Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader once said "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
“If we nurture the dreams of children, the world will be blessed. If we destroy them, the world is doomed!” ― Wess Stafford
Children's Home is established or maintained, in every district or group of districts, by the State Government, either by itself, or through a voluntary or non-governmental organization, and is registered as such for the placement of children in need of care and protection for their care, treatment, education, training, development and rehabilitation.
The children’s home provides care, protection, and education to the destitute children mostly referred by the Child Welfare Committees (CWC). "Child Welfare Committee" is the sole authority to deal with matters concerning children in need of care and protection.
Street children, Orphaned, abandoned and destitute Children, Working children
Abused children, Children who are victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking, Children engaging in substance abuse, Children in conflict and disaster situations, Children in families ‘at-risk’, Differently-abled children, Mentally ill children, HIV / AIDS-affected / infected children, Juveniles in conflict with the law.
Mrinaljyoti Rehabilitation centre is one among those organizations that has tremendous contributions to provide care and protection to children in need. The organization at present is imparting hostel facilities to a majority of Children with Disabilities under CWC. To be precise there are 7 girls and 22 boys in the Children Home. The State Child Protection Society (SCPS), Assam has been positively extending it financial support to run the children home.
The Regional Action on Inclusive Education (RAISE) Northeast, for providing holistic support to children with special needs is a project initiated to complement the programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) on inclusive education to improve the quality of education for children with disabilities in government and government-supported schools in selected districts of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.
The project is supported by three international agencies — Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM), Light for the World and Liliane Fonds who have a strong presence in the north east and had conducted a situational analysis on the status of inclusive education and the capacity of organization supported by them in the five states.
Mrinaljyoti is a partner organization in the Regional Action for Inclusive Education-North East (RAISE-NE) the project along with 15 NGOs and 3 INGOs and is working to promote inclusive educational environment in SSA schools. The project is in its fourth and penultimate year. Under the project Mrinaljyoti has been working with 5 SSA partner schools viz. Kachari Pathar ME School, Madhya Zaloni LP School, Pragjyotishpur LP School, Naharkatia Town LP School, and Nabajyoti Adarsha School. Through this project Mrinaljyoti is developing itself and growing a resourceful centre.
UTTRAN (Disha Project) is an early intervention and school readiness scheme for children in the age group of 0-10 years with the four disabilities covered under the National Trust Act that aims at providing training (specifically school readiness) and counselling to both children and parents.
The Disha scheme aims at setting up Disha Centres for early intervention for Person with Disability (PwD) in 0-10 years of age covered under the National Trust Act, through therapies, trainings and providing support to family members. The Scheme is available in the entire country except Jammu and Kashmir.
Disha at Mrinaljyoti until now has mainstreamed 13 Children with Disabilities.
There is provision of a Special Educator or Early Intervention Therapist, Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist and Counsellor for PwD along with Caregiver and Ayas in the centre. Availability of a Physical trainer and speech therapist in this centre is also easily accessible.
Other provisions of infrastructure facilities like Medical/ Assessment room (with therapeutical aides and appliances) a personal computer, one activity room and one recreation room of reasonable size along with transport facilities for PwDs are available at hand.
Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is a community development strategy that aims at enhancing the lives of persons with disabilities (PWDs) within their community. Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) was initiated by WHO in an effort to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities and their families; meet their basic needs; and ensure their inclusion and participation. CBR is now a multi-sectoral approach working to improve the equalization of opportunities and social inclusion of people with disabilities while combating the perpetual cycle of poverty and disability. CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of people with disabilities, their families and communities, and relevant government and non-government health, education, vocational, social and other services (WHO).
The project CBR of Mrinaljyoti is supported by the Caritas Indi- CBRF, Bangalore, C.B.R. Forum, Bangalore, Bethany Society, Shillong and others N.G.Os working with person with different abilities.
The Project was launched on 1st April 2019. It is being implemented in 22 villages under Tengakhat Block to empower persons with Disabilities in five CBR matrix viz. health, education, social, livelihood and empowerment. The number of beneficiaries under the project is 222 (by 31st March 2020).
Parijat is a unit of the vocational section called Pushpdalum. Project PARIJAT is a venture under the flagship of Oil India Limited, Dulaiajn. The project was inaugurated by Mr. Pranjit Deka, RCE, OIL, Duliajan on 30.11, 2019. There are five children with disabilities working in this unit.The project Parijat makes baby protection kits for the newborns of 0-3 months. The items made are wrapper, jhabla, napkins, cap, mittens and booties. These items are a part of a gift box which is purchased by Oil India Limited to gift it to the newborns in Oil hospital.
Thus Sakshyam the CSR section of Oil, is providing full support to handhold Parijat to fulfill its main purpose to work with children with disabilities to be more confident and productive towards the society. Parijat is slowly thinking of being independent by commercializing its products. With everybody's blessings, we hope to see a brighter future.
