It is a pleasure to share with you today a long-awaited Butterflies’ milestone, the opening of its own Eco-friendly facility built with funds raised in the States and Germany, with financial support from valued friends like you.
Click here for the short video which captures the innovative methodology used to construct and sustain this new ‘green’ building. Join founding director Rita Panicker and a few remarkably resilient children as they tour Butterflies’ new home.
The late February 2020 building dedication was an inter-faith ceremony where Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh presiders hailed Butterflies’ commitment to street children regardless of race, religion, color, or caste.
Sadly, the new green facility remained empty during the devastating COVID lockdowns. In response, Butterflies rented a kitchen where its culinary school staff prepared and delivered meals throughout the Delta-variant second-spike.
Slowly, selected programs and services have returned to Butterflies’ new home.
Here’s how things stand in October 2021:
- Public primary schools in Delhi remain closed. Butterflies’ eight open-air contact points provide nutrition, mobile education, and counseling to forestall widespread malnutrition, cognitive deficits, and emotional stress until schools reopen.
- CHILDLINE, Butterflies’ 24/7 hotline never closed. It continued to rescue runaway, missing, abused, and trafficked children. The Resilience Center, a short-stay facility for boys in crisis, has been temporarily re-purposed as a quarantine dorm for COVID-exposed girls abandoned or orphaned during the pandemic.
- The School of Culinary and Catering had moved to virtual instruction last year. It is once again offering hands-on training for hospitality careers but to smaller cohorts. Teens, some from the juvenile justice system, are simultaneously prepped to complete high school studies.
- Finally, a youth from our education cooperative, 17 yr. old Sagar, was chosen to represent India at the September 2021 session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. He testified on the critical need for government mental health programs to reduce domestic and communal violence in economically-stretched neighborhoods like his own.
In this time of great need, Butterflies’ redoubled efforts empower the most vulnerable of India’s ‘throwaway’ kids. Thank you for your interest in this work. Enjoy the video!