Ruchika Social Service Organisation had organized a special camp viz. Aviskar (Discovery) for the differently abled children. It was a week long program arranged at five places like Santi Palli, Mahaveer Basti, Jharana Basti, Press Colony and Bharatpur. The objective was to identify latent talents and potentiality among the children and create an opportunity for both children and their mothers to participate in some joyful activities and to give them a smile and a hope to lead a positive life. A total number of 140 children and their mothers participated in the program. The events were arithmetic race, needle race, spoon race, ludoo, chess, carom, music chair, song and storytelling, jhoti and huluhuli. Both the children and their mothers participated in different events. All participants were given a small take-home gift. Since we do not believe on competitions winner’s name were not announced. Everybody became a winner. It created a positive impact on the children.
We are in process of including the children with disability in the Niramaya scheme (Niramaya means healthy). About 15 children have already been registered. This is a kind of medical insurance. In this scheme each registered child can get medical reimbursement up to Rs.1,00,000/-. This seems a good scheme and the success depends on its workability.
There is also a scheme viz. Vaneeshree. Children with at least 40 % disability can be included into the scheme. They will get a stipend at the end of the year from the school. Till date 21 children have been included into the scheme.
A ‘Hygiene Week’ was organized by the Water and Sanitation Project from 22nd November to 4th December 2010 covering 33 slums of Bhubaneswar with a participant of 1659. The programme aimed at developing awareness and sensitizing the community on sanitation, health and hygiene so that they adopt better sanitation and hygienic practices and lead a healthy life. The programme included a clean drive involving the community and the project staff, cleaning the drains, roads, marshy areas, places having stagnated water, hand pump platforms etc. with bleaching powder. After the cleaning activities each participant was given a towel and soap so that they wash their hands and feet properly. The participants then gathered in the Ruchika Education Centers for a meeting where they were informed on personal hygiene. This drive was an initial stage and the community is encouraged to carry forward such initiatives so that they can experience a healthy atmosphere and a disease free life.
A global hand wash campaign was organized by Ruchika Social Service Organization on 24th Oct’09 which continued for four days. The main aim of this program was to create awareness and spread the message on hand washing. Ruchika came out with a unique idea of spreading this message on wheel.
The program covered 9 slums and eight schools in the first three days. Different activities like art competition, community meetings, demonstration on ;hand washing, street plays were organized which highlighted the message on hand washing. It is important to wash hands before handling of food and after defecation.
The concluding program was held at Ruchika High School with the participation of 8 partner organisation of WaterAid.
