Shaping Destinies

When intellectualism and charity combine, a new thought of life often appears, as new shoots of fresh leaves appear on the same tree with an old root. The Father of our Nation, Mahatmaji, could see the great changes an intellectual like Father Anthony could achieve during the freedom movement. In 1946, during a morning stroll, Mahatmaji said to Father Anthony: ‘Do not restrict yourself to pure intellectualism through writing and lecturing. Combine it with charity and work for the upliftment of the Harijans. Whatever work you do for their all-sided growth and upliftment, whether it is in slums or villages, will have my blessings and encouragement.’

Project Age 22 and JO 20+ encourage students to follow Mahatmaji’s words to Father Anthony. To mould responsible youth in this modern age, where space journeys are becoming child’s play, it is our challenge to translate the advice of Mahatmaji to Father Anthony, who encourages everyone to live the powerful motto: ‘For the Freedom of the Soul and Welfare of Mankind’.

The project provides quality education with a human face, introduces a cognitive and behaviour rehabilitation approach to add character, skills and values, and focuses on a holistic living approach to bring complete wellness. The key is to create a protective environment in and around families and communities, with a strong family-oriented value system, to prevent street stories from repeating. An empowered student can carry the legacy of social responsibility experienced at St. Catherine of Siena to others, being a true role model. A new life bridged with values helps them transform into real citizens of one world, one humanity, with one world citizenship, the vision of our founder, Father Anthony.

Age 22 and JO 20+

Project Age 22 and JO 20+ support students as they become ready for higher education from grade 10 onwards. Students who are teens and first-generation learners need a stronger, purpose-driven programme that supports them in taking higher education ahead through pure hard work. It saves teens from the wrong peer pressure, illiterate and uninspiring family backgrounds and financial stress, and sets them on the path of self-discovery through higher education, aptitude tests, career guidance, personality development, life coaching and life-skill development.

While the Age 22 project helps students succeed in their studies and graduate through university, JO 20+ helps those who are academically not inclined and therefore fail exams. Helping teen students and young adults is the mantra, so that successes and failures are balanced across the projects. Students also receive valuable support in moments of crisis and failure, in decision making, relationship management and taking ownership. Both projects provide long-term support so that students stay focused on their long-term academics and career goals with a hard-working nature, creating a functional and dynamic family and professional life.

Heal, Educate and Empower

Many students who have become role models for younger ones through the project are testimonies of educational empowerment. The mantra of ‘Heal, Educate and Empower’ acts as a lighthouse for the students.

Heal

The ‘Heal’ element helps students accept the process of an inner journey that transforms them from victimhood to survivorship and then to becoming a victor. It helps students shed the victim tag of poverty, violence and abuse, abandonment with no financial support, and an illiterate background. This support helps one depart from the victim tag and move forward to become a survivor who accepts change. It is a nerve-wracking journey, and with your wholehearted support and educational sponsorship, the mantra of Heal, Educate and Empower transforms the students.

The ‘Survivor’ element gives students a much-needed new identity, with appreciation and recognition for their changes. This recognition empowers them to be emotionally and spiritually stable, behaviourally and academically progressive, with a value system for functional family life. Survivors take care of themselves, their families, careers and finances, and lead a life of personal growth and professional achievement. Many of our students live a happy life as survivors, and at the same time it is very important to help them move ahead to the next milestone of becoming a victor in the healing story at St. Catherine of Siena.

The ‘Victor’ element makes students aware of the importance of being relevant as a role model who is an altruistic giver. Personally, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, educationally, financially and socially stable, a victor goes all the way out to reach the needs of others who are underprivileged or abandoned with a victim tag. It is the time to give back to society and impact more lives, irrespective of location and population, generations and nations, across all faiths and castes. This methodology supports students under supervision through the inner healing process from victim to survivor to victory, so they become contributors to the larger society and the nation. Your support for mental, emotional and spiritual wellness is key for youngsters who come from abandoned, rejected social backgrounds due to orphan, semi-orphan, street and poor family status.

Educate

As healing takes place, the project focuses on the next mantra, ‘Educate’, through academic and career milestones that give a valid purpose to healing. Students are encouraged to complete grade 10 at 16, grade 12 at 18, and university graduation at 22. In this way the project promotes graduation as the minimum education, and it is important to reach every student even when exam scores are low compared to others. Academic milestones help students assess their own progress and hard work and, accordingly, choose higher-study options in professional, academic or artistic areas. Higher study is substantiated with aptitude tests and career guidance to make a final decision. This helps students come out of poor peer pressure and wrong choices made because of misinformed study and career exploration, and failure. Students are able to focus on their academic and career milestones throughout the period, and have subsequently graduated in mechanical and electrical engineering, computer engineering, hotel management, medicine, banking and insurance, social work, teaching, human resources, marketing, event management and commercial art, to name a few.

Students are mentored every Saturday through an intensive programme called ‘Responsible Relationship’. The programme has two modules: one for those below 18 and one for those above 18. While it encourages students below 18 to become responsible teens and adults, students above 18 are encouraged to behave as responsible adults. This is a bigger task for students who come from very high-risk family and social backgrounds. The project helps students address the disturbing and unhappy conflicts that concern self, family, peers, social and financial status in a healthy space, with the support of life coaches, counselling staff, social workers and mentors. Group and individual sessions help students focus on their first priorities, and the participation of the surviving mother or father makes the sessions result-oriented.

Students who do not have parents are supported by the Trust with long-term rehabilitation. The ‘Educate’ mantra focuses not only on academic learning; it also helps students learn physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual growth, and helps them live in a functional family and an empowered life.

Empower

The healing and education processes help a student feel empowered. The third mantra, ‘Empower’, focuses on gaining control over one’s own life circumstances, with increased self-confidence, the ability to make well thought-out and informed decisions, and an action-oriented approach with result-giving goals. Students who own start-up ventures in various fields, who go out and help the disadvantaged, who set up libraries, or who work in social and animal activism are all examples in action. The art of giving back to society flows from these empowered students through long-term projects and life-changing mentoring. An empowered student with the healing understanding of a victor can complement the wellness of others: community and country. This completes the motto of our Trust, ‘Atmano Mokshartham, Jagat Hitaya Cha’, which means ‘For the Freedom of the Soul and Welfare of Mankind’.

Stories: Intelligence in its Best

Intelligence cannot be ignored even in those ‘angels in rags’ whom we often see as very poor by the side of our daily lives and whom we tend to ignore. Father Anthony Elenjimittam, our founder always believed this, while he worked tirelessly under the tree shades to educate the poor and the over aged children who were rejected by many schools because of their poor, illiterate and over-age background.

‘The project helped me to have a holistic growth’ says Suraj Premchand Gupta, Third year Business Management Student in the project: ‘Not only our needs are met, the one year career counseling program conducted by M/s. Drishti, the career counseling agency, helped me to realize my intelligence and aptitude through the tests. Along with the test results, when I saw the recommended occupations for me, I realized that I am thinking in a right way. I enjoy the newly started monthly debate based on various topics ie corruption, world peace etc with prizes for best speaker’.

Nisha Patil

‘I had no idea about my future ambitions and how should I go about it’, says Nisha Patil about her transformation through the internship programme in Happy Feet: ‘It helped me to deal with different kinds of situations in my life and took away my shyness and worries. I became confident. Since the internship is paid, I got the chance to open my bank account and save money. Now I have completed three years of internship and it also gives me pocket money till I complete my graduation from St Andrew’s college. Through this internship programme, I prepare myself for better things’.

Ravi Gawai

When Ravi Gawai joined St Catherine of Siena in 2005, he knew what he can achieve through the support which is provided. With no financial and family support to study further after passing 10th grade, Ravi joined the Project Age 22 which gave him shelter, food, clothing and the financial support for studies. Ravi says: ‘It has changed my career and life forever! Along with all these facilities, I was able to get the emotional support which was very important for me at that time. I completed my graduation and post graduation in Social Work. I got many opportunities to learn values and it helped me to develop my personality. During my studies, I worked in St Catherine as a social worker and this gave me opportunity to learn work ethics and polished me furthermore. In 2014, I decided to go for higher education and the institution stood behind me in each and every situation. I did my second masters from IIPS and my MPhil from the same institution. At present I am doing my PhD from Tata institute of social sciences. I owe my success to St. Catherine for their financial, emotional, institutional and logistical support. I always feel that St. Catherine is my second family who not only supported me but also helped me to keep myself to stay away from all the wrongdoing.’

Jyoti Kasbe

Joined St. Catherine in 2001 at the age of 5, Jyoti Kasbe found that her studies were not making progress when she started staying again with her mother. Says Jyoti: ‘After passing 10th standard, I stayed with my mother and completed 12th standard. My next goal was to complete my graduation, but my studies were not making any headway. I had problem with staying and organizing financial support to study. So, I came back to St Catherine and continued graduation. Along with studies, I also teach in St Catherine through the internship program provided in the Happy Feet Project. This also helped me to build up confidence and develop skills. I also take classes for small children in yoga and dance. I now enjoy the responsibility given to me. She says: the mentors who come to visit St Catherine also were very supportive in the efforts to improve myself. This helped to bring out the inner talents hidden in me’.

Devti Singh

Devti Singh joined St Catherine of Siena school and orphanage when she was just 6 years of age in 2003. Today at the age of 19, she is looking ahead to do her Hotel Management Graduation. She is confident about getting her admission for Hotel Management course. At the same time she does her internship in Taj Lands End in Bandra which gave her the opportunity to see what lies ahead in the industry. She is happy that from an environment of poverty and no support which was not meant for her future, she got admission to a place where she received the support to make her a confident person who believed that she can pass any exams with hard work. She was grateful that she got not just financial support but also the emotional support. She was involved in Dance, Judo, Malkham and Capoeira to keep her body and mind in good spirits. ‘The staff was very helpful to guide me with counseling, life skill session, career guidance so that I become socially and mentally fit. I know my likes and dislikes and strength and weakness. I am happy that I am not forced to do something which I do not want but for supporting me with my decision. I thank St. Catherine for changing my life for the best. With God and hard work nothing is impossible. We can make it possible!’

Lubna Shaikh

It gives me lot of confidence that I am able to join the nursing course. I want to study and make my career so that I can support my family. My family does not have a home and we stay in the village community centre. My father, a heart patient and my sisters are supported by my mother who works in the field. The study support helps me not to worry about the course fee, books and travelling expense. I am happy that my dreams are being fulfilled. – Yogita Pawar (Murbad Project) Abhishek Yatat has enrolled in this year for this 12th standard. He says that he wanted to become an accountant and wants to work in a big company. He does his professional music course so that he is also developing his gifted talent. He would like to share his music with others and love to teach them. Education empowerment through life skill lessons and counseling does not come easy. When it connects to the realities and practiced in the immediate surroundings, it truly becomes the change maker. ‘I have learned good manners and how to respect others. I also know how to protect myself and to be aware of my surroundings where I have to live’ says Lubna Shaikh: ‘I want to become a computer programmer and I thank God for showing me the way to St Catherine of Siena’