At the bottom, are the children most vulnerable and at risk of abuse.

Hundreds of thousands of children roam in the streets in cities across India. These children usually have homes and parents. But in most cases, the parents work as day labourers and so are unable to care for their children. Left to their own resources during the day, they beg for their meals and work for a pittance for unscrupulous business owners.

Outreach through Shelters and Community Centres is the second tier in our approach towards ensuring happy childhoods to every child. We decided to reach out to the children on the streets by providing a safe place to have a hot meal, a shower, and receive counselling. We help enrol these children in a local government school and follow-up with remedial classes after school hours. We also conduct counselling and skill-building classes in the centres. The children return to their homes in the evening.

Working with these children in the Shelters, we realised the need to also transform their communities to create lasting change. That’s why we began Community Centres in the communities we work with.

Through the Centres, we reach out to families living in slums and undeveloped rural areas. Here we conduct health and hygiene awareness camps, pre- and post-natal care, educate men and women on the importance of family planning. We also run slum schools for children unable to attend regular school.

Women and youth can learn skills to help them set up their own micro-entrepreneurship in tailoring, beauty salons and other skills.

We run Shelters and Community Centres in the major cities of Goa. Most of these families are migrants from neighbouring states, who come to Goa in search of employment and better futures. Seeing this, we felt the need to improve conditions in their villages, so families are not compelled to migrate. Our Community Centres in neighbouring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala help local communities build better lives through primary education for the children and entrepreneurship and skills training especially for women.
Through our Shelters and Community Centres, we integrate the children into society and help families break out of the cycle of poverty. Over the years, El Shaddai has reached out to thousands of children and families through these shelters and community centres.