COVID19 initiatives
Bal Asha Trust has been doing critical work to ensure that support is provided to those who have been affected the most due to COVID19. Bal Asha Trust has not only taken care of the children in our premises but also helped vunerable children, labourers, resident of tribal areas families who are facing extreme hardships in these tough times.
Keeping Our Children in the home safe!
Bal Asha takes care of children from one day to 12 years of age. Earlier, we used to have our paramedics and caretakers stay within the premises, but now that transportation facilities have opened up, we will slowly have the employees travel everyday to work like before. All our children are entirely safe and within the premises. Children who require medical attention are taken to hospitals with all precautions taken. There has been no hindrance in the children’s education.
All of our school-going children are attending daily online classes organised by their respective schools. Some of our children are also having regular online therapy sessions. We monitor everyone’s health by recording their temperatures and oxygen levels three times a day.
Ration- Support for families impacted by lockdown during COVID19S
Bal Asha Trust started preparing itself early in March 2020 as the impact of COVID19 started increasing in India. We kept ourselves updated with responses of communities in different parts of the world where COVID already had a devastating impact. We knew that social distancing and masks were the key to ensure the safety of our children and staff.
Throughout the duration of the lockdown, we have distributed ration kits to needy families in Mumbai and Titwala. We also supplied ration kits and other supplies to tribal areas in Titwala. These kits help ensure that there is no lack of nutrition in the families’ diet and the money they would’ve spent on buying grains can be used to buy other household supplies. We have supported more than 2500 individuals with 574 ration kits. We also supplied cornflakes, masks and hand sanitizers to old age homes, children’s homes, families in red light areas.
In order to provide our children with more experiences and have fun, we arrange many activities and workshops with our volunteers, but this year none of our volunteers could visit the campus, so we arranged for online workshops. Our children interacted with the volunteers digitally and they had a lot of fun activities in store for the kids. Crafts, drawing painting, origami etc are some of the activities the children took part in along with the volunteers. A virtual tour of an animal farm in the USA was also arranged so that the children could have the experience of being on a farm and around animals without leaving the comfort of our home.
Support for Malnourished Children (Poshan Project)
The health of children in low income families has been affected due to the impacts of COVID. These children are malnourished and they will be in danger if they miss out on basic diet. We are providing more than 125 children in Kolhapur and Mumbai with POSHAN boxes which contain foods and snacks that provide them with nutrients that their diet has been lacking. We shall continue with the programme till the children reach optimum health standards.
COVID impact on Education of children (Educational Sponsorship)
Financial implications of COVID might hamper the future of Education of children. Food and shelter are usually the priority in families which are from a low income group. The children, if not provided finances for their school fees and educational expenses might miss out on their Education in their prime years.
We support more than 40 children before the lockdown on a yearly basis for education. We have increased the support now to more than 70 children. So that the education of these children is not halted by COVID19.
Please donate to us to support our COVID19 initiatives.