Description
It’s hard to sleep or stay healthy if you’re always shivering and cold. Dalit families living in poverty in the Patripul slum can’t buy extras like blankets when all their
meagre daily earnings go on food and rent. It can be hard to get warm at night, and young children become more susceptible to illness.
This Christmas we’d like to buy blankets for the children currently attending our GCare centres in Patripul, keeping them healthy and warm in the months ahead. Every pack purchased provides six Dalit children with a blanket each.
Why blankets?
Children in India are particularly vulnerable in two seasons – the monsoons (July – September) and in winter (December-February) when night-time temperatures drop. Families may huddle together for warmth, with no money to purchase blankets. Some of the children resort to using old newspapers or plastic coverings they have found to keep themselves warm.
At the very least, the cold contributes to sickness and ill health in children, but at worst, in prolonged cold spells, some children have died – recently, even a newborn child. Our GCare Centres focus on education, but also on welfare care. After all, you can’t learn if you’re sick, or tired from poor quality sleep. As part of our commitment to the welfare of the Dalit families we serve, blankets offer a simple, practical solution to an ongoing problem which affects everyone.
Transforming lives in Patripul, India
Three GCare Centres in Patripul, a slum in Kalyan, support around 250 Dalit children with a safe space where they can learn. Children receive teaching and homework support in lessons including Maths, English and local languages. GCare staff advocate for children’s needs at school and home, fighting to ensure they go to school.
After over a decade of advocacy, staff in local schools know that when a child is under the protection of the GCare team, they must treat them fairly – for example, let them participate in lessons, not insist they clean toilets, and they must mark their books – all common forms of discrimination against Dalit children.
To ensure each child can succeed in school, the GCare team provide them with gifts of essential school equipment and uniform, if required. The GCare team also intervene to meet other welfare needs where appropriate – perhaps a food parcel, a safe home after eviction, medical treatment or hygiene supplies.
This Christmas we’d like to give blankets to each of the 226 children at the centres, keeping them warm at night and protecting their health.
A piece of the puzzle for a better future
Education is by far the best tool for breaking the poverty cycle. But succeeding in education is complex: good health and good sleep are both part of the puzzle. By purchasing a gift of blankets for children in Patripul this year, you’re supporting a child’s health and sleep which in turn enables them to make the most of their education.
Buy now
Give a gift of blankets to bless children in Patripul this year. It’s a great alternative gift with real impact.
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