ALONE, BUT LOVED
Haroon’s parents once lived in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum. Three years ago though, his parents parted ways. So Haroon and his mother Mrunar moved to a slum north of Mumbai, where a few of his mother’s relatives lived.
As a single mother now, Mrunar was faced with the daunting responsibility of being her son’s sole provider. She found work as a domestic helper and with the very little that she earned, she strived to keep her son alive. Early every morning, Mrunar would cook one meal for Haroon, leave him with her relatives and head out to work all day.
But Haroon rarely stayed with his relatives. His routine was to wander off into his slum community’s streets, find other kids like him who were out of school, and while their time away.
Life went on this way until one day, our Case Officers saw a boy covered in the dirt playing with his friends in the slum’s bylanes. He looked weak as if he had hardly eaten anything. We asked the neighbors about his parents and came to hear about Haroon’s family’s struggles.
We also learned that Haroon was well into his school-going years, but he had never been educated. There was no one to take him to school, as his mother was forced to work all day for their survival.
Haroon was missing out on the crucial, foundational years of his early education.
It took us multiple house visits before we finally got to meet his mother Mrunar. We spoke with her about how powerful and formative early childhood education could be for Mrunar, and about the free, quality education he could receive at our Beacon Learning Centre. Mrunar gladly enrolled Haroon with us.
When Haroon joined us in 2019, your gifts not only brought him into a classroom for the first time in his life, but he received hearty nutritious meals every weekday, stationery, regular health checkups and dental assessments, educational material, and much more.
Things were progressing well until the nationwide lockdown was announced in early 2020. Our classrooms closed and Haroon was back on the streets. His mother lost her daily-wage job and things went from bad to worse in their home. The one meal that Haroon used to eat every day was no longer a guarantee.
Once again, the incredible community of Vision Rescue supporters came to Haroon and his mother’s rescue. Your donations provided them with grocery kits every month from the start of the pandemic to date. Hunger was no longer their biggest enemy. However, Haroon’s education was on the line once again.
With your support, Vision Rescue’s classes transitioned from face-to-face classes to online lessons for 800+ children in our four Mumbai slum communities, early in the pandemic. However, Haroon was left behind by the digital divide. He had no smartphone on which to participate in our online activities.
Once again, your donations stepped in and enabled us to raise an army of Education Representatives in slum communities like Haroon’s, to reach children without smartphones. These Reps are educated youth from these target slum communities, whom our teachers train and equip to educate children, using the Rep’s smartphone. One such Education Rep was sent to Haroon.
In this manner, Haroon completed a whole academic year online with us, and is now halfway through the new academic year too!
