Activities
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a) Punarbal Shikshya Sadan:
Punarbal Plus opened a school "Punarbal Shikshya Sadan" in May 2007, a school without discrimination. "Punarbal Shikshya Sadan" imparts education to all the children but the priority of school is those children who are infected and affected by AIDS and the children who do not have an opportunity to attend school due to poverty. Punarbal Shikshya Sadan is registered with The Ministry of Education (District Education office). The school started with 35 children with more than half infected with HIV. The children were from different care and support centers, orphanages and from poor families. Since the school did not have support from anywhere, it started with self initiation of the board members of the school which slowly started getting momentum. Punarbal Shikshya Sadan provides formal education to the children enrolled in line with the education standards set by the Government. It has been providing safe, structured environment, the emotional support and supervision of adults and the opportunity to learn socialization and develop social networks. Lunch and milk is provided in school as most of the children are under medication. With reference to nutritional support, food charts has been prepared to provide low cost locally available rich high protein, carbohydrate and less fat foods. A work out is made on the requirements of children's need basis. Children are involved in extracurricular activities such as singing, dancing, drawing, poem and story writing etc. Bus service is provided for pick up and drop; Hospital Service is provided as per need.
With the growing demand to cater educational service from the parents who are infected and are living in remote areas, Punarbal Plus has realized the need of hostel/care and support center in its school premises. It therefore opened a hostel on 25th November, 2009. The hostel has 18 beds and at present 14 infected children are residing. All the children are either orphans or only have single parent. They have come from the Far & Mid Western Regions of Nepal (Aacham & Kailali district). Both the districts are underdeveloped and poverty level is very high. Men either could not find work in their villages or the wages is very less to support their family. Therefore they tend to migrate in India in search of work. In India they work as a seasonal workers and are often involved in unsafe sexual practices. For this reason most of the village people are infected with HIV. The conditions of the children infected/affected by HIV are living in a very feeble condition in the absence of the parents and poverty. They do not attend the school due to prevalent discrimination. Therefore, by opening a hostel/care & support center Punarbal Plus has taken another step to serve the children. This venture would allow more children to attend the school and make the living without any support in the future. Punarbal Plus will make sure that in time these children are integrated in other schools.
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