St. Dominic Savio Church

Wadala, Mumbai (India)
Location ANTOP HILL, Bombay's Antop Hill is no salubrious mountain resort. Quite the contrary, it's reputation lies in the fact that it shelters one of the city's biggest slum areas.

The sequel to this is woefully obvious an exposure to filth and squalor that affects not only the environment but also the morality of the residents. It is no mystery that Antop Hill ranks high on Bombay's crime beat.
 
Aim PROJECT PUSH aims at changing the scenario of Antop Hill in a concrete and constructive way. Without doubt, it is Education that strikes at the very roots of poverty and provides openings to citizens towards a better way of living.
   
objectives Provision is towards an Educational Complex that will offer Primary Education to the children of the slums. The Complex will also provide training of various skills to the Youth of the locality after school hours. The Complex will thus initiate an effective thrust to improve the locality through methods that will be positive and progressive.

In a locality of 500,000 inhabitants, Project "St. Dominic Savio Educational Complex" will provide an alternative to the following deplorable pitfalls:
Gambling
Alcoholism and Drug Addiction
Child-labour and abuse
Prostitution
Anti-Social Activities

The St. Dominic Savio Educational Complex will be instrumental in brightening the prospects of the youth who due to the locality have no option but to stagnate and consequently become destructive elements very early in life.

The joy of The educational Complex will provide an infallible opportunity for them to recapture and reclaim the joy of their youth and thus become: productive elements of the locality.
   
goals The destiny of every person made in the image of God is to be fully HUMAN.
They are. SUBJECTS - active participants in the history of their lives - and NOT OBJECTS - passive recipients of the dictates and impositions of others.
   
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
& LAYOUT



a. National Open School
b. Catechetical Centre
c. Recreational Centre
d. Youth Centre for Dramatics and Culture 		EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX AND MULTI PURPOSE COMMUNITY CENTRE

A two-storied structure with an open basement to accommodate initially the Activities and Associations of the Parish. The target spaces CS 91 adjacent to the Church Compound CS 87 to build the project and provide ample space and facility for the purposes mentioned.

ENVIRONMENT

The locality of Antop Hill is basically a creek where salt pans once existed. With the influx of people from all over India pouring into Bombay to seek employment during the past thirty years, Antop Hill has become a locality convenient for hutments to mushroom. During the three months of heavy monsoons affecting the city, water still oozes through the flooring of the huts with terrible consequences.

Antop Hill today has a population of around 500,000 inhabitants. Congestion is at saturation point. Situated close to the Government Fertilizer Factory and the oil refineries, pollution level is high and accounts for the area's sub-human conditions for living.

SICKNESS

In these sub-human conditions, teenagers especially lack the basic necessities of life like food, shelter and clothing. Major diseases are rampant -gastro enteritis, malaria, influenza, tuberculosis, jaundice and so on. The death rate has considerably risen under these unhealthy circumstances.

ANTI-SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

With no space to provide healthy recreation and pastimes, the following have proliferated in the slums:-Gambling Dens, Drinking Pubs, Video Parlours. Teenagers, both boys and girls, who have dropped out from schools, have primarily become a prey. The crime-rate, prostitution, idle-wandering, etc. have thereby arisen tremendously to make Antop Hill notorious as it now stands.
   
REQUISITES FOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT he Bombay Archdiocesan Synod which basically focused on the improving the quality of life especially through setting up of a CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION (CCO)

Provincial Chapter PC 2001 which has been called The "Chapter of the Marginalized" and wants the Salesian Community to effectively start the PARTICIPATION STRATEGIC PLANNING (PSP) process - a concrete way "to discern God's will, not so much by searching the skies for guiding stars, "but by scanning (and developing) the human condition of our neighbourhood where God became incarnate two millennium Christmas' ago (Provincial's letter, dt 17 Nov 2001)

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority and other Schemes that have started since 1997 in the city of Mumbai to provide better living conditions to slum inhabitants. The immediate implementation of the local Development Plan is also under serious consideration by the Municipality for the area. Now appears the possibility and viability of carrying out the project.
   
EXISTING ACTIVE ACTIVITIES List of Activities to face the challenges of the locality which are being conducted since these past twenty years.

BALWADIS (Total=3)
1. In the Church – 150 children
2. St Anthony's Chapel – 75 children
3. Vijaynagar Chapel – 50 children

SUNDAY SCHOOL – For the Catholics
1. Morning in English (2 shifts) – 350 children
2. Evening in Tamil – 250 children

DISPENSARY
Conducted by The St Vincent de Paul Society of the Parish every Sunday and Wednesday.

ASSOCIATIONS IN THE PARISH
Altar Servers, Legion of Mary (Junior and Senior), Catholic Sabha, St. Vincent de Paul, Prayer Groups, Biblical Cell, Salesian Co-operators, Youth Group (The Savion Youth Movement)

EVENING STUDY CLASSES – (Total=5)-For the slum children
1. In the Church – 100 children
2. St Anthony's Chapel – 80 children
3. Fatima Chapel – 100 children
4. Himmatnagar – 80 children
5. Vijayangar Chapel – 80 children

EVENING STUDY CLASSES – (Total=5)-For the slum children

SUMMER CLUB - Started since 1981, and caters to 550 children of the slum locality. The number is restricted due to lack of space.

STITCHING AND TAILORING CLASSES - Conducted in two centers - In Church and the Vijaynagar Chapel. SHG's ( Small Human Groups ) - Focuses on the self development. Empowered by three groups working towards rehablitation of the area.
   
PROJECT TARGET TO BE ACHIEVED EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX AND MULTI PURPOSE COMMUNITY CENTRE

A two-storeyed structure with an open basement to accommodate initially the Activities and Associations of the Parish. The target spaces CS 91 adjacent to the Church Compound CS 87 to build the project and provide ample space and facility for the purposes mentioned.

EXISTING SPACES - The existing space is just the Church Hall that keeps the show going. This space is woefully inadequate to accommodate the Activities and Associations so vital to a vibrant parish.