Presentation
In 2003, Volontariat decided to place at the centre Nila Illam, in TTK farm, in order to avoid the risk of the promiscuity, at Souriya, specially during the night, between the elder teenagers with a bad experience on the streets, with the younger children. Another reason was that the younger children risked being taken back onto the streets on their way home from school. Volontariat already had a centre for abandoned and orphaned children, specially girls.
From 2003 the farm at Touttipakkam welcomes every year, between 40 and 50 boys and girls: abandoned or orphaned boys, or coming from families living on the platforms of Pondicherry, and 10 to 15 gypsy children, boys and girls, from the Narikuruvas tribe.
[The Narikuruvas are a semi-nomadic tribe, living in extreme poverty and deplorable hygienic conditions. Thanks to the tenacity and persistence, Volontariat was able to obtain from the regional government an independent plot for permanent housing, with a water point and public solar lighting. However, their living conditions and existence remained uncertain, so some asked their children to be placed on the farm and to provide for their education and instruction, all the children attend local schools.]
These roughly fifty children live in small groups, cared for by foster mothers (and 1 foster father). These women, with their own children, were essentially people in difficulty, widowed, abandoned or maltreated and, as often found in such cases, without a viable existence. As a result, Volontariat set about creating a stable and steady routine, giving them new responsibilities, structured by and centred on domestic tasks and caring for the children.
The children must also have points of reference, achieved by a structured daily routine: wake up, wash, have breakfast, go to school, do their homework, have dinner and go to bed at a set time. They are divided into groups or ‘families’, each cared for by one mother and accommodated in small, separate houses situated in the four corners of the farm, meeting up after school and at weekends. They use the houses “utrumai” originally built for the farm workers. 2 houses were also made in 2004-5 with the help of the Fondation de France. Today they use also the houses “Vaanam”, see below.
Visits and meetings between the children and their families are regularly organized, so as not to lose contact or break invaluable family ties.
Several years have passed since the beginning of the project and about twenty of the elder children now go to boarding schools in the outskirts of Pondicherry and the neighbouring areas, allowing for new children to arrive. The boarding students return at TTK during their school holidays. To receive them in good conditions and to avoid promiscuity, the Volontariat built with the financial help of the French ngo, “La Voix de l’Enfant” several small houses, called “Vaanam”, with a specific design, see a photo here. Today all the girls of the programme are regrouped in these houses.
There is a chance for these children who have lost their parents or whose parents are marginalized by the society to socialize themselves and acquire a rhythm of life, allowing them to integrate in society.
Of course, there are also failures and problems every year, mainly with some gypsy children who cannot handle being separated from their parents or their parents take them back for the nomadic or festival seasons where they are able to earn a bit of money and in the case of girls, where it is possible to prostitute them during festivals.
It is sure that many of the children would need the help of a psychologist, to come over the traumas of their life. Also the persons responsible of the programme would need the advices of a specialist to guide them for a psychologist and specific approach of each child.
