Don
Bosco Balprafulta celebrates Annual Thanksgiving Day!
Tejal Rajyagor
Tejal Rajyagor
On June 2, 2012 Don Bosco
Balprafulta celebrated its Annual Thanksgiving Day to express gratitude to the
community and the stakeholders who made it possible for the organization’s progress
towards its vision.
It has been an eventful
year for Don Bosco Balprafulta. With a change in the leadership and a bunch of
new people joining in the team, came a shift in the philosophical belief and shift
in focus from Protection, Prosecution and Conviction of the Exploiter to a
Children’s perspective - Aiming towards their education, ‘Happy childhood
moments’, follow up of the rescued child and a Holistic development.
The event started off with
a Balsaathi from our Community Project welcoming our Chief Guest Fr. Godfrey
Desa the founding Director of Balprafulta along with other eminent
personalities. It was heartening to hear Fr. Rector (St. Dominic Savio School)
appreciating the hard work of the ex- Balprafulta staff and of the efforts of
the team during the last year. Fr. Rector welcomed our Chief Guest for the
evening, Fr. Godfrey D’Sa. Fr. Godfrey has played an important role in the
journey of Don Bosco Balprafulta and thus it was motivating for the team to
hear him share his experiences on how his team at the risk of their own lives
fought for the rights of nearly 7,000 children they rescued.
After a couple of dance
performances by children from the community project and who have been
repatriated home through the Talaash project, there was the presentation of Don
Bosco Balprafulta’s Annual Report 2011-12.
The theme for the annual
day was ‘Child Labour Rescue - Realities- Challenges and Possibilities? This was to reflect on the trauma and
difficulties the Rescue process has been having on the Children rescued.
A very realistic play and a
video were shown on the Realities of Child Labour Rescue. The stage was then
set for a panel discussion on the rescue operations process and how children
feel on the day of the rescue.
The panel discussion was
organized with an intention of bringing in all the stakeholders together to
reflect on the way the rescue operations are carried out and to discuss the
ways in which we can make it a child friendly process.
Eminent members from the
Development Sector like Ms. Vidya Apte (Co-founder FACSE), Ms. Alpa Vora (Child
Specialist Consultant – UNICEF) and Ms. Tejal Rajyagor ( Proejct Co-ordintaor
Don Bosco Balprafulta) shared their views on how the current process is not
full proof and how there is need for a change in the attitude to bring in the
child friendly perspective. The panel discussion was followed by Q&A
session ably chaired by Fr. Barnabe D’Souza. Social Workers from different NGOs shared their experiences and asked interesting questions on how the
rescue operations are conducted and what needs to be done to make it more child
friendly.
The deliberations are to be
sent in a memorandum to the appropriate Govt. departments as a follow up of the
Annual Day celebrations.
Fr.Barnabe then proposed a
vote of thanks to all who have contributed to make Don Bosco Balprafulta what
it is today and concluded with a wish and prayer that every child gets his
childhood.
