#Communities4Children – Counselling Paramasivam’s Family Helped Him Enrol For A Vocational Course

On 3^rd February 2020, our team rescued Paramasivam from the Villupuram Railway Station. We found him roaming around on the platform all alone and so our team member decided to go talk to him. He told us that he bunked school and had come there to pass his time. When we asked him the reason behind bunking school, he said that he hadn’t done his homework because of which he didn’t want to go to school.

After the conversation, we took Paramasivam to the Child Assistance Booth to complete the required procedures and then contacted his parents and asked them to come pick him up. We also held a counselling session, wherein we explained how education and going to school is necessary and how walking around all alone is dangerous for a school going child. His family came to fetch him, and he returned home with them.

After regular phone call follow ups which included the psychosocial help as well as the counselling sessions, we decided to start to assess the support we needed to provide his family to further strengthen their care and protection for Paramasivam. Based on a need assessment conducted in their community and for his family in particular, we were able to gauge the real situation of the family especially with the impact of the lockdown.

We discovered that Paramasivam has started working as a daily wage painter in order to support his family as the lockdown had seriously affected their income. Paramasivam told us that he was not interested in studying and was struggling to concentrate properly and would like to do something else instead of studying.  We spoke to his family regarding the same and also explained to them about the various vocational courses and trainings offered by the government and Paramasivam showed interest in an Electrical/Fitter/Mechanic trade course. And also counselled them on the ills of him not being able to focus as school because of work.

A few weeks later, we contacted the family to make sure that everything was alright and to see verify that Paramasivam was keen on joining the vocational training course. We also provided them with a grocery kit which would last for a few weeks under our family strengthening process.

We then visited Paramasivam on month later and assisted him with the entire admission process of the vocational course and successfully admitted to the vocational training centre.