ANNUAL REPORT - 2010
CHANGE FOUNDATION

A year more goes by from our lives! Looking back, we at the Foundation is happy to note that we could facilitate some young people reeling under deprivations and vulnerabilities to bring a positive change in their lives. Thanks to the generosity of heart of our friends at Posielek Foundation & the Parish Community, especially children of parish Menschwerdung Christi with parish priest Thaddaeus Posielek– Nuremberg, Germany, the life is no more the same for these girls and boys as they are brightened with a new hope. You gave them courage to dream! Thanks a lot! We also take this opportunity to thank our local benefactors, officials, the project team, our Trustees (Fr. Thomas Koshy, Mrs. B. Cheryl and Mrs. P. Shalini), and above all, the members of the Apple Society, our Legal Holder, who continue to support with their expertise and resources the Foundation’s undertakings for children and youth under difficult situations.    

During the months of April (third week) to June 2nd week, half day (7.30 am to 12.30 pm) summer bridge course for the children had been organized - provided breakfast, lunch, toilet articles and recreation facilities for the children. 43 children below 14 years attend the classes daily. Moreover, children are daily gathered, provided breakfast and ensured their attendance at the local school. After the school hours, they are provided with supplementary nutrition, recreation facilities and helped in their lessons.

The tuition centre is also pivotal point for discussing the issues of the Yanadi colony that affect the life of children; to teach them personal hygiene. In fact, thourgh children, the parents too are taught to some extent to keep their surroundings neat and tidy.

Regular Health check Up & Recreation Facilities at Yanadi Colony Tuition Centre
 

First meeting of the Youth Group at Yanadi colony - empowering children and youth to demand their rights. The objective is to organize children and youth and provide them with information and skills on various rights and entitlements due for them from the government and thereby enable them to demand and access these facilities.

Yanadi Colony children attend Children Mela organized by Forum for Child Rights, Vijayawada. The children are also taken out often to short picnics. These events help them to mingle with other children and get exposure to outside world.

During the year, the training in Tailoring was no more organized at Yanadi colony. However the women who completed the training work in a group - continuing to take order and stitch underskirts for sarees and earn money for their livelihood, using the sewing machines at the training centre.

Career Guidance workshops organized for students who passed Xth class helped them a lot to choose the best possible option while pursuing higher education. Attendance to these workshops is made a must to obtain Education Scholarship from the Foundation.

During the year 2010, 25 students (19 girls and 6 boys) were given education scholarship directly from the Foundation to pursue higher education – to attend Intermediate, Degree, Nursing, Engineering, Medical Lab Technology courses, etc.

Interview with the Applicants for the Education Scholarship

During the reporting year, Mother Theresa Women Society & Pragathi Women Society - consist mostly of the mothers of the Students who received Education Scholarship and facilitated by the Project Team, distributed loans altogether to 60 families of students to met their Education needs and Medical Emergencies. While the Mother Theresa Women Society supported 41 families with an amount of Rs.126,560/-, the Pragathi Women Society, following the former, supported 19 families in its first year of existence with an amount of Rs.66,000/-. The funds for these Women Societies are coming from the contributions that the families make as part of building a mutual support system.

Distribution of Loans by Women Societies on 15-06-10

On February 14th 2010, the computer centre was shifted to new location (Ambedkarnagar – Patamata, Vijayawada). It was in line with our strategy to be ‘mobile’ – sifting the skill straining to wherever most needed. During the year, altogether 52 (40 girls and 12 boys) got admitted in 3 batches. The centre is running in the local community hall provided by the Panchayath.
19 college students completed DCA while continuing their education & 14 completed training Desk Top Publishing (DTP). Out of these 33 trainees who completed the training, 19 (57%) have been placed in jobs, fetching Rs.2000/- 4000/- per month and the remaining 14 are continuing their higher education and the computer training they completed is an added value and widen their future carer options.
19 are presently attending the 3rd Batch – getting trained in Tally Accounting Software, which assures sure and gainful job placement.

Distribution of Certificates to the First Batch of Computer Trainees of 2010 on 17-05-10 at Computer Centre, Ambedkarnagar, Patamata, in the presence of Community Elders and Panahayth Ward Members.

Ambedkarnagar at Patamata, Vijayawada where the present computer centre is located

The project team facilitates Yanadi colony families to apply for white ration cards – which enable them to get free medical services under ‘Aarogyasree’ health scheme from the government and many other benefits under various schemes.

In March 2010, Child Rights Activists came together and formed Child Rights Monitoring Cell (CRMC) to monitor various atrocities committed against children, especially from the marginalized families – especially the sexual abuse and other atrocities committed against girl children. The sad fact is that the authorities who are supposed to protect and investigate the case are not doing their duties, and we have to go in to pressurize them to book the case against the perpetrators / accused who are many a time politically and economically very powerful.

On behalf of Change Foundation, Mr. Nagaraj, our coordinator is a member of Child Rights Monitoring Cell (CRMC). CRMC took initiative with other organizations to pressurize police to investigate the infant missing case from the hospital, arrest the culprits and restore the child back to the poor parents. (In the photo clip above, behind Mr. Nagaraj, stands Mr. Francis with blue T Shirt, whom we supported for MSW. He is a senior team member of Child Rights Advocacy Foundation. In the photo clip bottom, the CRMC team fact finds a case of a child sexual abuse visiting the concerned official and the family members of the child victim.)