El Shaddai works with abandoned street children and those from poor or broken families in Goa and other parts of India providing them with food, shelter and education to foster economic independence and stability in life.
A Story of how the Human Spirit can make a difference.
Lulled by the Waters of the Arabian Sea and with Shady Palms swaying in the breeze, Goa’s seemingly relaxed lifestyle and white sandy beaches has always made it an alluring and ideal introduction to India, making it one of its most visited tourist destinations. The tourism is a blessing, but what we do not see behind the façade is that poverty stricken families from poorer states of India migrate here in order to find better living conditions.
There are many runaway children who end up as child labourers, beggars or rag pickers near the beach sites, market places and juveniles in conflict with Law. The poor families end up staying in slums, parents find daily wages labour job while their children roam aimlessly at the construction site or on the road. These children face various kinds of child abuse and malnutrition. The parents of these children are uneducated and they do not understand the importance of sending a child to school. Secondly most of these street, slum children don’t have their birth certificates or any documents of their identity, thus making it even more difficult for the children to get into a local school.
The story of ‘El Shaddai’ began with co- founders Matthew Kurian and Anita Edgar. In 1994 Matthew started his mission working as a pastor amongst the poor. He had a desire to establish homes for the underprivileged and since then has been helping children in need. Anita Edgar came to Goa in 1996 and saw many deprived children in need of help. Realising their future was bleak, she shared Matthew's vision and together they started a charity called ‘El Shaddai’ Charitable Trust in 1997.
El Shaddai’s fieldworkers first visit these needy children and invite them to Slum school, community outreach services like medical check-up camps, vaccination camp etc. They take a holistic approach and teach the children and women basic of alphabets, numbers and importance of education.
Those Slum children, lucky enough to have parents, the possibility exists to integrate them into a school where fieldworkers will admit them, supervise them and provide them with basic school requirement and extra coaching and help they may need. Other children from streets and slums are invited to El Shaddai Day Care shelters where they can have a bath, change into clean clothes, have a nutritious meal, do non formal education and interact with other children and friendly staff - a concept many children all over the world take for granted.
Often the fieldworkers find children who are orphaned, children of single mothers and children in exceptionally difficult circumstances, being malnourished, without proper clothes on them and psychologically disturbed through abuse and worse. For these children, El Shaddai have six children’s residential homes which help them to get back to their proper childhood, education and better life. It gives them chance to dream again and have a hope for future.
El Shaddai has supported hundreds of children who are now doing well in life; some are working as professionals with well-established firms, some have their own enterprise businesses and others are doing extremely well in corporate world. There are many of them who have gone back to the organization to give back to the other unfortunate children that they were once.
El Shaddai runs the Tremara Community Centre, situated in Chimbel outskirt of Panaji city, which supports women and children as follows:
- It provides after school coaching tutorials and helps them with their homework. Total of 150 children attend this centre.
- It provides vocational classes like computer course, stitching course etc for women and young youth. The certificate courses are offered for six month duration, after which these women either take up some work at home of stitching or work for small office. Present batch for vocational courses, there are 40 individuals.
- It conducts immunization every month for children and infants; approximately 100 children/infants are vaccinated
Update - Grant Provided by One Kind Act - 03 August 2015
A grant of £1500 was made for supporting women and street children in the Tremara Community Centre
What One Kind Act Has Done:
One Kind Act has funded El Shaddai projects in Goa where they are reaching out to more than 3000 lives by sponsoring some of the children’s expenses for their three Day Care Shelters and providing essentials such as medical aid, food and clothing and bedding . Our initial contribution has transformed their lives.
For more details go to www.childrescue.net
Update - Progress and Reviews - 15 June 2015
Trustee Naina Chodha’s Personal Appeal.
I was introduced to Matthew one of the two co-founders for El Shaddai through my yoga teacher and friend. I was touched and to some extent horrified by his personal story of homelessness and harsh struggles as a young boy even contemplating and trying to end his own life several times when it all became too much. I knew from that point I would like to get involved in some way to support the charity that he has devoted his life to.
El Shaddai is an organisation that exists to open Homes, Shelters & Community Centres for the street, slum, underprivileged and needy children providing them with the basic necessities of life, so as to develop their personalities leading to a brighter future.
The motto of the charity is to "bring childhood to children who never had it".
Many of the children have been rescued from difficult situations- they may have been sleeping on the streets, abused or orphaned. By providing basic resources such as food, shelter clothes and medicine, the children are encouraged to realise their full potential through education and daily support and care.
El Shaddai supports children and women and has currently helped over 3000 children through its various programmes to achieve economic independence and stability in life.
It’s a privilege to find a charity that has such a ripple effect impact of on the lives of destitute children , and that not only does their work change the future of the child but the future of a family, and community as a whole.
With the help of One Kind Act, I would like to contribute by allocating funds to be used towards school uniforms, bedding and medical care for the children. Also I will be taking the opportunity next year to visit the homes and learning more about the work that is undertaken and interacting with the children on a variety of levels.
As you may know I am raising money by baking cakes and treats and by walking the great wall of China in October to help raise awareness and to raise funds, some of which will be allocated to the El Shaddai Charity. Please see the events page for more details
For the benefit of our kind supporters who have donated with OKA to help towards this charity, I decided to go and vet it to see that their monies are being validly spent. Equally importantly, when I realised that I could to do some voluntary work there, I felt this was an opportunity to unveil that compelling notion I had of doing good in India. So hence my visit to El Shaddai...
Goa, due to tourism, is relatively rich compared to other states of India, Therefore, a large majority of children in Goa are from migrant families, that is, those who've come from neighbouring states like Karnataka looking for work. They come penniless and their dreams of a better life most often don't come to any fruition. They end up having to live in slums, some find work, others turn to alcohol and the children who can't speak the local language of Goa, are out on the streets. Hence, the overwhelming number of stray or abandoned children in Goa....... the ones that El Shaddai take in. Those children who do have a home to go to, be it the slums, are given a daily hot meal at their community centres scattered around Goa. Those children who are alone in this world are provided shelter as well as food in their care homes. In both cases, the children are also given the golden ticket of education.
I offered my services to anywhere El Shaddai needed me. As it turned out, my main input ended up being at the main flagship of El Shaddai, Shanti Niketan, their non-formal teaching school for 3-16 year old street children. This is an impressive site with several brightly painted good-sized classrooms that house around 30 children in each, a very large well-maintained paved playground with several drinking taps, an airy hall used for regular assemblies and performing arts and a recently acquired football pitch at the rear end of the school where the children are made to play football etc. three times a week as part of their curriculum. The children come here through a strict screening system whereby each identified case for refuge is evaluated and granted to those in desperate need. The rest are offered daily meals in the neighbouring community centres.
Education at this school is basic and primarily centres around learning how to read and write for the younger children followed by a full range of subjects from age 13-16, including IT. Other important principles of the education are that of character and confidence building, good moral behaviour, aspirational goals and smooth integration into society when they leave El Shaddai. There is no specific religious study but there does appear to be an underlying acknowledgment of the Christian faith. As in an incentive to do well in their studies, the children are part of a reward system whereby if they are awarded enough stars, they allowed to chose small gifts for themselves from their gift shop. It appears to make many children very eager to study. At public holiday times of Diwali and Christmas, the parents of these children are encouraged to collect them to spend some family time together. They're given food and drink tokens so that money is not squandered on drugs and alcohol. Those who don't have homes to go to are kept at El Shaddai and occupied with sports and activity camps. And now that El Shaddai has now been established almost 20 years, most of the original batch of street children who were taken in by Matthew and Anita (the other co-founder) in 1996 have now become independent working people, some of whom work in helping to run El Shaddai. Having spoken to a few of them, they simply can't express the immense gratitude they feel towards El Shaddai in granting them an opportunity to claw back from their life of destitution.
During the hours I spent at the Shanti Niketan, I found myself primarily involved in teaching phonics of the English alphabet to all age groups. The younger kids, age 3-5, proved to be a real challenge and at one time when I had 12 of them under my charge, I managed to lose the attention of 10 of them! However, of the two that were left on my table (whilst the remaining 10 were rolling around the floor!), it was so gratifying to be able to resonate with them and make some advancement in their understanding of the English language. In other classes, I was able to connect with different age groups on different levels; with the 10-11 year olds by showing them personal photos of my life in London, with the 15-16 year olds by talking what they enjoyed about the subjects they were learning about and what aspirations they had for when they left El Shaddai. A poignant time on both days was lunch time. In the classroom, the children are served freshly cooked food out of tiffin boxes. Until recently, El Shaddai was preparing these meals locally at each of their sites but more recently, all meals for all sites are now prepared at a newly built central kitchen, the latest of its expenditures through donations. Daily, it provides three meals, each balanced with protein and vitamins, as advised by a local nutritionist, who suggests appropriate menus on a seasonal basis. The kitchen is subject to strict quality control and its economies of scale means food costs are greatly reduced. As I watched the children eat, I felt so humbled that these children were blessed with wholesome food in their stomachs, a safe bed to sleep in at night and an education that rivals most government schools in India. It was a beautiful moment when the realisation came through of the wonders of El Shaddai......
What is also very impressive about El Shaddai is the number of different initiatives taken forward by them. In an attempt to fund raise themselves, rather than simply rely on donations, they have set up a private child care nursery for 1-5 year olds. This primarily caters for the children of foreign visitors who come to holiday in Goa for short duration of time, perhaps 3 months, but are looking for stimulation for their young children. El Shaddai also gets involved in numerous other projects, amongst many are Child Abuse campaign, rebuilding of dilapidated houses and vocational training eg Beauty courses. Just as importantly, El Shaddai recognise the fact that rural villagers should not migrate to Goa, only to end up in slums with no future, lose their identity and their own culture and have no idea of what to do with their lives ahead. El Shaddai has projects to try and empower them in their own villages. So they get involved in projects like Gift a Cow, Wells Treatment campaign and Donate a Bore Well which pumps clean water into a village.
When I didn't go to help at Shanti Niketan school, I spent time visiting the community centres where I helped in serving up their daily meals, the shelter homes where I spent time getting to know the children and inspiring them to lead better lives and the slums to witness how the children were being attended to and their mothers were being empowered with new skills such as the dressmaking. It was all so rewarding. And it felt a little surreal that I was doing this all on my own, thousands of miles away from my family and familiar and comfortable environment. I would recommend it to everyone. And I would say that El Shaddai is truly an amazing cause. It reaches out to 3,500 children in Goa, through sheer love and compassion. These children are so loving and simply want to be loved. God forbid what would happen to these children if it were not for El Shaddai......
Community Centres:-
Murgao : Stepping Stones
Calangute: Little Acorns
Old Goa: Sahara
Shelter Homes:
2-5 year olds: House of Kathleen
5-16 year old girls: Rainbow & House of Norma
5-16 year old boys: Victory House
16-18 year old girls: The Cottages
About One Kind Act
One Kind Act Change Communities and lives of others globally who suffer as a result of Poverty of Health, Nutrition and Education and may have Fallen Through The Net of the larger charities. Learn More here
Its great to know your support towards El Shaddai Street Child Rescue in India. Its a wonderful charity working with thousands of Street, slum children; feeding, educating and giving the underprivileged children hope for Future. This charity has Children's residential homes, Day Care Shelters, Slum Schools, Community Centers, Non Formal School and many other program to support women and children. Keep up the good work always!!
A wonderful worthwhile cause to support. Well done OKA for your support, keep up the good work. MD