Family-Focussed Community Development

As the foundation of communities and as essential building blocks of the society, families have a crucial role to play in social development. At the heart of all family institutions is the concept of kinship, which refers to social relationships based on common ancestry, adoption, or marriage.

SEESHA believes that healthy family relationships ensure meaningful and sustainable community development. In the pursuit of empowering families for the welfare of our society, SEESHA has adopted an innovative approach – Family-Focused Community Development (FFCD), in the recent years. With this approach, we work collectively with underprivileged families to cater to the four-fold developmental aspects of education, health, environment and livelihood, amidst the target family members in our project communities.

Through the Family-Focused Community Development (FFCD) project we aim to:

• Strengthen existing families
• Restore dysfunctional families

FAMILY-FOCUSED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (FFCD) AT DEVARA JEEVANA HALLI SLUM, BENGALURU

It is the vision of our Respected Founder Dr. Paul Dhinakaran to serve the most marginalized and care for the suffering. In an effort of transforming this vision into reality, SEESHA in association with its CSR funding partner DXC Technology - India, has been working towards the development of the DJ Halli Slum – Bengaluru, to empower lives and build a strong & resilient community, for more than two years. Devara Jeevana Halli is a large notified slum in Bengaluru, South India which is characterized by poverty, overcrowding, hazardous living environment and social complexities.

Significant welfare programs under this Family-focused Community Development project include:-

• Skill development & livelihood assistance for empowering Youth & Women
• Housing reconstruction/renovation project to build 100 safe houses
• Awareness campaigns on livelihood development, health, family values & menstrual hygiene for women
• Distribution of nutrition supplements for malnourished children
• Distribution of COVID care kits & organizing free vaccine drives
• Community Health Facilitator training
• Support for the education of children & youngsters

Skill Development for Women

The Project aims to train the unemployed and vulnerable women on different technical skills and make them socially and economically independent to face the competitive world. SEESHA in association with DXC Technology - India, has been conducting vocational skills trainings in the following trades at the DJ Halli Community:

• Tailoring
• Beautician training
• Mehndi art design
• Embroidery

Community Health Facilitator Training

Community Health Facilitator Training was conducted with the main objective of building knowledge and awareness of health & hygiene among community health facilitators of SEESHA so that they can disseminate the same to the community. The training programme conducted in 2021 brought together 22 representatives from SEESHA. Sessions were handled by community health experts in the region.

The health professionals provided basic knowledge on

• Child healthcare practice
• Importance of vaccinations
• Common communicable and non-communicable diseases
• Nutritional aspect for women and children
• Adolescent psychological & physical changes and addressing problems with reproductive and sexual health.
• First Aid etc

Nutritional supplements for children

For several low-income households in the community providing healthy meals for the children is a daily challenge, which has led to the prevalence of acute malnutrition in young children from these deprived families. To ensure that such malnourished children receive optimal nutrition to promote their growth and development potential, monthly nutritional supplements are being distributed to selected 100 children identified in consultation with the representatives of Integrated Child Development Scheme – ICDS, Karnataka.

Child Development Centres/Tuition Centres for disadvantaged students

To equip the slow learners and first-generation learners from low-income families in the community with access to quality education, the FFCD team has been conducting evening tuition for higher-class students since August 2021. After the lockdown restrictions were completely eased, tuitions were started for primary class students. During the pandemic period, students who were learning from home were provided with study materials kits, inclusive of books, note books, pens, etc. Children have been showing tangible results at school after attending the tuition classes conducted by the FFCD team. Deserving students from deprived family backgrounds are also supported with monthly/yearly scholarships to pursue their school education without a gap.

COVID protective supplies to Primary health care centre – DJ Halli

When the Pandemic was wreaking havoc during the second wave in India, the FFCD team visited the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at DJ Halli and donated COVID hygiene supplies which comprised of hand sanitizers, masks and gloves for the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 in the region. This is to make sure that the healthcare professionals and PHC workers stay safe and have the necessary tools to save others’ lives too.

Raising awareness on Women’s rights & family values

The FFCD Team has introduced an awareness and value education campaign for the adolescent girls in the DJ community with the objective of increasing the awareness on menstrual hygiene, usage & safe disposal of sanitary napkins, women’s physiology and women’s rights in the society. The awareness workshop was launched on the occasion of International Women’s Day in 2021 and is getting organized frequently with different guests from the social welfare and women’s advocacy sector.

Empowering Youth with vocational skills

To equip, empower and build the capacities of youth from downtrodden communities, SEESHA has been conducting adequate development training in in-demand employability skills. In 2021, the FFCD team launched a computer training centre for training youth with digital skills and Lamination training as part of its Family-Focused Community Development (FFCD) program in DJ Halli, considering the rapidly evolving job market and the demand for skilled workers. The community youth are trained with the following skills –

• Computer Fundamentals
• Life Skills Training
• Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP)

Building homes, creating opportunities for growth

Lack of adequate housing can cause adverse consequences to individuals and families ranging from threats of eviction to lack of protection and basic facilities for the growing families. To facilitate the most vulnerable families in DJ Halli to dwell in safety and security, and to help them participate in economic, cultural and social lives of the community, the FFCD Team has undertaken a housing reconstruction/renovation project to build 100 permanent safe houses in the community. After a detailed assessment, field inspection, identification of vendors and floor plan, the building construction work was launched by Dr. Shilpa Samuel Dhinakaran in November 2021.

Laying foundation, wall construction, PC concrete work, flooring, roofing, and plastering activities are underway at 30 of the houses in the first phase of reconstruction.