ABJECT POVERTY ENSURED THAT LITTLE SHASHANK DIDN’T EVEN DREAM OF EDUCATION. YOUR GIFTS CHANGED ALL THAT.
Shashank’s father Sunil first came to Mumbai in search of medical treatment for his mother in 2019. Enamoured by the big city, Sunil decided to settle down in the metropolis with his family.
Things didn’t turn out as he imagined they would though. Sunil found it hard to find steady work, but with the little money he had in hand, he set up home in a slum community in Mumbai’s poorest area: M-East ward – where 78% of the population live in abject poverty, deprived of the government’s most basic facilities as the community has settled on this land unauthorized.
Sunil’s eight-member family lives in a one-room hutment and sleeps on the floor. They have no electricity throughout the day but only during the night. Vision Rescue recently helped Sunil find work as a labourer and now he earns about Rs. 8000/- per month (USD 107), out of which a hefty amount goes towards paying private dealers for electricity, water charges and a cooking gas connection.
Sunil had only studied upto class 5, hence he did not understand the importance of early education for his five-year-old child Shashank. Besides, they were just about making ends meet, they had little to spare on a little child’s education.
When our case officers met Shashank and found out that he had never been to school, he was enrolled into our Beacon Learning Centre in 2019. Here, your gifts not only opened the doors of education for Shashank but also provided him a hearty nutritious meal every weekday, all his educational materials, along with routine, repeated health assessments and dental checkups, as well as support for his family to step out of poverty.
Gradually, Shashank started performing well in his studies. His teachers say, “He’s a good learner and one of the most active children in the class!” Shashank even won third place at our annual Sports Day.
When the pandemic hit and a lockdown was announced last year, Shashank’s father lost his job, and Shashank could no longer come to our Beacon Learning Centre for classes or food. That’s when your donations once again stepped in and helped Shashank’s family with groceries every month and nutritious snacks for Shashank. Your gifts also reached out to Shashank with online education for all of 2020.
Today our community officer is in regular touch with both Shashank and his mother especially because she will soon give birth to a child. According to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, The Human Development Index of the M-East ward, where Shashank’s family lives, is the lowest in Mumbai with an infant mortality rate of around 66.47 per thousand live births. We’re doing everything we can to ensure that Shashank’s new sibling is not a new addition to that statistic.
Thank you for Reaching out with Love to this family in every season that they’ve faced the last two years. Your support has been the unwavering rock they can count on despite the shifting sands of circumstance around them.
Vision Rescue is grateful for your partnership to empower Shashank with education and break the cycle of poverty of his family’s future.
