BHOPAL: SOS Children’s Villages of India (SOS CVI) has set up a child-friendly quarantine centre in Bhopal. The centre provides medical supervision and family-like care for abandoned children and children with COVID-19 positive parents - throughout the stipulated two-week quarantine period.
The quarantine centre has been set up in SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, located within the campus of SOS Children’s Village Bhopal, on the request of the Women and Child Development Department (WCD), Government of Madhya Pradesh. So far, 15 children have been provided with the care and discharged after the quarantine period. Currently, the quarantine centre has seven children, who were rescued by Railway Childline, Bhopal.
After the completion of the quarantine period, the children will either unite with their families or rehabilitated in SOS Children’s Villages of India and other childcare institutions, as per the instructions of the Child Welfare Committee and the District Child Protection Officer. Out of the 15 children who completed the quarantine period, three have now become a part of the SOS Family, for long-term care. Two have been shifted to other child care institutions in Bhopal, and three have been reunited with their families.
Sumanta Kar, Senior Deputy National Director, SOSCVI said, “We created the quarantine centre with a child-friendly ambience. There are indoor play items, storybooks, and a television set. Each child is given a single bed and there are separate rooms for girls and boys. They are given new clothes and are provided with healthy and nutritious meals and snacks, prepared by SOS Mothers at our kitchen. Our SOS Aunts, who are trained in parental care, stay with children at the centre and take care of all the needs of the children. This initiative reaffirms our commitment to ensure that no child grows up alone #nochildalone.”
Before being admitted to the centre, the abandoned children undergo tests to ensure that they are not COVID-19 positive. The entire complex including all the rooms are regularly sanitised, and there are restrictions on the entry for outsiders. The quarantine centre is located at a safe distance from the Family Homes of Children’s Village Bhopal, where hundreds of children live.
