SUPPORT - Society Undertaking poor people's onus for rehabilitation

Vision

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
•	Enrollment of children into regular schools.
•	Vocational training for productive jobs in society.

3.	Repatriation
•	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

Networking with other NGOs

SUPPORT has gained a lot of experience working with drug using street children in Mumbai over the last 15 years. Many NGOs work with street children but very few have the expertise to deal with drug using street children. To share our knowledge with NGOs in other parts of India and build capacity of their staff to interact and work with drug using street children, we decided to network with some of these NGOs. The other objective is to use our methodology - ‘ FLUTE’ (Freedom, Listening, Understanding, Transformation and Enjoyment) as a transformation process in this vulnerable street population. We have started with some grass roots NGOs based in different states of India.

To develop staff capacity of these NGOs, our Director goes to all these organizations and takes capacity building sessions, provides overall guidance on how to work with this target group, evaluates their performance and sets new directions to take the work forward. SUPPORT conducts workshops with their staff in Mumbai to provide overall perspective on street life relating to drug addiction.

Drug Awareness and Prevention programme in Schools

SUPPORT conducts “Drug Awareness and Prevention Programme” among the school students in and around Mumbai, as well as through one of our NGO networking partners in the northern districts of Karnataka state. As per feedback received from the schools, we have also started a training programme for the teachers, to conduct this programme and further disseminate this message among the students in their schools.

The objective of this programme is generating awareness and developing perspective among high school students on the serious ill effects of drug addiction. We have termed this module as ‘Gateway Drugs’, as school children are most susceptible in these years to experiment with drugs. They are also very vulnerable at this age to influences from various sections of society.

More than 7,000 students are benefiting annually through this programme.

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 Mumbai.
•	Generating additional revenue through training programmes.

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