Sarva Seva Sangh (SSS) is a registered philanthropic NGO of Divine Word Missionaries in Andheri, Mumbai. It was inaugurated on 5th October 2003. It has a humble beginning. It works for the rehabilitation of Children at high risk (CAR). We work for the rehabilitation of street and working children, rag pickers and their children, school drop out youth, orphans and children living with and affected by HIV / AIDS. Ursuline Sisters are assisting us with personnel and dedicated service since the beginning.
Vision
Moved by the love of God, transforming lives of the marginalized through the empowering presence.
Mission
Sarva Seva Sangh is committed to the holistic rehabilitation of children at high risk – the street and working children, children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, school dropouts, waste picker’s children – and of alcoholic and substance abusers, the poor and the marginalized, rehabilitating and integrating them into the main stream of the society, irrespective of caste, creed and culture. We do this through formal and non-formal education, community college, medical care, advocacy programmes and net working with likeminded institutions.
SSS Mumbai has been slowly yet consistently progressing towards becoming a centre for the transformation of many lives. We function not solely as a charitable organization, but as a centre offering support and accompaniment to those who are trying to make progress in life.
Our activities at present
Our present activities revolve around three sectors of the society: the children with minimum possibilities of advancing in life, the youth whose progress has been truncated in life and the men and women who are looking for identity and recognition in the society. We don’t wish to be patrons in their process of transformation, rather partners in their journey.
- Street and slum children: SSS works for children in slums, especially the children of rag pickers and those living in pavements and street. SSS has seven Baalwadis for these children. More than sixty children are placed in near by schools and twenty five girls children are placed in a near by hostel for formal education. We provide for all their educational needs. Weekly medical care and nutritional support to these children. We also conduct life skill and personality development classes to these children.
- Waste Pickers: We started working with waste pickers because we realized that there are more than a hundred thousand of them in the Mumbai City and only a few NGOs work for their cause and none was found operating in this area. We realized that they live in subhuman conditions either on the pavement or on such places where others would consider totally unhealthy to live in. On the other hand, their working conditions are one of the worst in the city. Of all the waste pickers, 80% are women and most of the men in the household work either as gutter cleaners or in the construction sites. We’ve developed a three fold approach to their situation:
- Giving them identity: The majority had no government recognized identity card of any kind. We work in tandem with the Public Distribution Office and obtain for them Ration Card and all the other benefits that come with it
- Small Savings and Credit: We have formed so far nine Bachat Gats (Self Help Groups), where every month the women deposit a certain amount in the bank as a group. When they are in need they can take a loan from the group on minimum interest rates. This helps them to get away from the clutches of money lenders who impose exorbitant interests on the loans.
- Awareness and skill development: We have continuous awareness programmes for the women and we have tried some skill development programmes too though we haven’t been very successful in this matter.
- Giving them identity: The majority had no government recognized identity card of any kind. We work in tandem with the Public Distribution Office and obtain for them Ration Card and all the other benefits that come with it
- Community College: It is a job-oriented training for school drop out youth. When we began it was conceived to be 9 month Office Automation Course. Due to some reasons it did not pick up. In 2008 we joined hands with Oasis India and started to offer a course of 4 months on Customer Relation and Sales Course. Again due to some reason Oasis backed off from the project. And now we are doing it by ourselves.
At present we have twelve students in our community college. Of the 110 students who have passed through our SVD Community college, more than 80% are working and drawing a decent salary. More than 40% have enrolled themselves for further studies. The community college is being run in a hall at the Institute of Indian Culture on a rental basis.
- Substance abusers: At present we have limited our activities to conducting biweekly meetings of Alcoholic Anonymous group, family visits and counseling and helping a few in their rehabilitation process. We are planning to start a Counseling and a Day care Intervention Centre. There is a loud cry for help from those who are substance abusers and their families.
- HIV and related issues: Though there are many more well established agencies dealing with this there is not a single agency that offers crisis intervention, awareness and counseling for HIV/AIDS in this area. There are 50 families who are positive, registered with us. We are educating 70 HIV/ AIDS children. We are providing for their education, medical and nutritional needs. A lot of activities and interventions can be undertaken for this target group provided there is much needed funds and space.
We reach out to people irrespective of cast, creed and culture. Doing good requires many hands. We look forward to the collaboration with and co-operation of all who care and dare to make a difference in the lives of these children. You can be a partner in our humanitarian effort. Do you care?
Director
Sarva Seva Sangh,
Mahakali Caves Road,
Andheri East,
Mumbai – 400 093
Tel: 91-022-28237589,