Navin’s father passed away when the boy was still very young. Stricken with grief, his mother’s mental health slowly deteriorated, till there came a day when she was unable to care for her sons at all. Worried about the boys’ well-being, their uncle stepped in and admitted them to the local Child Care Institution (CCI). At the time, Navin was 8 and had never been to school.

At the CCI, Navin gradually started to learn basic literacy and numeracy and was eventually admitted to a nearby school. He started to develop interests, a primary one being in cooking.

Eight long years passed, and Navin was now in Class 10. He was receiving both psycho-social care as well as career counselling, and in this manner, the matter of returning back to his family was slowly broached. Initially apprehensive about this seemingly new idea, Navin quickly warmed to the thought of going back home. His social workers continued to engage with him, using various conversations, counselling and tools such as the Life Book, which is used to set goals and plan around them. Navin was sent to spend time with his family and was soon able to reignite his relationship with everyone at home, particularly his mother.

Social workers conducted home safety checks using Miracle Foundation’s Thrive Scale™ which assesses the situation across 5 domains of well-being, as well as a risk assessment. The process took months of work, but Navin was finally ready to move back in with his family.

Using family strengthening tactics, social workers were gradually able to improve the family’s livelihood situation. Both his Mother and elder brother started earning and started taking care of everyone at home. Their house was a semi-permanent structure, and was now cemented to make it more habitable.

Once Navin moved back, home visits continued to make sure the situation did not regress. Miracle’s painstaking work paid off when Navin was able to complete school and enrol into college for a degree in hotel management – his childhood dream.

Navin is now 22 years old and well settled at home. He helps out at his brother’s food stall in his free time. As a result of Miracle’s intensive work with the family, Navin’s younger brother is in college too, studying Commerce. Miracle’s staff member who knows the family says that this newfound sense of purpose has improved Navin’s mother’s mental health drastically as well. Although most of Navin’s childhood got spent in a CCI, his return back to his family was a momentous event, one that will allow him to heal and build a good life for himself.