Current Events

Community Life Centre (CLC), Shantinagar has been functioning with diverse activities for women children and adolescents as the part of HCLF supported earning with dignity program implemented by National Institute of Women Child & Youth Development. Among other participants of the CLC activities, the role played by children are really remarkable. The CLC is a platform for young minds to explore new and innovate according to their choices and preferences. There are many example for citing how the slow learners in schools have overcome their difficulty, the way they adopted to demonstrate their extracurricular activities like sports, performing arts and hobbies by effective using the CLC platform.

The exposure tour to Raman science center, the paper craft making program for stress relief and learning through fun like activities were well served to bridge the void created due to loss of school days during pandemic period. Activities carried out in the CLC have their specific designs to identify the hidden abilities of children living in slums and nurture them to support their physical and cognitive developments.

When our country is celebrating Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav with various programs, the children of Santinagar CLC is also have their preparedness by organizing an event that upholds the importance of Khadi titled as Khadi Pride. The event will host a number of activities for children like quiz, grooming. The participants will be felicitated in the event and Khadi India certificate will also be distributed among them. Designer, trainer and entrepreneur Mrs. Dikshit who is working for the promotion of Khadi is associated with CLC as a resource person in the preparation process with the participant children and HCLF project team of NIWCYD.

National Institute of Women Child & Youth Development is implementing “WASH initiatives” as one of the focussed intervention under the program with the support of HCL foundation in slum areas of Nagpur. Under WASH initiatives, the activities are awareness on health & sanitation, construction of household toilets, waste management and effectively converting bio – degradable solid waste into manure or soil nutrients. The targeted beneficiaries are women having homogenous social and economic background. Creating awareness on the important of personal hygiene was one of the focus of this program. Bringing small changes in our routine activity will have unexpected positive impacts in the health of individual and family. This time, in the community life centre (CLC) of Shanti Nagar, Mrs. Jayashree Bharadwaj from Indian Institute of Youth Welfare as the resource person had demonstrated simple activities through puppetry for bringing “Behaviour changes in community”. When we talk about changing the behaviour, people refrain to take action because, the behaviour is something like a result of a long time mental process that happens through the impact of various internal and external factors. Sudden change in behaviour of a person or a section of community is not going to happening overnight because prejudices and stigma attached to certain things are embedded in their minds. Community level sensitisation programmes and the medium we adopt in such programme have equal importance. As social beings, it is not uncommon in human life that we often fail to prioritise certain things in our life, when it becomes a routine, chances are there to have its impacts in our physical and psychological wellbeing. The importance of behaviour change is once again emphasised here.

In many rural areas, when the concept of household toilet was introduced decades ago, the people were little bit refrain to accept it because by introducing household toilet, we were trying to bring changes in their behaviour. Later when they realised about the positive aspects of using household toilet and its long term benefits on health and human dignity, they accepted the concept and came forward to sensitise their fellow citizens on it.

The session itself is a different experience for the women because of the medium selected by the facilitator to sensitise the participants in an interesting one. It was more interactive and almost all the participant had shared their personal experience in life by bringing small changes and its larger impacts on their personal life and community.

*Reopening* of vegetable and fruits weekly market promoted by NIWCYD joint collaboration with Nagpur Central Jail Government of Maharashtra. The weekly market was inaugurated by Deputy Inspector General Nagpur Division Ms. Swati Sathe on 25 April 2022

Youth who took training under the *HCLF* supported project *Earning with Dignity* Agriculture Trade and members of various Women Self Help Groups put their stall in this Weekly Market. There was a huge response to this Weekly Market re-oponed after a long Lock down period.