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Sunaayy Is Changing The Lives Of Street Children: Richa Prasant

Richa Prasant is the founder of Sunaayy Foundation. She has an experience with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. In 2009, Richa started Sunaayy Foundation she wants to set up a support system for children at Sunaayy ensuring their enrollment in regular schools, so that their parents are not burdened […]

Richa Prasant is the founder of Sunaayy Foundation. She has an experience with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. In 2009, Richa started Sunaayy Foundation she wants to set up a support system for children at Sunaayy ensuring their enrollment in regular schools, so that their parents are not burdened with accompanying costs while the children retain their love for learning. Sunaayy is collaborating with various vocational centres for older children who cannot be enrolled in schools to acquire set skills which helps them find employment and eventually, financial freedom.

Richa Prasant changed lives of street children by helping them enrol in schools.

Q: Tell us why you decided to start the foundation in 2009. Before that, where did you work in the corporate world?

A: It wasn’t like anything happened out of nowhere that made me feel compelled to form an NGO. But I believe that empathy was ingrained in my DNA, my thinking, and the way I saw the world as a result of my upbringing and the home environment in which I grew up. My house was usually buzzing with activity. We never ate a meal alone, and we always included people who worked in our house. My father, who worked for the government, was always willing to go out of his way to assist individuals in need. That’s how we were raised to believe: life has to be lived. My life began to develop in a predictable pattern as I grew older. I graduated from Kolkata’s Institute of Advanced Management with a bachelor’s degree in hotel management. Hewlett-Packard, an American global information technology business, was my previous employer. I was well established in my corporate job. At the same time, I never felt as if I had not yet arrived at my destination. I’ve always felt that I wasn’t exactly living up to my potential in my position.

Q: What does Sunaayy Foundation do?

A: Sunaayy Foundation is a philanthropic organisation that works in the fields of education and human rights. It aims to give hope to underserved children, women, and communities by assisting them in developing skills and resources that will help them lessen their vulnerability in the long run. It all began with six schoolchildren whom they tutored. Sunaayy Foundation began as a small, improvised operation serving out-of-school children in the Vasant Kunj neighbourhood of New Delhi. They became increasingly resolute as the days passed. Winds of will, hard effort, and, of course, a lot of support from their kind friends and well-wishers brought down the hurdles that felt like dunes in the desert.

Q: How does the idea of an outside makeshift school for slum children for a few hours work?

A: Sunaayy began with the notion of volunteering, in which people may come out and join hands with their collective thoughts to address larger challenges that the country and the globe confront. So, instead of lamenting and complaining about what the government and others around us are doing, we all want to do something but don’t. Sunaayy is an effort where we can all do our part to make a difference in our lives and the lives of others who don’t have access to the same things that we do as affluent Indians. So, because these children’s parents both work and there is no one to look after them, the older sibling takes on the primary responsibility of the household, which includes cleaning, cooking, washing, and filling up water. Looking up to the children, we tell them to finish their work, bring your sibling along, and come spend four hours learning with us. That is the major goal of the job we are attempting.

Q: What is your foundation’s primary source of funding? What is the most significant cost you have?

A: It all began with my own money. Then I turned to my friends and family for help. More people stepped in from all around the world as word of my efforts spread and my aim became obvious and powerful. The number of volunteers and helping hands continued to rise. Some organised school supplies such as backpacks and crayons, while others were in charge of fetching them their meals. Many friends offered to design, arrange, gather, and fundraise from all around the world. Sunaayy now has around 100 volunteers and has had a ten-year influence on thousands of lives. It has used a multi-intervention method to increase programme quality and outreach with the help of several funders. We now have FCRA accreditation, which will allow us to reach out to more individuals for resources, even across nations, to keep our effort going. Our mechanisms are also being put in place and adjusted to guarantee that working and handling resources is as efficient as possible. Overall, we’re headed in the right way.

Q: In the last 11 years, how many children have benefited?

A: When I started Sunaayy in 2009, we started with 10 children and over the years it became 20 to 50 to 200 and we currently have more than 500 children with us. The plan is to return these students to their regular schooling. As a result, the informal learning environment that we have developed assists children in transitioning to the official school system, while also attracting a large number of children who are new to the area and enrolling them in our programme.

Q: Education has had a difficult time in the previous two years. How did you pull it off?

A: The years 2020-2021 will be ones that we will not soon forget. Not in the near future. Perhaps never. These years exposed the weakness and vulnerability that had previously been covered behind carpets of supposed wealth and growth, kicked undercover by feet racing about their daily chores. These hurried feet came to a halt in the year 2020. And as the stillness became louder in 2021, we began to hear the screams of people who had been forgotten by civilization. Daily wage earners, basti residents, and labourers. Since physical schools have closed, instructors have had to figure out how to keep the children’s education going. Thus, teachers were given training in online teaching methods, and in leadership development, and the English language.

Teachers felt secure enough after this training to return to the communities they had been working with, with all safety precautions in place, to engage with parents and persuade them to allow their children to join online classes. They went from home to house, interacting with parents, persuading them, assisting them in downloading the necessary platform for the courses, educating and training them on how to access online teaching and training, and so on. Aside from that, the teachers handed out sanitary napkins and other hygiene goods, as well as food ingredients and rationed, prepared food. Sunaayy Foundation also held an old gadgets drive to collect outdated electronics and donate them to kids in need. Similar activities continued through the rage of the pandemic through 2020 and 2021.

Q: How do you ensure that these youngsters are appropriately cared for, and how do you gain their trust?

A: Our instructors keep in regular contact with the families to keep them informed about their children’s growth. Every day, the youngsters are led by their instructors and securely returned home.”

Sunaayy is a support system for children designed to guarantee that they are enrolled in normal schools and that their desire to pursue their education is not limited by the associated fees that their parents must bear. The children’s lives have been intertwined for ten years, and I consider myself privileged to be so closely involved with their lives. While we cannot guarantee that every kid will return to mainstream school, we can guarantee that for those four hours each day, the children will be safe and well-cared for.

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