It has been great this week to have my Mum with me. She arrived in Mumbai on Sunday and yesterday was her first experience of life in the slums. It is always great to start the day visiting the Vision Rescue street kids in Mahim as they are such a friendly bunch. I played some football with the older boys whilst the younger children were having an English reading lesson on the bus. Manoj is now teaching all the English and he is doing a fab job considering the only training he has is with Vision Rescue. We also have Neethi back on the bus project full time and she is so enthusiastic and keen to learn. After an exhausting football session the kids they had their food and the bus then moved onto Bandra. I am a bit concerned over the hygiene levels of the kids at Mahim as many of them do not appeared to be washing. We will discuss this a one of the staff meetings and see if more can be done to promote this. At Bandra, I had the opportunity to introduce my mum to Salman, the boy in the wheelchair, and the little boy with Cerebral Palsy. I think she found this slum emotionally moving. It does almost have you in tears when you start to see the true reality of how these people and children are living. It was great to hear that the hospital has agreed to look at the two boys and decide what help and rehabilitation they can offer. I will keep you posted about this!
The under 5s have now been taken off the bus and are taught on carpets outside. They have simple drawing, painting, modelling and play activities that help them with their fine motor skills. It is so interesting to see the sheer lack of imagination and basic skills they have. Many of the children do not no what to do with a crayon and a piece of paper. They will sit there and just look at the paper. Once you interact with them they begin to pick up on what they need to do and they start to draw. As Salman can not get on the bus he joins this group and you can see his arm and leg movements starting to improve just by simple involvement in play activities. I am convinced that here will walk again after treatment from the hospital. It will be great to see if it happens. At the second Bandra stop we quickly learnt that the police had visited some of the slum houses and started to demolish them. Most of the slum housing is illegal and they always risk the police coming and sending them packing. Monday was one of those days. Of course if you pay the police then they might just be persuaded to let you stay. I decided to spend some time with Jaywanth at this location. He has the role of Community Coordinator which means he goes around talking to the people in the slums, finding out specific problem they may have and finding children who are not going to school. He was talking to one family who have a son who used to go to school but has stopped because he was always getting into trouble. The parents want to send him off to a boarding school but the boy does not want to go. The father was also saying that e is struggling to find work and so money is very tight. They have had to rent out their small slum house so they can buy food. This means the family now have no home and live outside on the ground. There is the possibility of Vision Rescue helping the father get onto a driving course which will allow him to start earning some money. Hopefully the family will then be able to get back in their house or into a better place. After establishing that the boy wants to be a doctor, we persuaded him to come on the bus and I sat with him and helped with his English. He seemed happy with this! The attitude of these people is often the hardest thing to change!
Wadola was the last stop where again Manoj was teaching English. The children here are brighter than some of the others so they are really starting to pick up the phonics and are able to read and write English words. It is so encouraging to see!
I will try and keep you updated on the hospital situation and we have arranged a new location for the Mahim boys to play football and get some coaching to help move their football on.
The under 5s have now been taken off the bus and are taught on carpets outside. They have simple drawing, painting, modelling and play activities that help them with their fine motor skills. It is so interesting to see the sheer lack of imagination and basic skills they have. Many of the children do not no what to do with a crayon and a piece of paper. They will sit there and just look at the paper. Once you interact with them they begin to pick up on what they need to do and they start to draw. As Salman can not get on the bus he joins this group and you can see his arm and leg movements starting to improve just by simple involvement in play activities. I am convinced that here will walk again after treatment from the hospital. It will be great to see if it happens. At the second Bandra stop we quickly learnt that the police had visited some of the slum houses and started to demolish them. Most of the slum housing is illegal and they always risk the police coming and sending them packing. Monday was one of those days. Of course if you pay the police then they might just be persuaded to let you stay. I decided to spend some time with Jaywanth at this location. He has the role of Community Coordinator which means he goes around talking to the people in the slums, finding out specific problem they may have and finding children who are not going to school. He was talking to one family who have a son who used to go to school but has stopped because he was always getting into trouble. The parents want to send him off to a boarding school but the boy does not want to go. The father was also saying that e is struggling to find work and so money is very tight. They have had to rent out their small slum house so they can buy food. This means the family now have no home and live outside on the ground. There is the possibility of Vision Rescue helping the father get onto a driving course which will allow him to start earning some money. Hopefully the family will then be able to get back in their house or into a better place. After establishing that the boy wants to be a doctor, we persuaded him to come on the bus and I sat with him and helped with his English. He seemed happy with this! The attitude of these people is often the hardest thing to change!
Wadola was the last stop where again Manoj was teaching English. The children here are brighter than some of the others so they are really starting to pick up the phonics and are able to read and write English words. It is so encouraging to see!
I will try and keep you updated on the hospital situation and we have arranged a new location for the Mahim boys to play football and get some coaching to help move their football on.
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