Swami Vivekanand Seva Pratishthan established the Gangamma Chikkumbimath Bal Kalyan Kendra for destitute children from 6-18 years of age with the clear objective to provide a safe and loving home to the children in need named after the mother of the great philanthropist Shri Bassayya Chikkumbimath, who provided the building in Shahapur in 1982. Shri Mrityunjaya Swami Hiremath, a retired headmaster from Nippani, formed a committee including prominent businessmen and social workers of Belgaum city and started the work. Initially, the orphanage was started in a rented house in Koregalli, Shahapur and later shifted to Dr. M.C. Modi building in Nehru Nagar where it is equipped to house about 75 to 100 children at a time. In 1984 an additional unit was added to provide support for both the boys and girls separately.
Now this building behind Ramdev Hotel is home for the boys. It has separate facilities for boys from 7-11 years and 12-18 years as per the guidelines from Government of India
In the year 2000, the SVSP trust acquired the land in Subhash nagar and constructed the existing premises in 2002 which houses the main office, home for girls from 7-11 and 12-18 years and the adoption center.( established in 2008 after registration with CARA, India)
The Bal Kalyan Kendra admits children between 6 to 18 years of age. It provides them food, shelter, clothing, education and also motherly care, affection, warmth and helps them build a new life. So far, around 500 children from this center have studied till Std. 10th and are positively contributing as responsible citizens of our country.
The District Child welfare committee is informed about the children accepted for admission to Destitute home of Bal Kalyan Kendra. Our institute is registered to accept children of single parent or if the living parents are unable to provide support due to extraordinary situations. Admission of the children is done under any of the following units.
Besides these categories, orphan girls and boys (6-18 years with no living parents) also are provided care and protection by SVSP trust.
In our institute , along with education, the children are imparted value based education, lessons in patriotism and personal character building qualities needed to grow and develop as the proud children of this country. This helps bring them in the mainstream as responsible citizens.
In 2008, an adoption center ( Care and Protection for children under six years as per Integrated Child Protection scheme, Government of India) was started at the main campus at Nyay Marg, Subhash nagar, Belgavi. This In- country and Inter country adoption center has been approved by the Govt. of Karnataka and follows all rules and regulations given by the Central adoption Resource Authority, Government of India. The centre lovingly accepts abandoned, lost and surrendered children who are rescued and adopted by the parents who want to adopt them as per the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) rules of the Central Government. A total of 139 children have been adopted so far ( In-country 127 and Inter-country 12).
We have a dedicated team of Paediatrician, Medical Officer and Nursing staff who provide round the clock service to these children as we receive even newborn, low birth weight children to the centre. The care takers have been trained to provide skilled care to such children to maintain good nutrition, hygiene and warmth as necessary. Complementary feeding is introduced from six and every care is taken to provide protein rich diet to the growing children.
Our Mission : To establish a well-equipped training centre for the parents of children with special needs with all the professional services under one roof to children.
Our vision is to provide all children under the care of Swami Vivekananda Seva Pratishthan rehabilitation centre maximum opportunities to reach their full potential and help them come in mainstream of the society. The caregivers will also be educated in order to help the children in discovering this potential.
Trust members of Swmi Vivekanada Seva Prathisthan have taken the responsibility of starting and running the project. They will also be responsible for appointment of the needed personnel.
Our trust is known for providing quality care to the children who are in need of not only food, shelter and education but also love, support and nurture. We would like to extend these facilities to children with special needs also.
Overcoming the difficulties faced by children with special needs (Physical and Mental challenges) requires interventions to remove environmental and social barriers. They need team of professionals' support such as Paediatrician, Speech & language pathologist, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Special Educators and social worker. The service costs for the therapy and education is costly and most poor socioeconomic families do not receive the basic facilities which leads to child's neglect and later it becomes too tough to rehabilitate once the child passes the critical age without intervention. There is a growing need to address this social responsibility in the form of Early intervention for children less than six years old which can give the best results when introduced in early childhood.
Among the orphaned/abandoned/surrendered children who are brought to our centre, 60% children have some physical or mental challenges and require special care by trained care takers. While preparing our care-takers for this special care we realised there are many more such children in the community who are living with their parents and the parents are not trained nor afford to give the special care to these children. The delay in initiating a properly stimulating environment to the children with special needs only leads to further complications, aggravates the difficulties in managing these children at home or in school.
PRARAMBH is an initiative by Swami Vivekanand Seva Pratishthan to create a centre for training of the parents and caretakers of children with special needs at an early age. We have prepared the centre not just for daily teaching and training but also to provide residential facilities for parents and their child who may come from remote villages to avail the training facilities.
We have already established support from Department of Paediatrics of KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and MRC to provide regular health check-ups, emergency care and if needed inpatient care for all our children and staff.