VOICE - A Voluntary Organization in Community Enterprise is a project and trust started in 1991 in Bombay. VOICE aims at the overall development of about 1.5 lakh street children whose needs have not been covered by other social organizations.
VOICE was conceived after a personal experience of the founder Mr. Victor Bansiwar with children placed in Bombay's remand homes. The core members of the trust comprise of doctors, teachers and other individuals who empathize with the street children, their problems and needs.
The emphasis of VOICE is on developing a street- based education program that is geared towards literacy, awareness building and skills training. The accent of the literacy program is therefore non-formal education.
VOICE mainly reaches out to children from the railway platforms of some of the most crowded parts of Bombay. These children spend their time performing all kinds of menial jobs like rag picking, scavenging garbage, collecting trash, cleaning cars and peddling drugs. Teaching classes are held on the railway platform itself, at a time, when the children are relatively free from their work. About 300 children in the age group of 6-12 years participate in this program, 20% being girls. It takes about 3 months for an illiterate child to reach the level of grade 1. Since these children find it difficult to adjust to the system of formal education VOICE's teachers have initiated Bridge Courses which acquaint them with the way a regular school functions. Today about 50 out of the 300 children in the VOICE program attend formal schools. The VOICE teachers closely monitor their progress and take follow-up action to ensure that they stay in school.
VOICE plans to expand its literacy program through a formal education scheme in a big way. Even though the present scope of the program is primarily non-formal education, many of these children attend public schools in Bombay. VOICE supports these children by providing learning materials, uniforms and health care. Academic progress can be measured through the methods used by the schools they attend.
The main sources of funds for VOICE are mainly
private donors and therefore it has not been possible to plan for more ambitious programs without a
steady source of funds. VOICE is actively looking
for sponsors for its literacy programs.
