Site Visit
May 2012
Adruta Children’s Home of RAWA Academy
About Adruta Children Home:
Adruta Children Home, a part of RAWA academy, since 1998 has been dedicated to providing homes, education, and love to parent less, unclaimed, deserted and destitute children.
Adruta Children Home in Gadakana, Bhubaneswar,is only one of 8 homes in the state of Orissa. Adruta Children Homes aims to help girl children because of the social disadvantage of being female in India. However, boys and girls are both looked after. Adruta Children Home in Gadakana is dedicated to girl children and currently houses over 60 girls. For the purpose of this site visit, Adruta Children Home in Gadakana, is the home I will be talking about.
Adruta Children home was set up in order to give children who have been less fortunate another chance. The children are provided with healthy meals, an education, extra tutoring outside of school, extra circular activities such as dance, drawing, drumming and singing lessons, new clothes, a big family and lots of love. These children are often receive the top grades in their classes and excel in other school activities.
I arrived to Adruta Children Home in Gadakana early of May 2012 and stayed at the home for about one month. I was accompanied by another friend from the states. My time at Adruta was a true blessing and I hope that I can continue to visit and support Adruta for the rest of my life.
Adruta Children Home in Gadakana is 5 stories and houses around 60 girls. And during my time there I was able to really see how these girls live and the quality of their lives. While I was there it was summer in Orissa, so there was no school. But many of their summer days were filled with extra activities, summer tutoring, and small trips to visit with the children in different homes.
Observations:
1. Adruta is a big family, there is so much love there.
2. Because I spent so much time there I was able to talk with many girls and get to know them. They all find happieness.
3. The girls want to learn new things and enjoy going to school.
4. Adruta teaches their children to have compassion.
5. Many children are better off in this home then if they have had to stay with their families in a village or a slum.
Suggestions:
To be honest there is little I can suggest to the hard working people that keep Adruta running. I would say that Adruta should be a model for other programs with similar goals. I have never been a part of anything so wonderful. What Adruta is doing is amazing.
1. Pen pals in America. I think it would be so good for the girls if we could set up a pen pal system for them to practice their English and to make connections around the world. I have a friend who is currently in charge of an after school program in San Francisco, and she would like to get this started.
Conclusion: Adruta is not simply a place to provide food and shelter to disadvantaged youth. Adruta strives to help each individual child reach their full potential and help them gain the tools they need to lead a happy, fulfilling and successful life. And they are so passionate about their work because it helps the community, the world and their own personal desire to make a difference.