The Importance of Mitrata's Contact Center
Rick and I visited the Contact Center and met with the children, staff, Leena Satyal, BSF Executive Director, and Yogesh Satyal, BSF Board President. The kids are bright, happy, and incredibly cute. The Contact Center has evolved since I last visited in 2011. Back then, it was about bringing school age children, who may have never attended school, up to a level where they could attend a regular school. Nowadays, the Contact Center works primarily with preschool children to get them ready to attend school.
Yogesh Satyal speaking to Contact Center children
The kids put on a short program of dancing to welcome us and then were served lunch. Nutrition is a big part of the Contact Center’s mission since most of the children don’t receive nutritious meals at home for breakfast and lunch. Proper nutrition helps the kids develop physically and mentally and, according to Yogesh, is as important — if not more important — than the educational activities of the Contact Center. You can always catch up on learning, he says, but adverse effects from poor nutrition at a young age will be with a child for life.
Lunch was somewhat somewhat chaotic but it was organized chaos. Every child was given a plate of nutritious, high protein food including rice, lentils, beans, potatoes, and vegetables. Staff would then roam from table to table with pots of food and the children would raise their hands to request additional helpings. No one left the table hungry. Thanks to our friends at Karma Thalo Foundation, the children’s daily meals now include a nutritious breakfast in addition to lunch. Leena and Yogesh said that they have noticed that the children have been more attentive since the breakfast program started.
After lunch, Rick and I made a home visit. A short walk from the Contact Center, five children (3 in school and 2 in the Contact Center) share two beds in a 10 foot by 10 foot room with their mother, father, and an older sister. The father and mother do what they can to take care of the children, but there isn’t much in their house to go around. When we arrived, the family was in bed to keep warm. In our discussions with Leena, we learned that many of the Contact Center children come from homes with single parents, alcoholism, and family violence. The parents of these children must scramble to find work each and every day, while children are left alone at home. Mitrata’s Contact Center provides needed structure, nutrition, and life skills, without which the children wouldn’t have much chance of breaking out of the cycle of poverty.
— Jim Craig, Board President
