Inspiration
Haimanti Sen took a step towards change and changed the lives of many children who beg, do some minor work, and sleep on the footpaths. However, more than 80 million children between 6 and 14 remain deprived of education despite the government’s efforts.
Seeing the children begging on the streets, she always felt like talking to them; her curiosity to know about the situation turned her efforts into “Junoon”. Haimanti Sen, initially, was able to get 20 children admitted in Junoon.
In the initial phase, it was the most challenging task for Sen to convince the parents of these children. Due to the children going to school, income earned from them was lost, due to which their families were not ready to send their children to the school.
After a lot of effort, Hemanti Sen was able to win the trust of the family members of the children. Now the parents of the children see their children’s future in Hemanti Sen’s NGO, Junoon. Haimanti Sen now understands those children very well, and this is the secret of their success.
“Change is the end result of all true learning”
– Leo Buscaglia.
Education brings a fundamental change in us, and this fundamental change can bring change in society. So it is not important what we think or what we can do; important is what we did.
What they Do
In simple words, Junoon work is, these children do not want to go to school or do not go to school despite having government schools. She tried to find the reason behind this and then tried to find solutions to those reasons and acted likewise. This is the whole story of Junoon. But this task is not as easy as it sounds.
Municipality schools are not ready to accept these children in their schools, as these children are not attending schools every day, they come to take only free things received from school, and they abuse others. And even if the 8-year-old is don’t know the alphabet, schools are not ready to give them admission.
So Sen, teaching them primary education and well manners to make them ready for school. She started taking tuitions for these students on skywalks at railway stations, where these kids were begging or doing some jobs. She takes these preschool tuition for around one year per student.
Team Junoon make them ready for everyday school with drop and pick up back from the school facility and take precaution so that the children don’t miss school for any reason.
Junoon has 80 students across four centres, which Hemanti Sen and several volunteers run. In addition, Junoon provides lunch to the children and raises funds for their NGO.
Funding
Junoon fund comes in the form of crowd-funding and individual donors. Volunteers handle the marketing part and fundraising parts. In addition, Junoon now tries to raise funds from its CSR activities and corporate collaboration.
Why Skywalk?
Explaining this, Sen says that we go to children, not children are coming to them, so the place of study must be near the children’s house or near the railway station, where they spend most of their time. It is also beneficial to grow awareness in people passing from skywalks, and Junoon has four centres.
Conclusion
Haimanti Sen’s journey conveys that to do something remarkable; we don’t always need more resources; whatever we have, we can do it. We need to take the first step. If any of you want to join Haimanti Sen Ji campaign #HumHaiJunoon, then you can join.
All we have to do is find just one child around us who is deprived of the mainstream and give him study material, notebooks etc.
