Continued Education : Prayas realizes the importance of Continued Education and encourages students to continually learn and develop their skills and capacities. We believe that investing in education helps individuals, families, communities and our country as a whole.
Prayas Integrated school, is up to Class VIII. We ensure that the students continue their education after passing out from Prayas. Each child and his parents are individually counselled and motivated to seek admission in Class IX. Many a times, the economically weak parents are unable to afford private school fees, and we have to support the children by paying their school fees. We have also provided bicycles to many of the children to help them in commuting to school.
Children of Government primary schools who pass out of Class V are also encouraged and helped where needed to continue education in Class VI.
Shishu Grah & Kishore Grah : Shishu Grah is for Children in Need of Care & Protection (street urchins, abandoned children and orphans) aged 0 to 4 while Kishore Grah is for Children in Need of Care & Protection (CNCP) and Children In Conflict with the Law (CICL) aged 5 to 18. Prayas worked with Child Rights & You (CRY) and was chosen as the nodal agency for the state in government homes by CRY. After CRY, we worked with Save the Children Fund (SCF) in these homes. This project was taken up as the children lived in pathetic and horrifying conditions and were stripped of their rights and dignity.
Although it was very new to us, we took the challenge and successfully rehabilitated over 128 children. Under the Juvenile Justice Board, we united many children with their families. We got bail for many children and arranged for them to return home. They were staying in the homes for 5 years or more when the law stated that CICL were not supposed to be in Kishore Grah for over 3 months. No one would come to look after these children and they were completely ignored by society, thus being held captive in Kishore Grah centres.
In light of the above, the children in both homes were given education for skill development and to reduce criminal inclinations. Our involvement included providing nutrition, teachers (education), dance and music classes, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
Prayas and SCF jointly translated the Juvenile Justice Act from English to Hindi so that the relevant classes would be aware of their rights.
National Trust : Prayas was the State Nodal Agency Centre (SNAC) for three years and a half. It organized various awareness camps in different parts of Rajasthan (including remote areas) to bring about awareness on disabilities, rights and welfare schemes for the disabled.
