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The SKCV Children's
Trust
from IVU News
2002
Street Kids' Community Villages
SKCV Children's Trust is a pure vegetarian organization, promoting and
implementing vegetarian ideals to the children under SKCV wing, and others
in South India. The large majority of children coming to us for assistance
have been vegetarians their whole life. We teach them to balance their
diet. We also teach the children how to cook for them-selves.
Today, with increasing evidence of diet's critical effect on good health
and longevity, more and more people are in-vestigating this question:
Is the human body better suited to a vegetarian diet or one that includes
meat?
A registered Charitable Trust in India, UK and Holland, SKCV has four
major Street Child Rescue Centres in South India where the Trust works
di-rectly with kids who have no other form of support. Indirectly SKCV
works in an advisory capacity with the staff of other organizations in
regions and countries where the CHILD SYSTEM of strengthening has been
adopted or adapted. The founder designed the system, and a manual is available
for all. Training and other literature helps those interested to get started.
WHERE ARE WE?
The SKCV Headquarters is Prema Vihar Village, which lies some five miles
outside the city of Vijayawada, a major junction in coastal state of Andhra
Pradesh in South India. Situated along-side the banks of the River Krishna
is an 11-acre farm, which provides a safe ha-ven from the chaos and dangers
of life on the street. It is home to 130 previ-ously destitute kids, some
as young as six years old.
The farm is totally managed by the children, both old and young. There
are 35 cattle market gardens. This is in addi-tion to the many girls being
helped in the separate Girls Centre in the city. as well as the 120 boys
in the city's Night Shelter unit. Many of these children are orphans;
others have run away from abusive or violent parents or stepparents. All
are fleeing a life of grinding poverty and disease on the street. Thousands
of other children come to visit SKCV Centres for medical aid, vegetarian
food, counselling and shelter but have not yet decided to give up street
life.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Together, husband and wife team Matthew and Bhakti Norton, and a small
band of staff, volunteers and helpers, provide their enormous 'family'
with a safe, caring environment in which to grow and to thrive. It is
up to the chil-dren to manage and develop their own life under careful
and loving guidance.
Every SKCV child reaches a level of education to enable him/her to take
its rightful place in the world. The indi-vidual talents of each child
are recog-nized and developed. Some go on to college. Others that are
not academically gifted. are given vocational or agricul-tural training.
The six SKCV vocational workshops provide everything from motor cycle
repairs to tailoring, generat-ing income which contributes to the village's
running costs.
VOLUNTARY PROCESS
Children are not coerced to live in the village, or any other SKCV Centre.
They visit and then stay voluntarily mak-ing their own choice and enrolling
them-selves in both the village and the school. Those who want to return
home are encouraged to do so. Each child has a contribution to make right
down to the youngest who are encouraged to grow their own vegetables to
"sell" back to the village kitchen as a source of their pocket
money.
DEMOCRACY IN SKCV
Some of the older boys, now married and with children of their own, help
to democratically run the village and the Trust, ("The Future Group-Second
Gen-eration") deciding by vote its rules and codes of conduct. Fourteen
of these young men and women are now the de-partment heads in SKCV and
have their own hired staff. The children freely en-rol themselves in SKCV
School or Vo-cational Training programs. The few who do return to the
street are always wel-comed back if and when they choose to return, others
who move out and stand on their own two feet are supported medically and
morally for some time… and they are happy!… Please come and
visit with them.
WHAT IS A STREET CHILD IN INDIA?
The reality of the street child is the naked and vicious face of poverty,
sick-ness and exploitation. The tragedy is that those who bear it are
themselves innocent, lonely and frightened young chil-dren.
Street Children are those unfortunate children who basically:
- Have only intermittent contact with parents or family (usually mother
or sisters) but live most of the time with other street children in
the city streets or are on the move. (There are numer-ous reasons for
a child to leave home)
- Have been literally abandoned by their parents/relatives, found themselves
on the street from the beginning because of family problems, or have
chosen to leave home due to some kind of constant abuse.
Those who have run away from home can further be separated into two categories
- Those who have an unpleasant or traumatic home environment. They
ex-perience family problems they are unable to solve: i.e., alcoholism,
child abuse, ill treatment by stepparents, un-employment and poverty.
Their tolerance level has been far exceeded, lead-ing to the drastic
decision to leave their family.
- Those who have run away from home who wanted to study/work but were
not allowed and came to experience the exciting experiences of city
life, glamourized by magazines and movies.
If you would like to help sponsor a child or children to become healthy
vegetarian citizens, please contact us. Your kind help will make the difference.
5 Trinity Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 3FB
Tel: 0161 973 5042; Fax: 0161 969 6718; email: skcv@vsnl.com
Sponsored website: www.skcv.com
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