With children staying indoors for days on end, the question of how to keep them engaged constructively is bound to knock on the door.
Two NGOs that work with underprivileged sections, one of them specifically with underprivileged children, address that question in two different ways.
Arunodayam, a 27-year-old organisation based in Royapuram, which predominantly works with children in north Chennai has formed a WhatsApp group to reach out to them.
“Through this group, we educate children about COVID –19. Here, we encourage them to sing songs and come up with shorts skits about the contagion, sitting in the safety of their home, and share their creative work on their WhatsApp group. It is important that they are sensitised about the seriousness of the pandemic because north Chennai is densely populated and containing the spread in case of an outbreak in this part of the city will be a tough task,” says Virgil D Sami, executive director, Arunodayam.
Arunodayam works with children in Ennore, Thiruvottriyur, Korukkupet and Tondiarpet.
Meanwhile, brothers N. Deepan and N. Rajan from Korukkupet, who are parai-percussion artists, have shared their chess and carrom boards to help children in their neighbourhood beat boredom.
Thozhamai which works with the underprivileged at Tami Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements in Perumbakkam and Semmenchery, is also educating children on how to stay safe during this COVID – 19 crisis, but during visits by its volunteers to these tenements.
A. Devaneyan, founder-director of Thozhamai, says, “Our volunteers visit them and dwell on the necessity of frequent washing of hands and keep explaining about the possible symptoms and the available government healthcare services.”
Devaneyan points out at these tenements social distancing is a challenge due to the size of the flats: “At the TNSCB tenements in Semmenchery, there are around 6,700 families and a family of four or five live in flats measuring just 150 sq ft. Likewise, the TNSCB tenement in Perumbakkam is home to 16,000 families. Here, the flat is slightly bigger. It measures 220 sqft.’
Devaneyan says the government should ensure free supply of essentials like groceries, milk and snacks to residents of these tenements.
