SUPPORT aims to eradicate substance use among street children and homeless youth to prevent high-risk behaviour.
Mission
To encourage street children and homeless youth to give up their drug habit and reduce risk behaviour through a process of detoxification, rehabilitation and mainstreaming.
Our Goals
1.
De-addiction
•
Awareness / Detoxification through medical treatment.
•
Reduce the stress and anxiety caused by street life / HIV.
•
Improve physical and mental condition through nutrition, hygiene and awareness programs.
2.
Education
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Enrollment of children into regular schools.
•
Vocational training for productive jobs in society.
3.
Repatriation
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Unite runaway street children with their families, where possible.
•
Job placement, after successful completion of education / vocational training.
Support - Pledge
Just for Today
I should be free from drugs
I will listen to positive voices
I understand I can change
I can transform failure to success
I will enjoy my day.
The key words add up to flute. This simple pledge is the basis for the transformation work we undertake at
SUPPORT.
SUPPORT's Past
We are one of the very few organisations in India
offering a residential rehabilitation programme for drug using street children.
We try to act as facilitators in the life of the children to bring about a
positive change in the lifestyle and get into the mainstream.
The rehabilitation programme for child drug users
commenced in the year 1993 with five children in a small room given by the State
Government. Looking at the success of the programme, the Mumbai Municipal
Corporation offered a place at Vakola, Santacruz (East), Mumbai. The
rehabilitation centre was shifted here in 1997 and ever since the first batch of
15 children, the residential rehabilitation centre has successfully run the
programme for hundreds of children.
SUPPORT's Present
Future Plans
More space to take more children off the streets
The magnitude of the problems for the large population of street children in a
developing country is so huge that, if we aim to wipe every tear from every eye,
we would end up wiping a few tears from a few eyes. Hence, we continuously
strive to expand our reach and facilities for the children as evident from our
progress over the years. It is always heartbreaking to refuse a young child due
to lack of space either at the day care or rehabilitation centres. We would
require additional premises to take more children off the streets from the
thousands of children living on the streets of Mumbai.
Offering more vocational options to the
youth for integration into the mainstream
We are also working on expanding our vocational training programme to include
other vocations / skills to enhance the options available to both boys and girls
who successfully go through our rehabilitation process and strive to join the
mainstream of society.
Our current programme includes carpentry, welding, screen-printing & masonary
options for boys and cooking, tailoring options for girls.
We would like the children to have additional options like catering, hair dressing, nursing options to enable them to
become financially independent and responsible citizens leaving behind their background of indulging in
petty crime and prostitution on the streets.
Resource Centre
SUPPORT will initiate a resource center in the coming years that will cost efficiently spread their model and learning to other NGO’s and government agencies working with drug addicted children. The objectives of developing this resource center are :
•
Institutionalizing the knowledge accumulated over 20 years of working with drug addicted street youth.
•
Building capacity for SUPPORT staff as well as other organizations.
•
Spreading awareness and knowledge to places outside Mumba.
•
Generating additional revenue through training programmes.
