On Saturday Don BoscoAjjanahalli hosted the CREAM Evaluation Day for the operations that happened for the past good long years all over Karnataka and in particular in the Districts of Bangalore, Mysore and Ramangara. The overall objective of the evaluation was to identify the effectiveness of CREAM’s current activities and elicit from the participant’s suggestions on how to reinforce the current strategies and thus minimize social injustices. The invitees included CREAM staff and student representatives from Ramanagara, Mysore and Bangalore. Fr. Joy Nedumparambil, The Executive Director of BREADS oversaw the programme throughout the day. The resource persons from The Concerned for Working Children (CWC) MsKavithaRatna led the staff activities while MrGanapathi conducted activities for the children. An estimated 86 members including staff and students were present for the evaluation day. After the welcome message by Rev. Fr. Sony the Rector of Don Bosco, Ajjanahalli, introductions followed and seated in their respective groups, the activities began.
First activity was a brain storming session on finding out the lacking or missing elements in the life of children at their respective geographic locations. The group then identified the root causes to these social problems. Some of the identified factors include false beliefs of general population, lack of urgency from government, lack of education/awareness, unreported incidents, gender discrimination to name a few. The second activity discussed steps to achieve the desired outcomes to the problems discussed in the previous session. The third activity consisted of a recollection on how the situation has improved from 2012 when CREAM project was formed up until 2015. One staff mentioned that ‘If the child was found laboring in 2012, the options on how to tackle that issue or knowledge on the same was very muchlimited. Whereas in 2015, the problem could be immediately resolved by calling 1098 and Childline will take immediate action against the responsible persons or organization’.
The group had lunch at 01.30 and returned for their afternoon session at 2.00pm.The final activity which lasted an hour included discussions on social issues, positives and negatives of the project and the evaluation day as well as areas for improvement. Both staff and student groups shared their opinions and finally they presented their feedbacks. They also had the option of posting confidential feedbacks. At 3pm the discussions closed; tea and snacks were served after which the groups travelled back to their own respective places and then homes.
The childrenwho participated in the workshop were Child Right Club members, Tuition centre members, Makkalagramasabha Children who have obtained HRE training, Children who have been rescued through MCB and Children rescued from child marriage etc.
As for the adult staff members who attended include Representatives of Task Force, School Development and Management Committee, P.R.I members, Peer Educators, Tuition Teachers, Parents, Government officials, Missing Child Bureau Director, Social activists, Co coordinators, Self-help group members, Youth group members and Mr Benny who is the Karnataka State Coordinator for CREAM.
