Bus Karo is a visible beacon of hope for the children in the streets and a declaration by the city that it cares for even its lowest common denominator. This initiative takes old or second hand buses , paints them up in bright colours, redesigns the interiors for the various "experiences" that will address the needs of its users and engages them in positive childhood scripting.

The bus is "owned" by a corporate or a personal sponsor who will maintain it for cleanliness and security. The bus works on the volunteering spirit of the citizens of Ahmedabad and can be partnered with a school whose children will buddy with the street children.

The street children will be informed that it is their place to rest - froom the rain/heat/cold and for play and education.

Citizen volunteers can contribute by conducting workshops (book reading, group games, craft activities) for the street children. Doctors can voluteer to conduct free medical check ups. Health professionals and restaurants can partner to educate them about balanced meals and/or arrange for a meal.

Uptodate Developments :

September 5, 2007 - 'aProCh' acquires a 52 seater bus for Bus Karo. Mr. Kushal Bhansali has taken the responsibility to maintain the bus for Bus Karo initiative

September 19, 2007 - Kiran Sethi meets with Mr. Dilip Chhabria, the premier automobile designer in the country, in Pune. Mr. Chhabria agreed to design the first BUS KARO bus pro bono for 'aProCh'. 

October 3, 2007 - Ruby Automobiles, the largest bus body fabricator in the country will join Mr. Chhabria in creating the masterpiece.

We hope to showcase our first Bus Karo bus at our Street Smart programme on January 26, 2008.

Parents of the Park: is an initiative where children will experience "childhood". It is a partnership between the city's volunteers and the Municipality. Once a week, the municipality offers the park exclusively for children. During this time children engage in activities that enable them to have positive childhood scripting. The activities are are organized by the parents and citizens who live around the park area. A school can adopt the park for a month and offer activities for the children.

Our first Parents of the Park event preparation is off the ground and scheduled for early April 2008. To make it a citywide programme, with the help of AMC, we have identified several parks in the city of Ahmedabad. The parks identified are in the east zone are  Victoria Garden near Ellis Bridge, Chakoriya Mahadev Nagar Garden, Sardar Baug in Paldi and in the west zone are  Law Garden and  Parimal Garden.

Our first event for Parents of the Park is at Uttamnagar Park in Maninagar. We have partnered with Divan Ballubhai, a school in Kankaria to help us bring this programme to the residents of that area. In coming months, we will work with other schools of Ahmedabad and their neighbourhood parks to simultaneously run this programme in different areas of the city of Ahmedabad.

Events:

First 'Parents of the Park' programme at Uttam Nagar Park in Mani Nagar on April 12, 2008.

'aProCh' partners with Divan Ballubhai School, Kankaria for its first 'Parents of the Park' programme. April onwards, Uttamnagar Park between the hours of 4 - 7 pm on Saturdays, will be open exclusively for children. A hosts of activities for children of ages 6 - 13 will be planned. Stay tuned for more details in coming days.

Friends of the Children : This initiative asks the city's enterprises, institutes, businesses, news agencies to open up their spaces for children on pre determined dates/times wherein they can explore and appreciate the nuances of social infra structure by active participation in the enterprise. In other words, the city becomes a playground for its children where it will learn to respect the city and its people and in return be respected.

Events:

One such event was a Flight of Fantasy where Jet Airways became 'Friends of the Children' and took 85 street children for a flight of their dreams over the city of Ahmedabad. The experience was ecstatic for these children as it was humbling for others. Several blind children expessed their excitement in words that made us look at a flight with a new perspective. Others talked about their dreams coming true and how just one event like this had given them new dreams and a hope to make them come true.

To view Photo Gallery go to Flight of Fantasy pictures

Seva Café is a unique experiment that spreads the message of giving without expecting rewards or recognition. At Seva, volunteers cook wholesome meals with love and offer these meals with love as a genuine gift to its guests. We have invited Seva Café to be 'Friends of the Children'. We have asked Seva Café to open their space to children so that children can engage in this selfless activity while adding value to their service. The response from Riverside School children has been very enthusiastic. 5 children visit Seva Café 5 days of the week. There the children get an experience to be a part of this noble concept and help serving food with love.

Based on the same belief that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’, this initiative is designed to create awareness on two fronts:

Lauding the efforts of the various business houses towards ensuring that the city is creating childhood experiences / making the city child friendly made possible by screening short films by ‘aProCh’

Creating opportunity for street and underprivileged children to avail a movie-going experience, by asking business houses to commit to one show a month for street and underprivileged children.

October 30, 2007 - 'aProCh' is proud to announce that the Movie'ing Experience is set to provide cinema entertainment to 150 street children every month. After a 'Chak De' start in October 2007, when 350 children saw the sensational movie 'Chak De India', parents of Riverside school students came in large numbers to support this cause. Thanks to them, 'aProCh' will continue to bring cinematic entertainment to the street children every month.

Movie'ing Experience Events

November 28, 2007 - 150 slum children enjoy the dreamer's dream 'OM Shanti OM'.

'AProCh' organised its 2nd Movie'ing Experience in partnership with City Pulse Multiplex theater in Gandhinagar on November 28, 2007. 150 slum and other underpriviliged children enjoyed the dance, drama, dreams, and dhoom dhamaka in the movie OM Shanti Om at the Gandhinagar City Pulse Multiplex theater. We are thankful to Manav Sadhna to bring 100 slum children, some of whom had never seen a movie, leave alone one in theater while others had never seen a movie in a theater and some did not know who Shahrukh Khan was. Another organisation, that 'aProCh' reached out to was Sharda Trust who sent 40 of their children to enjoy this highly entertaining movie.

It was great to see these children forget about their hardships for the duration of the movie and be carefree to mark their childhood with glimpses of fun and fantasy. We hope to bring many more such moments to them, so that their childhood is marked with more of positive events and gradually diminish their memories of hardship and toil. 

October 29, 2007 - First 'Movie'ing Experience event for 350 street children to see Chak De at City Pulse Multiplex in Gandhinagar.

"Aaj mujhe bahut majaa aaya.. peheli baar, mere saare dost ke saath maine picture dekhi",  said Sarfaraz after watching Chak De India with 350 other children. He could not remember the last time he had seen a picture in a movie theatre!!        

The movie experience was indeed what it was meant to be - A Movie'ing Experience - one of the many initiatives started by ‘aProCh' (A Protagonist in every Child), a city organization working toward making Ahmedabad a child friendly city. Veena Purohit, owner of City Pulse Multiplex said, "We are very happy to open up our spaces for the children who don't get such experiences - and City Pulse is pleased to become a ‘friend of the child".

In fact, City Pulse not only sponsored today's show for 350 children, but also has agreed to partner with ‘aProCh' to show 150 underprivileged  children a movie every month!  All it needs is for the city and its citizens to sponsor part of the payment - Rs 7,500 so that these children can have a ‘movieing experience' and can have a chance to get positive messages from society that even they are cared for.  If anyone wishes to sponsor , please log onto http://www.aproch.org/ and email your interest. 

Srinath Travel Agency was responsible for ferrying the children to and from City Pulse and they have committed to partner with aProCh every month.

Nirali Shah of Shvaas.org and Manav Sadhna organized to send the children.  Nirali said,"No amount of material gifts would have given them more enjoyment than to see a movie with 350 other children - they know all the songs of this film but watching the film has lifted their spirits and made them forget all their agonies".

Street Smart

A wonderful initiative where main streets of the city close down ( on a day in a month ) for traffic and welcome children and the community to feel free and safe on the streets of Ahmedabad. Children from ages 6 to 13 have a chance to express, explore and satiate their curiosity while engaging in fun filled activities organised by 'aProCh' in partnership with other Ahmedabad Schools, AMC and Ahmedabad Traffic Police.

Purpose:

Child’s perspective: ‘The City is my Playground’. The city should be a canvas for our children so they can leave their ‘marks’ on it - they should have a say in the way the city considers them, and they need to be ‘visible’ participants in their city.

For Ahmedabad – a great USP - 'the first child friendly city' in the nation.

The message from this initiative is that "the city cares for its youngest protagonist".

We invite other Ahmedabad schools, citizen volunteers, renowned artists to join us in taking responsibility of 'childhood'.

Events: 

August 15, 2007 - First Street Smart at Law Garden

First time in history of Ahmedabad, major street across from Law Garden was closed to traffic and for 5 hours, the road was opened to children for their activities. Renowned artists worked with the children to give form to their expressions - be it singing, dancing, sculpture, painting, story telling. The street was converted into their playground to express, explore and play in the environs of safety and curiosity. Over 4000 children from all walks of life became a part of one community sans barriers.

Click on events 

Oct 2 Street Smart hosted by Rachana School

Dec 30 Street Smart hosted by Manav Sadhna

Jan 26 Street Smart hosted by Yuva Unstoppable

Mar 01 Street Smart hosted by Anand Niketan (TGES) School