Project Need Assessment
Today, a considerable amount of youth in our country fall victim of homelessness and stateless due to the baffling and knotty family situation which eventually impels the child to leave home. It is disgraceful to find that almost 20 million children in India have fell victims of social orphanage wherein the families have abandoned them and among which only 0.3% fall under real orphans. The young age from the child takes direct responsibility of their sustainability is heart wrenching.
Our government today at various levels, as well as civil society organizations has been working on various endangered kids and their developmental outcomes, they have been dynamic in their own ways but it has been rare for these entities to synergize concrete sustainable impacts. Most institutions or children’s home present in India today bid farewell to a child once he/she attains the age of 18 without gauging on the how the child would sustain itself with minimal or no educational standards or professional expertise. Hence for further initiative, project “Pankh” was introduced for the complete social, psychological, spiritual and economic development of these lost souls, and most importantly imbibing a sense of responsibility by creating a value system that would not only help them develop as responsible citizens but also as a righteous human being in the future.
It primarily focuses on mainstreaming the youths above 14 years of age staying in Child Care Institutions or belonging to poor and difficult family background, facing difficulties in choosing their career.
The project aims to provide counselling, mentoring, life skill building training and facilitating vocational training with job placement support to the youth from difficult or no family background.
FIVE Major Components
Project “Pankh” covers five major components based on which the youth mainstreaming activities are channelized.
(1) Counseling Support: This aims to focus on youths that are ready to come out of the institutions after the age of 18 years. Counseling is an initiative to support and understand their unique emotional and psychological needs and find ways to combat them catering to youths between 16 years to 24 years old.
(2) Mentoring Support: It aims to help and support those kids who’ve grown up under an institutional care with less or no individual attention or proper social life. It aims to guide and mentor each youth in the process of socializing and effective decision making. This inspiring initiative between the youth and the mentor would work together for mutual benefits catering to youths between 16 years to 24 years old.
(3) Life Skill Training Support: This would help youths under the institutional care who did not get proper support or training to enhance their life skills that are required in ones day to day life or professional behaviour. Hence life skill training is of the integral part of the holistic development of an individual. Here we cater to youths between 14 years to 18 years old.
(4) Vocational Training & Job Placement Assistance: It is to support the youths coming out of such institutions with vocational skills in their interest area and job at the end of the training; thereby mainstreaming them. It is carried out by linking the youths with various vocational training institutions and help them find a suitable livelihood. The training would only be provided after a thorough counseling to determine the core interest areas of every child catering to youths between 18 years to 24 years old.
(5) Follow-up Support: Lastly, the project shall not only aim to provide job placements to the trained youths, but also make sure the youth is being able to cope and adjust with the then present situations. The follow up support would continue till the individual is completely adept on his own.
How will the project help Youths?
“Pankh” aims to support and mainstream those youth who have come out of the institutional care and are set free to explore the free , unbound world. But, it also has a dream which is much beyond any material or monetary gain. It aims to create a value system among the endangered youths who haven’t had any social support, any family to fall back on, any friend who’d lend ear their problems, or any caregiver who’d say, “I care”. Hence “Pankh” seeks to create a set of good responsible citizens who would not only be able to help themselves but also act as a motivating factor to bring in a change and a positive attitude for those around him.
One of the major and foremost components of project “Pankh” is counseling, wherein professional guidance would be provided to the institutionalized youths to combat personal and psychological problems. This process would be a collaborative effort and mutual involvement between the youth and the counselor and identify various coping strategies that would further develop more coping methods of the institutionalized youths.
Most of the child care institutions do not provide sufficient scope for counseling to these institutionalized youths. Some of the major reasons being lack of manpower, lack of counseling skills and has also been observed that there is a lack of understanding about the needs of counseling in such institutions. Most of these institutions fail to understand that counseling might help combat stress, internal conflicts and help them take better decisions. So “Pankh” is seeking tohire professional child counselors and link them up in various child care institutions covered under to project to help them live life with a better approach and also aid them adjusting in the mainstream after the age of 18.
“Pankh” believes that lending an ear to one’s problem, thoughts, feeling would itself act as a solution to the problem. It is a proven fact that counseling improves ones decision making skills, help maintain self-esteem and confidence, and also make a person more optimistic towards life. It would not only help in resolving behaviors that are difficult, distressing and maladaptive but also develop ones choices in terms of career and individual self. Lastly, even though complications and problems are inevitable in human life but “Pankh” acknowledges the fact that great disasters also hurt less if we have someone to support and talk to us at times of darkness and difficulties. It firmly believes that seeking help through professional counselors, the youths would be able to combat better and align well with the mainstream society.