What is the legal status of BOSCO?

BOSCO is a registered Non Profitable Charitable Organization under the Society’s registration Act of 1960 (No.184/86-87).

What is the scope of BOSCO’s Activities?

Besides its work within Bangalore city of Karnataka State in India, BOSCO presently stretches out its activities to a total of 13 districts through Missing Child Bureau district cells. It hopes to further expand its operations to all the remaining districts of Karnataka.

Who are the people helped by BOSCO?

Our primary focus is on all the young children and youth who are at risk. These include unaccompanied children, missing children, children who ran away from home, abandoned children, complete orphans who have no care takers, children living on the streets, children who do rag picking, children who do begging, children whose rights are violated, children and youth who are prone to substance abuse, children who do labour, children in conflict with law and children who are victims of abuse.

How does BOSCO help the Young at Risk?

We help these children/youth through counselling, advocacy, shelter facility, tracing missing children, home placement, repatriation service, formal and non-formal education, vocational training, job placement, health care, recreation and talent enhancement services.

The problems of the children may differ with their age. How does BOSCO ensure that they receive age appropriate services?

Yes, the problems of the children do differ according to their age. Not only that, keeping the older and younger children together usually makes the younger ones susceptible to bullying or negative influences from older children with behavioural problems. Therefore, the children below and above fourteen years of age are taken care of at different centres. For instance, below fourteen year old children are usually looked after at the centres BOSCO Mane and BOSCO Vikas. Children above fourteen years of age are kept in BOSCO Yuvakendra and BOSCO Sumanahalli.

How does BOSCO contact the Young at Risk?

We contact the children through our field staff whom we call "Street educators/ counselors". These Street educators are deployed in shifts round the clock in the vicinity of the BOSCO centres and six strategic centres in Bangalore city. They seek and find such children or youth who are at risk. After counselling them, they are invited (never forced!) to our shelters. In case the child is an unaccompanied child, he/she is taken to the BOSCO Missing Child Bureau Node or Cell for further counselling, so that he/she can be registered into the unaccompanied children data bank. Further steps are taken to trace the child’s parents.

Do all children whom BOSCO contact / rescue stay permanently in its centres?

No. We believe that, the best place for a child to grow up is in his/her family. Our first efforts for the child is repatriation or home placement of the child after proper counselling. During this process we even try to trace the parents of the child if he/she is a missing child and further, counsel those parents upon finding them.

Does BOSCO have a shelter / residential facility for children at risk?

Yes, we do have shelter facility for children at risk. There are two kinds of shelter which BOSCO provides for the children at risk-
a. Open shelters
b. Transit Home
c. Long term residential facility

What is an open shelter?

There are many children and youth, who become addicted to the freedom and care free life on the streets. Such children show resistance to an invitation for staying at our residential facility and pursue formal education despite counselling efforts. Therefore in order to reduce their vulnerability and gradually win their trust, we provide them with shelters which is open round the clock. The shelter provides sanitation, recreation and resting place facilities for these young people. When they come to the open shelters, our street educator in the open shelter takes the opportunity to provide them non-formal education, health and hygiene awareness and further counselling. BOSCO’s open shelters are at BOSCO Yuvodaya (round the clock open shelter), BOSCO Nilaya and BOSCO Nivas.

What is the purpose of transit home?

Transit home is meant for a short stay of a child at risk. During the period the child is counseled and helped to transit back from a difficult circumstance to the main stream of the society. This facility is provided by BOSCO at the centre BOSCO Mane. It presently has a capacity for accommodating 50 children at a time.

What is the long term residential facility at BOSCO meant for?

The long term residential facility is meant for a long term rehabilitation and upliftment of the children. This is especially for a child who has come into contact with BOSCO and has no means to avail an environment to help himself grow or go for formal education. The children at this centre stay there and are sent to regular schools.

Where is the residential facility for the children at BOSCO? What is its present capacity?

BOSCO presently has residential facilities at BOSCO Vikas, BOSCO Yuvakendra and BOSCO Sumanahalli.
Capacity of each centre:
BOSCO Vikas- 50 children
BOSCO Yuvakendra- 50 children
BOSCO Sumanahalli- 50 children

What are the services / activities in the residential facility?

For children at BOSCO Vikas Long term accommodation Formal Education Soft skills & Personality development Programmes Training for artistic skills Physical education & Coaching for sports Recreation

For children at BOSCO Yuvakendra:

Long term accommodation Formal / Non-formal education based on child’s interest. Vocational Training Talent Enhancement programmes Sports & Recreation

For children at BOSCO Yuvakendra & BOSCO Sumanahalli

Long term accommodation Vocational Training Non-formal education Talent Enhancement programmes Sports & Recreation

How does BOSCO ensure care for children, when it comes across number of children beyond its helping capacity at a particular instance?

Whenever we have to deal with number of children beyond our capacity to help at a particular instance, we refer them to other like-minded organizations or institutions. This has to be done, in order to do proper justice to the service the children should be receiving. Also, this helps us to render our service with a realistic efficiency.

How does BOSCO ensure care for children with special needs or any cases which BOSCO doesn’t have expertise / facility to deal with?

If we come across children with special needs or cases in which we do not have expertise or necessary facilities to deal with, we refer them to other organization/institutions specialized in dealing with those cases. This has to be done to provide for the specific needs of such children.

Does BOSCO reach out to both young boys as well as girls at risk?

We are reaching out to both young boys and girls at risk. However, unlike for the boys currently we lack necessary infrastructure to shelter girl children. Therefore presently for sheltering them, we are relying on other like-minded organizations/institutions who work for girl children. Initiatives to set up our specialized facility for helping, sheltering and carrying out research & documentation for girl children at risk are already on the way.

How does BOSCO raise funds and resources?

We are supported by generous individual donors as well as organizations who are interested in promoting our work.

Does my little contribution make any difference for the children?

Your contribution is never little, if it is out of your concern for the children. You will agree that, vast oceans do exist on the Earth and that it is because many small drops keep coming together to fill up the Earth’s emptiness. Your constancy of support and goodwill will only encourage us to do better work.

Does BOSCO receive any donation in kind?

Yes, we do receive donations in kind. However, we encourage people to consult with us before donating in kind. This is because, many times such donations tend to become surplus causing unnecessary duplication of resources thereby making them less useful. It even may lead to severe storage problems. Donations in kind become most useful to us when they are donated as per the need of the hour.

How do I go about, if I would like to sponsor a few specific children at BOSCO?

We do facilitate sponsorship for specific children who are staying with us. In case you are interested in sponsoring children for their health and education/training, you can send us an email addressing the Executive Director of BOSCO to the following email address: boscofamilyblr@gmail.com. We will respond to you at the earliest along with the details.

Will I avail any tax exemptions for any donations made to BOSCO?

Yes, all financial donations made to BOSCO are exempted from Income Tax under section 80G; ie; you can avail a 50% tax exemption.

Will I avail any tax exemptions for donations in kind?

The donations in kind are not exempted from Income Tax.

Does BOSCO receive any Government fund for its projects?

We receive partial Government funding for the Childline Project.

Does BOSCO carry out any Government Project?

Yes. Childline project is a Government project carried out by BOSCO.

Does BOSCO carry out any project which directly assists the Government?

Yes. There are two projects of BOSCO which directly assists the Government: Missing Child Search Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU)

What is BOSCO’s role in Missing Child Search project?

The Missing Child Bureau Karnataka (MCB) has been established as per the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000 and the rules there under by the Department of Women and Child Development. The Govt. of Karnataka has appointed BOSCO as the State Nodal Agency of the Missing Child Bureau of Karnataka as per the Govt. of Karnataka Order No. DWCD 180 MCB 2007. BOSCO being the State Nodal Agency is the coordinating office which designates other NGOs in the districts to function as the District Cells of the MCB for collecting data on Missing Children cases and unaccompanied children. Using a linkup between Missing Child Search (www.missingchildsearch.net, a web based platform to record missing child complaints) and Homelink software (a desktop application capable of collecting information on Missing and/ Unaccompanied children) BOSCO helps in repatriation of the missing children.

Which Government department does BOSCO collaborate with under the SJPU project?

’Special Juvenile Police Unit’ (SJPU) project of BOSCO is a collaboration of BOSCO with the State Police Department, South Division, Bangalore.

What are the activities of BOSCO under SJPU project?

Strengthening the SJPU in all the Police Stations in which BOSCO is active in consultation and co-operation with the Police Department. Organizing and maintaining appropriate human resources. Maintaining vigil in the operational area to identify and contact Children in conflict with Law and neglected children. Once identified and contacted, bring these children under the purview of the Juvenile Justice Act and render them pro-child treatment, counseling and legal supports. Helping the concerned authorities to trace the victim’s parents / guardians to take charge of observational custody during the course of the trial or in the absence of them, arrange for safe and homely ’observation home’ facilities. Helping the concerned authorities to determine the appropriate rehabilitation of the victim child. Organize sensitization Seminar cum Workshops for the representatives of the police department and for the BOSCO staff employed in the SJPU project. Conducting awareness programmes for the public regarding JJ Act with special reference to Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU).