Samir now knows his alphabets!

The 2.8 million sex workers’ population in India is highly marginalised, vulnerable and unreached due to the burden of severe stigma, the commoditisation of personhood, forced poverty and debt bondage. Being doubly disadvantaged, the children residing in red light areas face worse consequences. They face physical danger, vulnerability to violence and sexual exploitation. Many of these children are kept drugged under the very beds upon which the trade is carried out. Also as the mothers are working through the night, they wake up late in the afternoon and the children invariably miss their meals. This leads to malnourishment of the children. Perishing in hunger, neglect, illiteracy and hopelessness, these children long for the day their childhood would be theirs again.

Four and half year old Samir Abir Sheikh hails from Turbhe red light area, one of the innumerable poverty stricken red light pockets in Mumbai. His father, Abir Sheikh, works as a person selling waste materials and his mother, Farida, is a housewife. He has one sister. Both his parents are not educated. The family income is barely enough to make both ends meet.

Children like Samir, residing in red light areas, face educational deprivation in terms of generational illiteracy, physical access to education and quality of education. Due to social stigma and poverty associated with red light areas, the children are not put in school and this missing out on education further compounds the present and future challenges of children like Samir. Though Samir hails from such a disadvantaged background he can dream of a stable future with a good education because he studies at the Turbhe study center, run by Sahaara.  The foundational pre-primary teaching provided at Sahaara’s balwadis enables Samir to step into a bright future through enrolment in a good school.

Sahaara’s balwadi has a systematic curriculum wherein children are equipped in the following subjects over the period of a year: English and Hindi: alphabets and poems, writing skills, general knowledge (colours, animals, flowers, personal hygiene etc), colouring, games and activities such as counting and recognition.

Samir is a live wire full of energy. He is very attentive and knows the alphabets and numbers. He enjoys drawing and painting exercises and loves singing nursery rhymes and action songs. He is sociable and enjoys sharing his toys with the other children. He loves to play indoor as well as outdoor games as well!

Sahaara Charitable Society believes that every person has a dream, and their work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Sahaara’s early childhood education program gives children like Samir, get a start and a firm educational base which will help him break out of the vulnerable existence in the red light area and step into a safe and secure future.

Your generous donation will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Samir.

Thank you so much for your gift to Samir!