In May 2012, AANCHAL Foundation in collaboration with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation initiated the AANCHAL Aanganwadi project. Through this project, AANCHAL helps young children, 0-5 years and their families, who may have significant concerns in one or more areas of development including gross motor skills, fine motor skills, speech and language skills, and social skills, play and interaction.

Aanganwadis are child care centres which were set up by the Government of India in 1975 to combat child hunger and malnutrition. They provide basic health care services including contraceptive counselling and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, as well as pre-school activities. Children below the age of 6 years may attend Aanganwadi for 3-4 hours per day during which they play and are eat a meal. Each Aanganwadi is staffed with an Aanganwadi worker (teacher) and a support assistant. On an average Aanganwadis had an average of 30 children per Aanganwadi.

Through this project, AANCHAL has identified, assessed and referred 127 children with potential developmental problems from 250 Aanganwadis in Ahmedabad South zone covering Behrampura, Kankaria, Khokhara, Maninagar, and Vatva. Of these, 61 children have received ongoing support, referral, assistance and therapy from AANCHAL Foundation. 16 of these children are currently receiving therapy at various centres that AANCHAL has collaborated with in Ahmedabad.

Premise of the Project:

Each child develops at his own pace. While a variation is acceptable, for example, one child might walk at 12 months and the other at 15-16 months, some children go beyond this range. Special needs children are those that do not do the things they should at an appropriate age. There are warning signs which can give an indication of developmental delays in a child. Most parents do not know what child development milestones are and may not notice a delay in their child’s development. Many others ignore their child’s developmental delays and believe their children will soon start behaving like other children of their age. On the contrary if a child which such difficulties is identified early and appropriate intervention provided, it will benefit the child and increase the chances that he/she will begin to talk, walk, play like over children of his/her age.

Drawing Competitions:

To kick start the Aanganwadi project, AANCHAL held two drawing competitions for children in 37 Aanganwadis in Maninagar area. The Aanganwadi project and the drawing competitions were inaugurated by the Mayor of Ahmedabad, Shri Asit Vora and the Corporator of Maninagar, Smt. Kalindiben Patel. More than 700 children, their parents and Aanganwadi teachers attended the two drawing competitions.

Each child who participated in the drawing competitions was given a gift and the best three drawings received special prizes. Gifts and prizes were provided courtesy Taraben Naranbhai Patel Charitable Trust, Ahmedabad and Rotary Club of Ahmedabad Greater, District 3050.