Health & Education

Health

Antakshari Foundation is working in 25 villages at Kakalwada area of Arai block of Ajmer district of Rajasthan on women and child health, education and community awareness development in association with SWRC, Tilonoa. The inaccessibility of the villages, poor public health service, lack of health awareness and information among the people led to the beginning of the health program.

Community Health Program

The focus of the community health program is building awareness among the people about immunization, healthcare of pregnant women, right to access public health service, importance of disease prevention, ICDS program and treatment of TB patients etc. The traditional birth attendants are selected and trained to promote immunization of women and children, safe delivery, family planning with the help of nurses. Regular monthly meetings were held with the parents of the children. In addition to this Six Child Care Centers are being run by the organization in 6 villages through this program. There are twelve Bal Sevikas (Child Care Giver) working in these villages. The children aged between 0-5 yrs. are given health care and nutrition

Health Check up

The students who study in Bridge school  have been given the facility to get a regular health check up within every three months. After the check up the boys/ girls are being provided with medicines according to their diagnosis. Also the malnourished children were provided with the prescription of taking healthy meal and vitamins tablet in their diet.

Education

The organization also focuses in enhancing the quality of life among the disadvantaged and marginalized children through gender sensitive community based on alternative education and child centered programs by awareness programs for promoting education. It also gives much emphasis on developing innovative teaching aids and in transforming their lives by enabling the children from  “self” to the wider spectrum of being “social” and “independent citizen of the country”. Some of the

Bridge Schools

Despite the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, a lot of children are unable to go to school due to unavailability of schools within accessible distance. Antakshari Foundation has identified such villages in Arai Block, where more than 100 children, living in most unhygienic conditions without basic amenities like electricity, water supply and sanitation, are forced to work rather than attending school. After continuous awareness programs, the parents of the children requested Antakshari Foundation to link their children with education.

This phase of the program, has reached more than five hundred  children, aged 6 to 14, in 25 villages of Arai block, which aims to provide quality education to children involving every aspect of their life. Our team interacted daily with government school teachers, children clubs, schools managers, members of the community and of course, parents in order to create a stimulating and safe environment for children to play, learn and develop their social and personal skills.

There are  total 187 children who  are linked with bridge school where total 13 teachers were enrolled for educating children. Thus Antakshari Foundation launched an adhoc informal educational center named Bridge School where children when getting free from their work and within a decided time period engage together and utilize time in studying and getting basic knowledge. There have been 14 Bridge Schools running in 14 villages.

Creche Program

There are 5 Crèche program running in 4 villages with the support of Antakshari Foundation. The pre primary and basic education has been provided in the Crèche program. There are 8 Bal Sevika work in the bal badi in which one of the Sevika does the work of maintaining documents and teaching the students and another Sevika contributes in picking and dropping the children from home and also making the poshahar for the children. There were total 155 chldren’s who are linked with the Creche program and getting proper nourishment, Pre formal education and good learning environment.

Bal Sansad & Library

To inform and aware children about the democratic system of the country as well as to make them learn about the facts and realities teaching process was adopted through Bal Sansad. The president of  Bal Sansad  was chosen amongst the nominated candidates by other students. There are total  6 Bal Sansad selected from Antakshari Foundation. Regular monthly meetings of Bal Sansad were held on the challenges faced by them on running the bridge school and then theycame up with the best possible solution. Among 2 Bal sansad, one Bal Sansad has been elected between 2 bridge school and total 36 bal sansad have been formed at Tilonia level in which 16 ministers and 1 prime minister of parliament was there. In addition to this students who are studying in bridge school are permitted to exchange  the books once a week . The children chose the books which they like  and wanted to refer and register it in the library register

Sustainable Rainwater Harvesting (SRH)

Rainwater harvesting in this age-old practice still acceptable by modern feasibility criteria. Millions of people worldwide suffer from lack of water. The importance of water is well known. The problems facing water sources have been well documented. Rajasthan is a desert state in India with a geographical area equal to 10 percent of the country, but with only one percent of the country’s water resources. The scarce and fragile water resources in this semi-arid environment are under threat from frequent droughts, increasing groundwater salinity and falling water tables.

There have been total 192 water tanks  constructed under drought relief program in collaboration with Social Work Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia, Ajmer. A large public tank has been constructed in middle school at Kakalwada.