BIS #5886 A PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH BOSCO BOYS

by Cleric Jittin Mathew 
 
 MUMBAI, APRIL 23, 2019: The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) joined forces with Bosco Boys Home (BBH) Borivli to train students and to impart practical experience in the sector of youth at risk and children in need of care and protection. 
 
Two first-year students pursuing a Master in Social Work (MSW) degree from TISS, namely Paul Mung Ja and Mugdha Cheemakurthy were inducted into BBH as part of their fieldwork training. They were placed at the institution under the supervision of  Trupti Karkera and Dr. Poonam Gulalia,  the field coordinator from TISS School of Social Work. Datta Gade represented the social work sector of BBH.
 
“TISS was established in 1936 as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. Since its inception, the vision of TISS has been to be an institution of excellence in higher education that continually responds to changing social realities through the development and application of knowledge,” Gade said.
 
“It was a nice initiative to have these students do their fieldwork at BBH which is mainly an orphanage for boys from the street, children of Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs), children from difficult backgrounds, and those in conflict with law situations, ” Karkera said.
 
“The students were placed for fieldwork for two semesters. The first semester consisting of July to September and the next from November to February.” 
 
Cheemakurthy, while describing her experience at BBH, said, “It a learning experience. We were involved in lots of activities like case studies of individual boys, group session, therapy session for boys on education, health and hygiene, discipline and personality development, outreach programmes, school visits, documentation, exposure visits, case filing, and teaching but the highlight was the Bal Mela of which we were part of the animating group.”
 
Mung Ja shared a similar sentiment, “We had this time to apply all that we learned in theory into practice. We had lots of fun but also some moments when we were tested to our limits by the boys. I really enjoyed my time here at BBH taking sessions on topics like Human knot, Free Art, non- verbal and non- violent communications. I believe that BBH strongly believes in breaking the cycle of creating a second generation of marginalized people by proving opportunities to the young to experience a broad range of innovative and educational activities.”