Bombay YMCA - Boys Home - Shelter for orphans and children from broken homes

The YMCA Boys Home housing orphans in the heart of Andheri has been in existence since 1964. Started as a small activity in a barren land of the taluka of Versova with a small shed housing 16 vagrant children then, has grown to become a 65 bedded shelter, accommodating orphaned children from the underprivileged sections of the society, whose mothers or guardians struggle otherwise to give them a decent living leave alone education. The lives of the children at the Boys Home usually tend to be very busy as they have a running schedule through the day and the weekend, which includes cleaning their homes, school, tuitions, games and recreation, prayer and homework apart from interaction with donors, organizations and volunteers who visit them day in and day out.

Most of the children living with us either have mothers who work as domestic help in households and cannot take care of their children as they have to work through the day to earn a bare living, sick fathers or grandparents who are too old to provide a future for their wards. We even have children whose parents suffer from HIV and who have been weaned away from them as their life is too short. At the moment we have 48 children in the age group of 6 yrs. to 18yrs., from Std. 1st to Std. 12th mostly the children initially selected from numerous applications received are in age brackets of 5 – 7 yrs., so that they can easily mould into the surroundings of the Boys Home. At the beginning of this academic year 2019-2020, we have admitted 5 new boys.

Once the children are accepted into the Boys Home, their responsibility becomes solely the YMCA’s responsibility, but we do allow regular follow up with parent/guardians so that the child is not totally cut off from his roots or origin. The children are provided stay in dormitories, 4 meals a day – Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner, regular clothing, toiletries, travel expenses, School & tuition fees, Sports Coaching, Vocational Training, Computer Literacy, Library, Medical assistance and overall development of body, mind and spirit through various activities, interactions and programmes.

• To provide individual attention to all children.
• To focus on weaker children and provide them with help for improving their concentration such as Psychologists & Special trainers.
• To identify particular sporting/extracurricular/varied talent in every child and provide him with access to learn/train in that field.
• To provide the right nutrition to the children.
• To ensure 100% results for the SSC children through good & high-end tuition & coaching.
• To appoint a more individual volunteer for the Boys Home children for training the children in English reading and writing, personality development, character building and value base development.
• To concentrate on clothing, washing of clothes and maintenance of clothes and footwear of every child.
• To streamline play activities of the children and provide some time for leisure and self-time.
• Outside Exposure trip and skill training for the elder children.
• Special attention on hygiene and health of boys.