Open Shelter

DISHA is running 25 bedded Open Shelter for Children in Sundargarh District as 24 hours Crisis Management Centre to receive and provide necessary assistance and accessibility to children living in vulnerable conditions and in catchment areas like railway platforms, crowded market areas, tourist destinations, bus stands, and in the industrial Town of Rourkela etc.

Pro-rehabilitation environment and facilities are created so that we can attract vulnerable children in need of rehabilitation and shelter. Open Shelter in such a case serves as a point where children can enjoy timely and adequate meals as per the guidelines laid down.

Day Care & Night Care Open Shelter:

Categorically the Open Shelter is classified as Day Care and Night Care based upon the kind of services enjoyed by the inmates.

Day care activities done in a month are as follows:

• Provision of meals, cookies, gift baskets and other freebies in the catchment areas;
• Distribution of free biscuits and chocolates at city buses or transit stations.
• Game’s Day – Organized different types of game in the contact point area.
• Art’s Day – Invited local artists to teach art basics.

Those who needed night stay use to visit the shelter. Following are the provisions:

• 24 hours drop-in-cum night shelter facility.
• One Dormitory with adequate space for 25 children to sleep.
• Safe Drinking Water
• Hygienic and appropriate quality and quantity food as per menu
• 24 x 7 availability of power, back-up facility, water, etc.
• Availability of Sanitary facilities (2 no’s).
• Washing Machine for cleaning of clothes.
• RO system for drinking water purpose
• Educational materials and space for those wanting to study.
• Safe Keeping of Item in individual Steel Boxes.
• Entertainment and recreational facilities through TV, group activities etc.

Referral to Children’s Home for long term care:

DISHA Open Shelter in Sundargarh District facilitates Liaoning with Child Care Institutions to provide long term care. Every month approx. 20 children is rehabilitated either in the community or through CWC. They return back their home and is transferred to children’s home.

Three of our Outreach Workers helped in the identification of vulnerable children within the geographical area. Strategies adopted for identification of Vulnerable Children:

• Visits to Catchment Areas like Railway stations, bus stands, crowded market areas, religious spots.
• Meeting Community People.
• Regular Interaction with Schools to understand dropouts.
• Meeting Child Welfare Committee members who support in the referral of vulnerable or children in need of rehabilitation.

Mapping of Vulnerable or at risk spots:

In the last year, children were identified from Railway Station, Bus-Stand, Market Place etc & slum near contact point areas. We do the outreach especially in areas like construction of buildings, ground, graveyard, on the streets and in drainage areas. We then select children if they are highly addicted, roam on the streets, do stealing and carrying antisocial elements in the society Other children refuse to come the Open Shelter due to resistance by parents as their parents do not have trust on the organization. Its challenge for the DISHA to convince these children for enrolling them in the Open Shelter and rehabilitation.

We build a good rapport with children through sports like indoor games, drawing, storytelling, singing and etc. By our involvement we try to gain the trust of children, later we do the case study of the child whether the child is drop out, highly addicted, roaming on the streets, do stealing, and carrying antisocial elements in the society. Individual counseling is then conducted to know about the child and his family. We locate the address of the child and do door-to-door visits to their homes.

We conduct parents meeting in our working area for counselling them regarding their children and to share the objective of the program.

Counseling of Children:

The Project Coordinator-cum- Counsellor does the counseling of children who show symptoms not in line with the accepted social norms resulted out of psychological trauma or certain disorders or mannerism.

Providing Life Skills:

DISHA open shelter provided timely various life skills to the children in order to enhance personality; raising self-esteem; develop a positive approach to life; better communication skills; enhanced capability of dealing with trauma, risk, and vulnerabilities. Bridge Course Classes were conducted 5 days in a week with the following schedule. We have two Caregiver cum Bridge course educators. In the classroom, one can see small kids singing rhymes and learning Hindi and English alphabets in the fun way. On the recreation front, the center is second to none as the Children have many means available for this purpose. This includes a TV set, Carom, ludo, foot- ball, badminton, crafting materials etc.

Referral Services:

We generally refer the children suffering from drug and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS/STIs and other chronic health disorders for specialised services.