W
hile combating this crisis, the proactive measures taken by the management team and the rigor of implementation shown by team members resulted in several accomplishments at the state as well as the home level. These accomplishments brought in several key learnings for the organization. Some of these are very obvious whereas some are subtle that need to be seen in perspective. One of the prime achievements was to keep about 4000 children protected from the risk of infection during this worldwide crisis. This becomes more significant because the children are from different backgrounds amongst the most vulnerable families. Except for some stray incidents of fever and cough none of the children were infected. This was because the Covid-19 protocols were followed in letter and spirit in all homes and offices. In view of protecting our children from infection, the guidelines of Covid-19 did not permit nonresidential staff members to contribute towards management of homes and therefore the entire responsibility of internal management had come to rest upon the residential caregivers. Although the proportion of these caregivers was about half of the total strength, they still managed the homes very efficiently. Most of the residential staff members stayed in the home for more than four months. This was a great achievement and showcased the sincerity and dedication of the caregivers during this crisis. The Rainbow Homes Programme is equally concerned about the families of children in Homes. So, when these families were struggling to feed themselves during the lockdown time, having spent all their savings with no earning opportunity, the Rainbow Homes Programme arranged for dry rations for at least two months. Besides this, it also provided other pavement dweller families around our homes cooked meals and dry rations. Bringing smiles to their faces with this meagre support organized through instant resource mobilization was a significant achievement of the organization. Most of the Homes and Snehghars operate in functioning government schools which themselves do not have abundant infrastructure facilities. In these spaces, maintaining appropriate physical distance between children and arranging quarantine rooms was a big challenge. But, the relentless effort of the state and home teams resulted in the opening up of additional spaces for the children. Each home was able to acquire additional rooms and spaces at the behest of the school authorities and local administration which is an accomplishment that boosted the confidence of all team members.
Resource Mobilization Even in normal circumstances, resource mobilization is a tough task, particularly when the entire population is reeling from a global crisis. In spite of this, the organization was able to mobilize resources at this time for all its additional expenses. One of the national team members opined that, “this crisis was totally unexpected; hence, we had not anticipated the types of expenses we would have to incur but fortunately, we had sensed this could happen and ensured that there was sufficient supply of essential items for at least two months in each Home.” As the crisis continued, RFI had to address 42
Coping with Covid-19
