Nidhi & Tanish's Covid-19 Relief Fundraiser

RELIEF AND RECOVERY

RELIEF

How are we providing RELIEF to our communities?

At Saturday Art Class we promote social-emotional learning through the process of art for children from low-income communities in Mumbai.

Having worked with over 5500 children in the past 3 years, we understand where they come from, their familial backgrounds, and the environments in which they live. 

The COVID 19 pandemic has not only affected health but also financially affected millions of individuals in India as a result of the lockdown. The financial ramifications have left communities with very little to survive on in terms of basic essentials. 

As of 11th May, 2020 we have already provided daily food essentials to1196 individuals and thus impacting 203 families.

Additionally, given the current situation of the world, schools remain shut indefinitely and education may see a paradigm shift over the next few months. Thus, we at Saturday Art Class have decided to use our understanding, reach and network to help this sector of society/ our students and their communities with Relief through essentials for their daily survival.

Reality on the Ground:

"Sometimes people come and distribute food. I have no idea who they are, but it's very little. We only get to eat once in two-three days." - A Saturday Art Class student

“India's poorest 'fear hunger may kill us before coronavirus'”- BBC News 

"I earn 600 rupees every day and I have five people to feed. We will run out of food in a few days. I know the risk of coronavirus, but I can't see my children hungry," -A daily wage earner.

As an organisation whose roots are in Social Emotional Learning, we want our impact to go beyond just Relief. While our first priority will be to cater to the essentials such as food supplies, our efforts will go beyond this, to work on Recovery. 

The power of Rs.1000/-

Join us with all your support in our #ReliefandRecovery campaign by contributing as low as Rs. 1,000/- to feed a family of 4 and to contribute towards our Recovery project.

With just Rs.1000/- you can provide a family with the following food supplies: 

RECOVERY

How are we providing RECOVERY to our communities?

The pandemic and the resulting lockdown, the constant media focus on number of fatalities in the country and the world as well as the stress of ensuring safety, health and wellbeing of self and family and the additional baggage to the economic ramifications resulting from the lockdown as left as mentally and emotionally drained out. It has universally affected people irrespective of their backgrounds. 

Making matters worse for the low-income communities in Mumbai, people have had to face several additional hardships which include, but are not limited to, loss of jobs, lack of income, domestic abuse and violence, lack of daily essentials such as food etc. It is only understandable that many will be facing sustained trauma from this experience.

Reality on the Ground:

1)The ambiguity of the situation: Given that the number of people infected by the virus is increasing exponentially, it is hard to imagine a life without lockdown. It has become a permanent cause of worry especially considering the fact that work has stopped for many people. This constant state of stress calls for each one of us to look within for mental care 

2)Lack of Safe Space to Express: Children are physically confined in small spaces for extended periods. In addition, they are witnessing & dealing with hardships. It is understandable that these may cause behavioural issues as a result of not being able to express freely and safely resulting in the inability to fulfill their social-emotional needs.

3)Regular school time table has been disrupted: Schools are shut indefinitely. Given that there is a dearth of basic necessities in low income communities, education currently is a low priority. Children are unable to learn lessons at home due to these issues coupled with lack of technological aid and internet bandwidth issues.

About Saturday Art Class!

Saturday Art Class is a not-for-profit social organisation that is an initiative of the Learning Centre, a charitable trust under The Bombay Public Trust Act and registered under Section 12 AA and 80G of the Income Tax Act and donations to the Learning Centre are eligible for tax exemption.

Saturday Art Class is a school based intervention that leverages domestic and international art to address the void of social and emotional learning that exists in India’s government and affordable private schools. 

Since its inception in 2017, we have impacted over 5500+ children across 15 centres through a network of over 1200 volunteers.

 75% of the total proceeds generated in this campaign will go towards providing RELIEF through food packets to our students and their communities and 25% will go towards developing, designing and implementing a RECOVERY model to help children and adults to deal with the after-effects of the new realities during and post the lockdown and the global pandemic.

Here's a quick update