The city of dreams drew the newly married couple – Salman and Tehzeen – 15 years ago. They left their village in UP, hoping for a better life here. Their house back home had deteriorated, as it was poorly constructed and lacked maintenance. They set their sights on Mumbai, believing that the city of dreams would help them fulfill their dreams.
When they moved to Mumbai the best accommodation that they could find within their budget was a house near the city’s largest dumping grounds, which is also identified as the city’s most polluted area, unfit for living over a long period of time. Just around that time their son Riyaz* was born.
Beside the stench that came from the garbage surrounding them, their house had limited and sometimes no access to water, clean toilets, public transportation or electricity. The family was susceptible to airborne diseases arising from the dump and during the monsoons, the roof of their house would leak and the family would have to stay awake at night. Despite the poor condition of the house, Riyaz’ family still had to pay the rent.
The only way that Riyaz’s father Salman could earn money, was to pick and segregate waste from the dumping ground. The recyclables that he scavenged fetched him a tiny sum. However, it wasn’t enough to move to a better house or educate Riyaz. Years went by in squalor, and Riyaz remained barely literate, until Vision Rescue met the family just before the pandemic.
Our Community Case Counsellor (CCC) took time out and spoke to Riyaz’s parents about the need to educate their son. Initially Salman, Riyaz’s father, would not talk much, but gradually he felt comfortable enough to share his son’s limitations. Salman told the CCC that his son was not able to communicate well with others and this was also one of the reasons he was irregular in school many years ago and then gradually dropped out.
Salman also shared that people in their community make fun of Riyaz because of his inability to communicate and due to his mental instability. Riyaz’s learning disabilities had led to his mother Tehzeen being shunned by their slum community. Over the years Salman & Tehzeen lost hope that Riyaz could still go to school again and be educated. Our CCC welcomed Riyaz into Vision Rescue’s Beacon Learning Centre (BLC) education program in July 2020.
In front of Riyaz’s own family and community who has written Riyaz’s future off as an uneducated, unstable boy in his early teens, Vision Rescue enrolled him in our BLC Senior KG at the age of 13 years and educated him like we would have educated any other child coming to us. Since Riyaz was enrolled in the middle of the pandemic our Education Interns and Representatives would initially visit him and teach him through the virtual curriculum developed.
In 2022, when our BLC reopened, Riyaz gradually began to attend classes in person regularly and began to enjoy it. Riyaz’s father Salman who had studied till Grade X also took an active role in teaching him after school for about an hour. The class teacher too gave Riyaz special attention in class. These additional efforts, provided both in our classrooms and at home, reaped significant changes in Riyaz’s learning.
Riyaz is now in Grade II and there is immense progress in the way he reads, answers the teacher and communicates with those around him. Riyaz also gets regular medical and dental checks done through our medical program. Our team is now in discussion with his parents about enrolling in a formal municipal school nearby.
As Riyaz grew in our BLC, our Vision Rescue team continued to assist his family with the needs identified during the home visits. Their poor economic condition and unhealthy living conditions put them at high risk to various struggles both financial and health-related. To mitigate the financial struggles, the first thing they were encouraged to do was to open a bank account since they already had their Aadhar Cards. To tackle the health issues, the family was made aware of the importance of eating properly cooked food and keeping the house clean to avoid falling sick time and again. On later visits, our CCC observed that the family had taken the suggestions to heart and actioned them.
Riyaz’s parents are also now active participants in our programs and his mother attends our Focus Group Meetings enthusiastically . They are grateful that through your donations they were able to receive ration during each month of the pandemic. We too are grateful that through your support Riyaz was able to restore his lost years of education.
Our presence in Riyaz’s community helps us identify and rope in many other children like Riyaz and bring them back into education. Riyaz enjoys his right to literacy and his dignity within the community is restored, thanks to your generous giving. There is no more mocking because he cannot study and communicate well anymore, but there is astonishment that he can and that he has made it. Riyaz is truly an example of finding hope against all hope! Truly, it is never too late to educate!
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Vision Rescue exists to rescue children from all forms of exploitation by engaging and sustaining them in education. We are a registered NGO for child education under the Bombay Public Trust Act 1950.
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