EMPOWERING FAMILIES TO EDUCATE CHILDREN
What crosses your mind when you hear the word ‘lockdown’? For 5-year-old Mudassir’s family, it was all about hunger, unemployment, stress, and sickness.
Mudassir’s family had traveled all the way back to their native place for a family function not knowing that a sudden nationwide lockdown would be announced. They were stuck there, unable to return to Mumbai!
Vision Rescue’s community officer reached out to Mudassir’s family over a phone call encouraging them to enroll little Mudassir for an online summer camp right from their village. The family cooperated until they had to deal with internet issues.
They eventually returned to Mumbai with the hope that situations would soon improve.
What they returned to though, was a slum community where 81% percent were struggling for food and 70% had to borrow money to buy rations and water. All this just within the first few months of the lockdown in India.
Mudassir’s father who is a skilled daily-wage laborer could no longer go to work. His grandmother who mended shoes couldn’t get orders anymore. They thought these tough days were just for a short while, but the lockdowns never seemed to end. Mudassir’s parents were not able to handle the stress anymore and it affected their mental health.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus was spreading quickly across India. Fake news and illiteracy added more confusion and fear in their slum community. Vision Rescue’s medical team stepped in with facts and correct guidance about coronavirus through videos and audio recordings educating Mudassir’s family and many others in the slum community. These video and audio recordings also educated the community about taking necessary precautions to keep themselves and their families safe.
Before things could get worse for little Mudassir and his family, kind supporters like you stepped in to provide groceries to them every month and hearty nutritious snacks for little Mudassir along with masks and sanitizers to protect themselves from the deadly virus.
Your donations also opened the doors of online education for Mudassir enabling him to complete his entire Junior Kindergarten through his phone. Mudassir is now enrolled in Senior Kindergarten with Vision Rescue.
Children like Mudassir with smartphones and Internet access could attend online classes with us right from their homes within the slum community, but we were unable to reach over 400 of our former students who didn’t have these basic facilities.
In response to this need, with your support, we raised an army of Education Representatives who would go to these children’s homes and teach them on their own mobile phones. While we were in search of such Education Representatives, we came across Mudassir’s aunt Shafiya and she gladly agreed to work with us.
What a joy to see her use her mobile phone to help children in her slum continue their studies! What’s even better is that Shafiya now earns for the family in such difficult times.
Meanwhile, Mudassir’s mother, who was enrolled in our Culinary Training Institute, completed her course with us and went on to join our embroidery course. She successfully graduated from that course too!
Mudassir’s aunt and mother now both encourage others in the slum community to join our vocational training courses that enable them to learn new skills to support their families financially!
Empowering Mudassir’s family wouldn’t have been possible without your donations. The love and care that you’ve shown towards Mudassir’s family has helped them take steps to overcome the burden that poverty has placed upon them. This frees Mudassir to stick with his education and not worry about providing for his family financially.
Thank you for Reaching out with Love to these precious lives.
