The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Deprived children look at life in a new perspective

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Monday, Dec 08, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Deprived children look at life in a new perspective

Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI: With balloons and cartoon characters making their presence conspicuously felt, the joyful ambience and the festive look could make one take it for a high-profile children’s fair. It wasn’t.

Titled ‘Athma Viswasam Vaipu’, the two-day meet that began at the Mesonic grounds in Chittoor town on Sunday is a congregation of deprived children who express their readiness to brave the odds and break the social stigma. As the self-explanatory title suggests, the event is all about filling the children with self-confidence and help them get bubbling. On the first day, the hall was abuzz with activity with over 500 children keenly taking part in the variety of programmes. Women’s Initiatives (WINS), a Tirupati-based voluntary organisation working in the area of women and child rights, is conducting the event along with non-governmental organisations like Akshaya Kshetram, MASS, People’s Action for Social Service, Parallel Network of Positive People (PNP+) and Pragati.

Overcoming challenges

One cannot categorise the children and tag them into slots, as the motley group contains victims of child labour, Dalit children, HIV-positive, physically and mentally-challenged and street children under rehabilitation. Prasada Rao, Additional Director (Disabled Welfare), himself a challenged person, shared his past with the children and explained how he could leave his disability behind and scale new heights in life. He asked the children to start looking at life in a new perspective. Project Director (Women and child welfare) Leelavathi, Senior Civil Judge V. Goud and a professor of nutrition at SVU Kusuma Kumari were among those who spoke on the need to train the children in life skills. Quiz, debate, skits and drawing competition was conducted for the children on the four facets of rights viz., right to dignity, right to education, right to health and right to livelihood. 30 students drawn from Sri Padmavati Women’s University played a key role in getting the message across to the children.

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Andhra Pradesh