Nammane (Our Home) Open Shelter
At the time that APSA began working with migrant construction worker families and their children in Bengaluru, it was observed that most of the children of such families were out on the streets, working as rag pickers, street children or child beggars. A transit shelter was therefore erected on the terrace of the Founder’s house, where children could come and stay temporarily when they had no place to go. Children would go rag picking during the day and come back to the shelter at night. However, this life left them feeling unsettled and insecure and many children expressed that what they wanted was a place to stay and skill training so they could access decent jobs, particularly as they reached the age of adolescence and became more aware of themselves as individuals. Boys expressed interested in learning 2-wheeler mechanics, while girls wanted to learning tailoring. This was an echo of the felt need by APSA to erect a more permanent shelter where children who were orphans, abandoned or from poverty-ridden families could find a safe and protective space to live, learn and develop.
This idea gave birth to the Nammane Open Shelter.
Nammane literally means ‘Our Home’ in the local Kannada language. What began in 1991 as a small, residential night shelter for street and working children has today, evolved into arguably one of the best NGO-run child-friendly open shelters in the South for children in need of care and protection. Nammane is registered as an Open Shelter under the Juvenile Justice Act of the Women and Child Department, Government of Karnataka. The shelter has run without a break for 28 years and benefits, on average, 300-350 children annually. It is considered a model of a child protection institution in the country. In 2012, Nammane was recognized by the government for being the best child-friendly institution.
The gracious, two-storey, multi-utility building houses residential and learning quarters for children, who come to Nammane from workplaces, the streets or urban slums – with backgrounds of child labour, street children, school dropouts, victims of child marriage, child survivors of domestic violence, physical and/ or sexual abuse, orphans, abandoned or runaway children, and children from single parent or alcoholic families, children from migrant families and minority communities, as well as children from distress or conflict backgrounds and children requiring care and protection.
Unlike many child care institutions, both government and NGO-run, Nammane care includes not just the basics of food, clothing and shelter, but also medical and counselling support, non-formal education with mainstreaming into the government school system, lifeskills and sexual health education, yoga and meditation, fun recreational trips and exposure visits, participation in external programs such as FM Radio on children’s concerns, and in district and state sports and cultural events, and so on. Children in Nammane form themselves into six children’s committees dealing with nutrition, cleanliness and hygiene, recreation, education (academics), and so on, and manage the Shelter with the support of Caretakers.
Nammane therefore provides children with a lot more than food and shelter – it gives them a holistic future built on the foundations of care, protection, child participation and non-discrimination within a child-friendly environment that frees them to open up, share their views with others and participate in decisions affecting their lives. This contributes to the development of healthy attitudes to life, personal and social development, self-awareness and transformation to a responsible, self-sufficient and independent young person. More importantly, Nammane provides children with the opportunity to retrieve their childhood, to enjoy their time as children – as is their right!
Nammane follows a two-fold approach in its work:
• Crisis intervention, a 24-hour support service providing immediate nutritional, residential, counseling, medical and legal care to children rescued through the Child Helpline.
• A continuum of care from rescue to rehabilitation, compensation, restoration, education (both non-formal education and formal schooling), and later skill training and job placement support at APSA’s Kaushalya Skill Training Centre for street, urban slum and working children rescued by APSA or referred by other NGOs. This period can extend from 1 to 3 years.
• Special emphasis on shelter for girl children, as the number of shelters for girls (either government or NGO-promoted) are far less than the need.
At Nammane, children are supported to make life choices – about what they want to do, and how to work towards a future that will best support their interests and professional skills. This helps to create a sense of independence and responsibility for their own lives in children when they leave the shelter. This, however, does not come automatically. Therefore, Nammane has multiple activities that help build such capacities in children, including the following:
• Preparation of care plans with the participation of children for those from the 7th, 10th and NIOS classes as well as children on short stay (referred by other NGOs)
• Para-professional and professional counseling to children rescued from distress or conflict situations
• Home visits to assess family background and socio-economic situation, particularly prior to restoration of a rescued child to the family
• Regular health check-ups for all children by a certified medical doctor to monitor children’s health and referral of children with major illnesses to government hospitals for further treatment
• Referral of children to other shelters for care and protection, education and skill training
• Awareness programs on child and gender rights, child trafficking, environment concerns, alcohol and substance abuse and community issues
• Training programs on vocational education, health and hygiene, lifeskills and sexual health education, leadership and skill-building, personality development, animation, script writing and basic photography
• Summer camps that include multiple activities such as inputs on child rights, gender, alcohol and substance abuse, exposure visits (police station, bank, post office), art and craftwork, motivational talks from external resource speakers, physical exercises, sports and cultural activities
Nammane also collaborates with government departments in rescue and repatriation of children from distress situations. These include the Child Helpline, Government Child Care Institutions, Labour and Police Departments and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of various states. Since inception till date, Nammane has helped more than 20,000 children in various distress situations. Over 70% of them have been girls.
