Street Children project Street Smart by Aasraa Dehradun, India

Street Smart works with slum and street children who rag pick and beg for a living. The original focus of this project was art therapy and basic literacy.

The scope and depth of this project has increased many folds since the beginning of the program. Currently, approximately 649 children attend Street Smart programme across eight learning centers in Dehradun. Our aim is to bring children into literacy and mainstream them into schools. 1021 children have been mainstreamed in the past few years.

Learning centers

S.No.	Name of the Project	No. of children	Areas Impacted
1.	Street Smart – Haven	115	Govind Garh, Kanwali Road & Sastri Nagar – Khala
2.	Street Smart – ISBT	135	Near ISBT area (Kabadi Bazar, Dholok Basti & Azad Colony)
3.	Street Smart – Early Learning Centre	90	Govind Garh & Kanwali Road
4.	Street Smart – RPMV	80	Bindal Slum
5.	Street Smart – New Haven	88	Bindal Slum
6.	Mobile Learning Centre – Education Carts	75	Darshan lal Chowk & Premnagar
7.	Mobile Learning Centre – ISBT	40	Kabadi Bazar near ISBT
8.	Mobile Learning Centre – Chuna Bhatta	26	Chuna Bhatta,Raipur Road, Sahastradhara Road
	Total:	649

For the older children, Street Smart is running a Vocational Training Program to discourage begging and encourage learning a skill, how to run a business, self reliance and independence. The focus is to remove young people from the dangers associated with street life.

We are working with a designer of ethnic products, to train our children in various crafts. The designer is currently training the older children the art of block printing on paper and textiles and work with a master for sewing technique. The intention is to create a business into which these children can grow and be part of society and not remain marginalized.