Nurture: Community Rehabilitation
Over the course of the pandemic, several poor communities have been driven to further marginalization (or have been further marginalized). OBLF’s Nurture program works closely with such highly marginalized communities by identifying and focusing on critical elements that are needed to enable a better standard of living for them.
Tribal Community, Bannerghatta
OBLF is currently working with a 1500+ member tribal community settled on the outskirts of the Bannerghatta National Forest region. The community migrated from another state to the outskirts of Bangalore around 40 years ago. The first and second generation of the community have had no formal education; they have negligible literacy, poor healthcare support, and no formal vocation to generate regular income to sustain a regular, basic healthy lifestyle. These factors coupled with negligible livelihood opportunities lead to a very poor standard of living.
OBLF is driving a full-scale community rehabilitation project covering education, health, and adult literacy.
Health Clinic
The multi-faceted healthcare program is a weekly health clinic that covers preventive, primary healthcare, eyecare and mental healthcare. The clinic provides basic and sustained health care support. In the long term, the regular health care support will lead to a reduction of non-communicable diseases, thereby creating a healthier community.
Sports-based Life-skills Program
It has been well established that sport is a powerful medium to build identity, develop critical life-skills such as empathy, and bridge gender gaps amongst children and youth in a community.
OBLF has implemented a sports-based life skills program for the adolescent youth of this community.
The program uses the mixed gender sport of Ultimate Frisbee to create a fun, safe, friendly learning environment and teach and facilitate discussions on gender, personality, society, stereotyping and sexuality. We envision that the children and youth that we work with will be the first generation to challenge gender norms and pursue greater opportunities, rights and freedoms than they had believed possible for themselves.
Waste Picker’s Community, Heelalige
The waste pickers community comprises of migrants who pick, segregate, store and sell waste. They are an undocumented segment of workers, not recognized by any civic body; and hence do not qualify for governmental support or subsidies.
There are about five hundred members in this settlement, including women and children. The hundred families live on a 3 acre parcel of land; which also serves as their storing, sorting, and segregation area.
OBLF has ‘adopted’ this community since 2020, with a commitment to help them and future generations by addressing multiple levers including access to healthcare, education, sanitation, infrastructure and vocational training.
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