udayan care

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Udayan Care, registered in 1994, is a Public Charitable Trust, working for the quality care of disadvantaged children and women and youth for over 20 years.

Vision: To Regenerate the Rhythm of Life of the Disadvantaged.

Theory of Change: There are millions of orphaned and abandoned children in India; in addition, girls from weaker sections of society do not get an equal opportunity to continue their education; professional skills and attitude are lacking among disadvantaged communities to become economically self reliant.

Udayan Care provides homes to orphaned children while also giving girls financial and development support to continue higher education, and communities to train themselves in vocations, by engaging socially committed individuals, who provide a transformative, nurturing and mentoring environment, to help them realise their full potential.

Mission: A nurturing home for every orphaned child, an opportunity for higher education for every girl and for every adult, the dignity of self-reliance and the desire to give back to society.

Our various innovative Programmes are:

1. Udayan Ghars: Based on the belief that a loving home and family is the right of every child, Udayan Ghars, long term residential homes, nurture children, who are orphaned or abandoned in a simulated family environment through a strategy called L.I.F.E – Living In Family Environment. There are single and multi unit Udayan Ghars, wherein 12 children (6-18 years), constitute a unit to give individual attention to each child. This ‘Group Foster Care’ model ensures children love and care by a group of Mentor Parents – socially committed individuals (volunteers), who groom these children with a team of social workers, care givers and supervisors. Udayan Ghars are located in middle class neighborhoods to help children reintegrate with mainstream society. Children receive quality education in some of the best schools. Once they reach the age of 18 years, they move into our Aftercare facilities and continue higher education or vocational training. Since inception in 1996, Udayan Ghars have nurtured 352 children. Presently, 198 children and young adults live at our 13 Udayan Ghars and 2 Aftercare facilities, across Delhi & NCR, Kurukshetra and Jaipur. With a vision to reach out to more children, more homes are in the offing.

2. Udayan Shalini Fellowships (USF): The situation of education for girls in India is abysmal, the biggest hurdle being faced during transition from high school to secondary levels and then to college where dropout rates increase dramatically. Making a conscious choice to support higher education of girls, Udayan Care began Udayan Shalini Fellowships in 2002, in Delhi with 72 girls. Since inception, USF has supported over 3000 girls. Today, many of our girls, whom we call Shalinis (Dignified Women), are pursuing fields like Engineering, Medicine, CA, Computer Sc, among others. Some of the unique features of USF are mentoring and regular motivational workshops to create a force of sensitive, trained and enlightened citizens. To become socially aware and responsible, Shalinis fulfill 50 hours of mandatory social work. USF is now present in 9 cities – Delhi, Kurukshetra, Aurangabad, Dehradun, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Haridwar, Phagwara and Jaipur – with Jaipur as the most recent Chapter.

3. Udayan Care Information Technology and Vocational Training Centres (IT&VT): Based on Udayan Care’s mission to enable every adult the dignity of self-reliance, Udayan Care IT&VT Centres were initiated in 2006 to enable under-served youth and adults improve their livelihood options. Our Centres offer Certificate courses in basic computer knowledge as well as Diploma and Advanced courses in Computer Application and courses in stitching and beauty therapy. Spoken English and life skills training are also a part of the curriculum to make students job ready. Since inception, our 8 IT&VT Centres have equipped over 9000 students across Delhi & NCR with the dignity of self reliance.







4. Advocacy: Udayan Care believes in people-centric advocacy that enables civil society members and organisations to take responsibility to improve the situation of vulnerable sections of society. Consistent efforts on this front have brought on board committed Mentor Parents, educationists, volunteers, corporate fraternity, medical experts and schools who willingly give their time and skills. We endeavor to ensure the protection of child rights, by organising and participating in conferences, seminars, NGO networks and developing policy recommendations. In 2005, we were instrumental in getting the ‘Guardian’ column included in the application forms of Board exams by filing and winning a PIL in the Delhi High Court; earlier the form only had ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ columns, making it difficult for an orphaned children to fill it.

In 2009 we conducted two conferences on ‘Positive Mental Health and the Wellbeing of Children in Institutional Care’ in Delhi and at the national level. In 2013, we conducted two symposia on Aftercare under the Juvenile Justice Act and ICPS, under the banner of a newly formed association “Justice for Children: a Policy Network" - an association of NGOs for protection and advocacy of child rights. Most recently in March 2014, we organised a two day seminar, “Institutionalised Children: Seminar on Standards of Care and Mental Health” the first initiative of its kind, in India, to bring together representatives from the South Asian countries from the domain of child rights, child protection and mental health, to focus on the issue of mental health, care and protection for children living in institutions. Here the academic bi-annual journal, “Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond” was also launched. This ICEB Journal aims to address the gaps in research, knowledge and counselling practices, prevalent in working with institutionalised children, in the 8 South Asian countries.

5. Volunteer & Internship Programme: Udayan Care’s experience has shown that no matter what one does or where one resides, each of us can make a difference to improve the situation of the disadvantaged. Udayan Care’s Volunteer and Internship Programme engage civil society to share their time, skills and resources with less privileged children and youth. Through several volunteering opportunities we enable individuals and corporate in India and globally, to advocate for child rights and be a part of change. Udayan Care’s Internship Programme provides a great opportunity for students to learn and gain on-the-job exposure to the not for profit sector. In 20 years, we have been fortunate to enjoy the support of 500 volunteers annually from India and various countries across the globe.

6. Big Friend Little Friend Programme (BFLF): Long term caring and equal accompaniment is a powerful gift one can give another. With this as the pivotal thought, Udayan Care introduced the Big Friend Little Friend Programme on 24th March 2010; in partnership with Mr. Randy Yeh, founder of New Path Foundation. The Big Friend Little Friend Programme is a unique initiative born out of our belief that adolescents (12-17 years) from underprivileged communities need emotional support and companionship. Since inception, we have matched 74 pairs of Big and Little Friends.

7. Curricula on Life Skills & Health Education: In 2004, Udayan Care published a set of books on health and life skills to be used as part of the curriculum for school children. Pedagogists, health consultants, school teachers and students came together under the umbrella of Udayan Care to formulate a series of books titled “Health is Fun”. Satya Bharti Schools, run by Bharti Foundation, were the first ones to introduce these in their schools and are still using it. Motivated by its success, Udayan Care, keeping in mind the NCERT syllabus for Art of Healthy & Productive Living, created another manual catering to primary school children, titled “Together with Life: A Celebration” – a series of 5 books on health, life-skills, culture, civic awareness, heritage, etc, which are used by many schools in North India.

We are accredited by GiveIndia and Credibility Alliance, organizations that monitor and accredit non-government organisations for transparent and credible performance.

For 2 years in a row, Udayan Care had won the CSO Partners’ Outstanding Annual Report Award within the non-profit sector for transparency and accountability. We are also recipients of the prestigious India NGO Award 2011 (medium category), the Karamveer Puruskar and the PHD Chamber of Commerce Awards for Excellence in Service, among numerous other awards.