Resource Mobilization

While combating this crisis, the proactive measures taken by the management team and the rigor of implementation shown by team members resulted in several accomplishments at the state as well as the home level. These accomplishments brought in several key learnings for the organization. Some of these are very obvious whereas some are subtle that need to be seen in perspective.

One of the prime achievements was to keep about 4000 children protected from the risk of infection during this worldwide crisis. This becomes more significant because the children are from different backgrounds amongst the most vulnerable families. Except for some stray incidents of fever and cough none of the children were infected. This was because the Covid-19 protocols were followed in letter and spirit in all homes and offices.

In view of protecting our children from infection, the guidelines of Covid-19 did not permit nonresidential staff members to contribute towards management of homes and therefore the entire responsibility of internal management had come to rest upon the residential caregivers. Although the proportion of these caregivers was about half of the total strength, they still managed the homes very efficiently. Most of the residential staff members stayed in the home for more than four months. This was a great achievement and showcased the sincerity and dedication of the caregivers during this crisis.

The Rainbow Homes Programme is equally concerned about the families of children in Homes. So, when these families were struggling to feed themselves during the lockdown time, having spent all their savings with no earning opportunity, the Rainbow Homes Programme arranged for dry rations for at least two months. Besides this, it also provided other pavement dweller families around our homes cooked meals and dry rations. Bringing smiles to their faces with this meagre support organized through instant resource mobilization was a significant achievement of the organization.

Most of the Homes and Snehghars operate in functioning government schools which themselves do not have abundant infrastructure facilities. In these spaces, maintaining appropriate physical distance between children and arranging quarantine rooms was a big challenge. But, the relentless effort of the state and home teams resulted in the opening up of additional spaces for the children. Each home was able to acquire additional rooms and spaces at the behest of the school authorities and local administration which is an accomplishment that boosted the confidence of all team members.

Even in normal circumstances, resource mobilization is a tough task, particularly when the entire population is reeling from a global crisis. In spite of this, the organization was able to mobilize resources at this time for all its additional expenses. One of the national team members opined that, “this crisis was totally unexpected; hence, we had not anticipated the types of expenses we would have to incur but fortunately, we had sensed this could happen and ensured that there was sufficient supply of essential items for at least two months in each Home.” As the crisis continued, RFI had to address

several other needs such as helping the families of the children, arranging for the quarantine of children coming back to home, engaging additional supporting hands in Homes, ensuring the digital communication equipment for online classes of children and orienting people engaged in caregiving in new practices and requirements. These requirements were most essential and therefore the national team had to review the financial status and tailor it according to the immediate needs. The budget revision was done at a broader level including the different units as well as the state teams. The revision helped meet several heads of expenditure but not all of them. Hence, there was an immediate need to look for additional grants. The first attempt was to reach out to the existing donors for support. Fortunately, all the donors were willing to support the program, depending on their capacity, but the proposals had to be given in the way that suited their policy. The only relaxation they provided was that they skipped due-diligence exercises as all the donors had been associated with RHP in the past and were well versed with the systems and procedures of the program. Taking it as a big relief, the national team worked day and night to prepare proposals, coordinate with the donors and disburse funds to homes as per the requirements. This resulted into undertaking several initiatives such as supporting the parents of our children, providing ration and cooked food to other impoverished families around the Homes, sourcing equipment for online education and cocurricular activities for children in the homes, etc.

Fund mobilization efforts were carried out at the state level as well. Some of the successful efforts undertaken at the state level are presented in the box below.

Rs.30,000 was raised with the help of the posters made by the National team. Provision supports were also received which are going to homes.

In Anantapur, the DPOs proposed giving 10 kg of rice and 1 kg of dal to every child in the CCI. The

DPO in Hyderabad on the other hand proposed to provide cooked food.

In Bible house, Deloitte promised to support the home for 3 months, from April to July, and requested us to send the line items and their costings required for these 3 months

Mr. Ashok Jain had shown interest to support with grants.

Received 203 boxes of Britannia biscuit

WCD-DCPU office distributed sanitary napkins for all the girls of rainbow homes for 2 months.

Support with one month’s dry ration worth Rs. 3,75,000 given by Cognizant for 16 homes

Pustakar, an organization that helps enhance English reading skills among children in govt. schools, has given 2 baskets of English reading books in all homes.

Pratham has come forward by offering 45 days of English course (with 2 hours every day). Received donation for Lunch/ Dinner for all children and staff of all the cities. The money amounts to

Rs 2.11 lakh for 3094 children and staff.

One donor provided 500 kgs of potatoes and onions for homes.

Some in-kind donations by Paras Hospital and some media houses.

Received 255 boxes of Britannia biscuit

Rs. 50000 received including cash and kind donations

A donation of 1 lakh received from Sri Ashok Chaudhri, MLC, Bihar. 2 children of each home selected to get the grant for continuing education.

Received 108 Britannia biscuit boxes.

Raised Rs. 88000 from which rations are to be procured to restock the homes. Hexaware is ready with 30 laptops/computers to distribute to the homes.

Raised Rs. 20,000 worth of provisions from Bhoomi and got approval from 600 kg of rice from one of the local Corporators to provide cooked meals for homeless communities.

“Donating Rs. 201 to one child campaign” started to raise funds. Churches, institutions are targeted for fundraising.

Received cash donation of Rs. 17000.

Received Britannia biscuits of 250 boxes

Donations received from Loretto college (50 kg of rice, 45 kg of wheat, potatoes etc.) which was shared with the families.

Rs. 30000 received for Unnati girls in Delhi through online transfer

Tally confirmed support of Rs. 2 lakh including toiletries support, in addition to regular support for all the homes. Bangalore homes had sufficient toiletries and do not need anymore.

The organizational achievements led to enormous learnings at the organizational as well as personal level that was expressed in different words during formal and informal interactions with the State heads along with the Managers, Mothers and children in the homes. (Separate document, ‘Voices of Children and Snehsaathis’ has been compiled to understand the pandemic from their perspective)

All the decisions, strategic and programmatic, were taken in meetings of national as well as state teams, which were organized regularly. These meetings helped not only in taking appropriate and need-based decisions but also promoted sharing among the states for practical solutions and above all it generated a sense of togetherness and withering away the fear of Corona from everyone’s minds. This turned out to be key learning: if we are together, we can cross the bridge safely. Another common learning that came from all corners was that the lockdown experience developed the level of confidence of self as well as on the capabilities of the children and team members.

The role of experts who came in to provide authentic information about Covid-19 and the appropriate measures was immense in coping with the crisis. RHP was able to find such health care professionals who were genuinely interested in helping the children escape the crisis. Through online training workshops and orientation, they reached out to each caregiver in every home to clarify their doubts and the prevailing myths related to the Covid-19. This was also a significant achievement because these interactions provided the caregivers with the courage to dispense their duties fearlessly with suggested precautions that resulted into no positive cases in any of the Homes barring a few stray incidents.