Helping Children Get An Education
For our honeymoon, my wife Lisa and I decided to travel to Mumbai a few years ago and dedicate our time to helping Vision Rescue with their cause. We both have a passion for education and children, and I can't begin to tell you how amazing it was to meet everyone in their organization. I'm humbled by their generosity, kindness and passion for breaking the cycle of poverty in their community by helping future generations rise above to achieve their potential.
Photography by Anthony Furlong
How I could help
While there, I volunteered as a photographer to capture the children and the work they do in their schools. These photos will help them with social awareness and international outreach programs. In the future, I hope to return to produce several short films for them to further use. I believe the work they are doing is so important to the future of our world. If you have a chance, please follow them and help spread the word. We might not be there every day to feed and teach these young kids ourselves, but we can still help.
Vision Rescue
"65 million people in India live in slums as per the 2011 statistics. 47% of children in slums are estimated to be malnourished and many of them are uneducated and in high risk situations. With a little love and care, Vision Rescue seeks to empower these individuals and bring dignity to entire communities."
Their mission
Freeing children from all forms of exploitation by ENGAGING and SUSTAINING in education, which empowers them to change mindsets and make good life choices that promote intergenerational transformation.
But What is a slum community?
Slums represent one of the main types of housing in many growing urban cities from Kibera in Nairobi, to New Delhi and Mumbai. The effects of poverty related to the growth of slums span everything from poor health to education.
As informal (and often illegal) housing, slums are often defined by:
Unsafe and/or unhealthy homes (e.g. lack of windows, dirt floor, leaky walls and roofs)
Overcrowded homes
Limited or no access to basic services: water, toilets, electricity, transportation
Unstable homes: weak structures are often blown away or destroyed during storms and earthquakes
No secure land tenure (i.e. the land rights to live there).
As such families living in slums lack the crucial conditions they need to live decently and thrive as human beings. Children are very often unable to do their homework due to leaks and the lack of available light and electricity. Therefore these children tend to perform much worse at school and their drop-out rates are much higher than anywhere else.
Vision Rescue is now implementing a community-based approach in order to identify and respond to the root causes of children being disengaged from the school system. This includes a case management approach for particularly vulnerable children and families. Within local communities, various educational programs are provided, catering to the needs of various children. Medical and dental services and skills training opportunities are also provided, all focused on the primary mission to engage children in education.
Working with families to identify the barriers to children accessing their right to education and supporting families to address those barriers and open up possibilities for children through formal education, has the potential to not only transform individual lives and families but generations.
Thank you for taking the time to have a look at this. It's up to us to improve the health and well-being of future generations. I hope this gives people something to think about as we continue to live our busy lives. If you feel inspired, you can help them out with a tax deductible donation and sponsor a child in need. Just visit their website for more information.