BENGALURU: Hasiru Dala, an NGO which works for the upliftment of ragpickers, is raising funds to conduct a summer camp for children of ragpickers. The organisation plans to conduct a two-day camp at Freedom Park on May 19-20 for about 300 kids.
The camp will feature recreational activities for the kids but more importantly, the NGO plans to develop a network by which they will get information if any child drops out of school, said the NGO’s co-founder Nalini Shekar. She explained, “If, for example, 10 kids from a slum take the same bus to school and one of them drops out, then we want the other nine kids to inform us so that we can intervene.”
According to Hasiru Dala’s blog, children of ragpickers are prone to dropping out of school, many of whom then follow their parents and become ragpickers themselves. Contributions to the summer camp can be made by visiting the blog wastenarratives.com.
Library going strong
Hasiru Dala had begun a library for children of ragpickers about three months ago. The library, called ‘buguri,’ is located at Banashankari and kids can come there about twice a week to read books. Nalini Shekar says the buguri is equipped with over 2,000 books, but not all are very useful as they’re not in Kannada, the only language many children can read, even if they go to school. But buguri is also supplemented by story-telling volunteers.
A few kids have surprised everyone with their abilities. One of them, a 11-year-old girl, cannot read and only looks at the pictures. But after that, she weaves stories from her own imagination to fit in with the pictures. Two other kids have managed to completely read 50 books until now.