of the country. Poor performance on health and nutrition front is one of the main reasons for the backwardness. Apart from this, family planning, child immunization, nutritional status of women and children, and maternal & child health have been cited as major challenges in the area.
In Nuh, SOS Children’s Villages of India is working in 3 villages with 231 families and more than 750 children. Due to lack of facilities, middle-schools are situated at a distance of 2 to 4 km away and children from class 6th onwards walk about 4 to 6 km daily (1-1.5 hours walk), resulting in reaching school late. Situation is even worse for girls in terms of safety as caregivers cannot afford sending them to school along with the bearing the cost of Auto’s and other means of transport.
Need of transportation especially for girls was addressed by our Family Strengthening Programme Anangpur team. Further, the need was discussed by the caregivers for support in availing cycles for school attending girls in the month of September 2019, as it was the major problem for girls. Also it was the subject of confidence and self-respect for the girls to have their own vehicle to reach school. After SOS India shared the support requirement with various stakeholders, Thomson India Press Limited came forward to support us in meeting the needs of these girls.
With the support of Thomson India Press Limited, SOS India succeeded in providing Bicycles (HERO Brand) to 130 school going girls from three Nuh FSP clusters. The cycle distribution ceremony was held at the campus of HGS School Village – Palla Nuh. The cycles were provided to girls jointly by Mr. Asfaq Akhtar (General Manager HR), Mr. Subhash Chandra (Senior Manager HR), Mr. Sumanta Kar (DND ICC) and Joseph Mathew (Zonal Coordinator FSP North) on 31st January 2020.
On this occasion, SOS India and Thomson India got the chance to understand the work and values system of each other’s organizations, also to seek possibilities for future engagements/associations. The discussions were very fruitful and positive along with establishing connection to work jointly for the children in areas of need in future.