Minutes of the meeting held on June 16th 2010

Main decisions:

Mentorship program is agreed upon for Royapuram Govt Home

Every HUGS volunteer will mentor a group of children on their overall personality development (including academic, sports, psychological).

The idea is to educate children beyond reading and writing, to acquire all skills, a sense of pride, to develop a positive attitude and to learn while having fun...

Starting off with a toy library concept,

We aim to harness the potential force of toys and games to mould the character and temperament of the children at the home, both in the home proper and in the reception unit. It firmly believes that toys and games (when chosen with the intended outcomes in mind), not only stop at amusing , but also develop imagination, stimulate creativity and spontaneity, encourage the free flow of thought, improve the power of observation & concentration and also teach values like discipline, honesty, truth, courage and so on. Play, and thus, healthy recreation and consequently socialization are essential for a child’s overall development.

For the mentor, it creates a clear syllabus on which to base his / her mentorship activities, and to provide a basic scaffolding for planning activities in a systematic manner. Not only does this ensure maximum utilization of the time that a mentor is able to share with the child, it also gives a mentor a sense of acomplishment, as, together with the child, he/she moves up the syllabus, and is simultaneously able to observe the development in his/her mentee.

Plan:

With the above goal, there are 2 things that are to be done:

1. Funding – Rs.30 K for the toy library

2. Volunteers

a. Each team member needs to get at least one volunteer for the mentorship program. Volunteer selection criteria include an ability to spare 2 hours/ fortnight, a commitment for atleast 6 such sessions, an innate interest in the welfare of the less privileged, and empathy towards these children. All other skills may be acquired on the job.

These activities need to be completed by July 10^th.

Our plan is to start off with the first mentoring session on July 17^th .

The date and venue of the next meeting will be intimated by email to the team members.

Interested individuals are encouraged to contact Renita (9894488797) or Feroz(9500059774), or mail in to us athugsindia@gmail.com, renitarajan@gmail,com orzeeferoz@gmail.com.

ROYAPURAM HOME PROJECT

A very pleasant atmosphere awaited the HUGS - Royapuram project team, as we entered the Government Boys Home, Royapuram, on the 6th June, 2010, Sunday. We were duly greeted by the staff, who had turned out promptly, despite the holiday. The Optometrists from MN Eye hospitals, had set the camp in motion with vision testing and the Ophthalmologist in our team(HUGS - Royapuram project ), Dr Radha Annamalai, started off with consultations. The rest of us, Feroz, Karthik, Monica, Nivash, Divya, Sharmila, Sindhu, Rama and I (Renita), set off to interact and gather some data from the staff and the inmates. Sundar joined in a while later. Our task was to speak to the inmates (each of them) and get to know them, and obtain a basic set of information on their family, academic levels and hobbies and interests; this activity was aimed at individualizing our solutions to suit each inmate to ensure success of the project. Overall, met around 125 children, ages ranging from 3 to 17, in two groups, those belonging to the mainstream home and those in the reception unit. Interaction with the latter was to change the way we perceived the whole exercise. First, we (HUGS - Royapuram project )met up with each of the house boys ( as they are called) and we learnt about the circumstances under which they landed up at this home. Some of the stories were very sad to listen to - but more about these, after complete data collation. Then came the boys in the reception unit - some having stayed there for months and some as recent as a day or two. Of these 50 boys, 30 were from other states, and more than half of them could hardly communicate in Hindi, hailing from places like Orissa and West Bengal. Little Rakesh Mallik, with bright beads for eyes, held me captive with his explanation of how easy it is for me to find his home - its over there by the gully, and he would point it out to me if I were to take me there. Rakesh was picked up from the railway station, and all he knows of his native place is the name, ?Gilli/? Dilli village in West Bengal. And when I asked him if he knew of any phone number, he said he didnt - but he could show me the home anytime!More stories later, we were sure we wanted to come back to this place. Even as this was going on, we met the staff, and they spoke to us about the issues and problems they face on a daily basis looking after the inmates. The doctor in charge was very friendly and supportive and told us that he would definitely follow up on the prescriptions for the spectacles and those requiring further ophthalmological evaluation. We had a very good briefing session by Mrs Glory, the Superintendant of the Home, and she gave us an outline of the history of the home. Once known for its redundancy, she spoke of how Royapuram Home improved from the last position to the top five among Government run homes in TamilNadu.



Over lunch, the team , HUGS - Royapuram project, discussed possible options and interventions, and we settled on a mentorship model - which is currently being finetuned.

We expect that we would need about 50 - 60 volunteers who would go on to mentor these deserving children, based on a syllabus to be put in place by the Project Team, HUGS - Royapuram project. Volunteers would pass a selection process( we can never be cautious enough, when it comes to role models for these children), and would commit a minimum of 12 hours over 3 months - though once the project is pilot run and all set, we would look for a commitment of atleast 24 - 36 hours over 6 months.

The HUGS - Royapuram project syllabus would include academic and play learning, fostering talents and focusing on extracurricular activities, psychosocial support, and regular follow up.

We hope that we will be able to provide these children some of the support that they are in need of, in partnership with the Government and the staff of the Home.



Interested individuals are encouraged to contact Renita (9894488797) or Feroz(9500059774), or mail in to us at hugsindia@gmail.com, renitarajan@gmail,com or zeeferoz@gmail.com, we are recruiting volunteers now. An innate interest and empathy towards the less privileged, initiative and enthusiasm in interacting with children, strong ethical values, and a pleasant personality are some characteristics we look for.



Preliminary data and calendar for this HUGS - Royapuram project will be posted here soon.