NGO helping kids with free coaching, food

NAVI MUMBAI: Twelve-year-old Preety Yadav from Turbhe was unable to attend the online classes conducted by her school as her parents could not afford a smart phone.

However, she was helped by a city-based NGO, Aarambh, which is providing free coaching to more than 300 students from the slums and red light area of Turbhe during the lockdown.

Her mother, 30-year-old Balika Yadav, said, “Ever since the lockdown started, my daughter was unable to study at home as there was no one to help her. However, with the help of the teachers at Aarambh, she is now doing well in her studies. The teachers are very cooperative and they pay individual attention to the students. My daughter goes to the centre enthusiastically as she also gets food, milk, banana, etc. there.”

The parents of many children here have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and are unable to take care of their families. The NGO is also providing the children with free mid-day meals, six days a week.

Shobha Murthy, 63, founder of the NGO. said, “These children go to the local civic schools or private Hindi medium schools. We have observed that more than 70% of the children cannot attend their online classes as their parents are unable to afford smart phones. Therefore, we are trying to help them with our free coaching classes.

“Due to the pandemic, we cannot take a huge number of students in the same room. Therefore, we have made multiple groups, each consisting of 12 to 15 students. Our classes are from 9am to 5.30pm. Due to the pandemic, we are not taking children below eight years. We learnt that many children were suffering due to their parents’ loss of job, so we started providing them with a proper meal consisting of rice, lentil curry, vegetable, and chapati,” she said.

Murthy said they were offering food through individual donations by different residents. Apart from taking care of the regular children, the NGO is also helping out the special children like the visually-handicapped.

Students from the slums of Turbhe being provided free coaching by Turbhe NGO, Aarambh, during the lockdown. They are also given free refreshments.