Activities in India

The Rainbow Centre

Welcome

CCI chose India as the site of its first rehabilitation centre because certain CCI members have extensive knowledge about Indian culture and society—CCI’s founder volunteered her time in an orphanage run by Child Haven in India, and CCI’s president has been a tour operator specialized in India for almost 20 years. In June 2003, CCI opened the Rainbow Centre in Andra Pradesh, India, with the help of ARDAR, a local NGO.

The Rainbow Centre’s Children

The Centre is located on a magnificent two-acre wooded lot, where the children can play under the trees and attend classes outside. They are taught by two professionally-trained teachers and are required to take an annual exam to determine their grade level according to Indian standards. As well as receiving a basic education, they are given specialized training in the arts (theatre, play, dance and song). The Centre is geared towards helping them overcome the psychological trauma they endured as bonded labourers. And depending on their interests, the children can also choose to learn a trade such as cabinetmaking, sewing or weaving. Furthermore, an experienced nurse provides medical attention on a weekly basis.

Where do they come from?

The children at the Rainbow Centre come from the slums of the city of Vizianagaram or nearby fishing villages. The Vizianagaram slum-dwellers live in precarious conditions. Most of the adults work as rickshaw-pullers, construction workers or garbage rummagers. They are paid very little and have low social standing. Parents often have no choice but to send their children to work as domestic or hotel servants, fruit vendors, or as labourers on construction sites just to make ends meet. The children are separated from their parents for months at a time, live under very difficult conditions, and are often sexually violated by their employers.

Far away from forced labour.

The people from the surrounding fishing villages are also extremely poor. Employers are often solicited for loans, which must then be paid off by sending the young children to work. It takes years of hard work as fishermen, stone quarry labourers, and workers in shrimp plants just to reimburse the debt.

New school books!

All these jobs are extremely hazardous to health. A study by ARDAR shows that 15% of child slaves end up handicapped. Many of the children who are sent to sea on fishing boats are either injured or drown. And the young girls who are forced to use toxic chemicals, without any protective gear, to clean the shrimp tanks end up with burnt lungs and a significantly reduced life expectancy.

Selection

How are the children selected?

• CCI works in collaboration with ARDAR, a local NGO, to evaluate the living and working conditions of children in specific regions.

• Also in collaboration with ARDAR and community leaders, CCI identifies the children at the greatest risk-those in dangerous working environments and those most vulnerable to physical or sexual abuse. CCI also takes into consideration the family's situation and needs (single mothers, ill or handicapped parents, etc.).

• The selection criteria are based strictly on need, regardless of sex, race, religion or caste.

Family Support

Families send their children to work for reasons of survival. To compensate them for lost income, CCI provides families with financial support. In return, parents must attend monthly meetings designed to teach them the dangers of forced child labour. Getting parents to become aware of this problem is a major concern for CCI. CCI hopes to empower parents to become advocates for children’s rights, and also hopes that this increased awareness will have a positive effect on the entire population. For example, after having been made aware of this issue for more than two years, some parents in the village where the Rainbow Centre is located recently negotiated the release of their own children.

A child with her parents

ARDAR, partner organization

The Rainbow Centre is managed in collaboration with ARDAR, an Indian NGO that has been working in the Vizianagaram area for many years. ARDAR has already created a health centre in the slums and is currently participating in a development project aimed at improving people’s living conditions. ARDAR has also been working in 19 traditional fishing villages for the past 14 years.

The Future

With your help, CCI plans to open other rehabilitation centres throughout the different communities in India and the world.

The tsunami that struck south-east Asia on December 26, 2004 caused extensive damages in the coastal region of Vizianagaram. No lives were lost, but the material damages threaten to have a catastrophic impact on the lives of local families. The tsunami, among other damages, destroyed fishermen’s boats and nets, depriving them of their livelihood. The tsunami will inevitably lead to an increase in bonded slavery and labour in the Andra Pradesh fishing villages.

Fishermen