Our day-to-day work

Dear friends,
We’d like to show you the letter we got yesterday from our project director in India, Manish. In it you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the ‘shades of grey’ of the work we have undertaken and the challenges we face daily, many of them at the hands of the Indian authorities themselves…

Hi, Uttam and Hansa.

The new CFC (Child Friendly Center) was opened in the Vishrantwadi area, close to Yerwada, Pune. The CFC was built out of bamboo and bamboo sheets covered by plastic. The materials used are not of very good quality, just average, due to the fear that the local authorities might tear it down. As the whole community is illegal, it could be demolished any time, that’s why we made a simple shelter so as to not spend too much.

To our surprise…

Yesterday, December 5th, 2007, was the first day at the CFC. Thirty five children came, very happy to be there. They were so excited with the Centre, that they didn’t want to go home for lunch, and we had to make them go. Classes continued after lunch and I was there to take some pictures. While I was taking pictures, many people came and, to our surprise, they were the local authorities, who had come to bulldoze the slum and the CFC. I was almost in tears. Finally, I decided to talk to the municipal officer and ask him not to tear the Centre down. He didn’t agree to it, but promised he wouldn’t harm it and would take it down carefully. We have put the material in a safe place, and will build again in the next couple of days. I would like to go on with this Centre, since the children and their parents cooperate with us. The parents will help us rebuild it. We haven’t stopped the classes – the teacher will continue with them out in the open for two days, until we build it again.

Child labour:
The impact of the new CFC was such that a ten-year-old girl was working as a servant in a nearby house, but when the Centre opened, her parents sent her to the Centre instead of sending her to work. Of course, we had to do a lot of counseling, but in the end, the results are obvious.

Regards,
Manish Shroff (Asha-Kiran Shelters Foundation)

200 Sponsors Campaign: Please cooperate actively.

Hi all,

Within the framework of the Day Centers and Yashodhara Shelter Home Projects, we are now launching a campaign to secure 200 more sponsors so that we can count with the financial and moral support we need. We are also trying to get you involved in our work; we wish to become an avenue for your solidarity and social commitment. Our campaign will span over the months of November, December and January – three months to fulfill our goal of having 200 more sponsors who, together with those already supporting us, will provide the much needed energy to meet our aims. For the time being, our sponsorship program is not geared to sponsor a specific child (though this will be done in the future), but the projects we are undertaking.

The funds that we collect are wholly destined to financing the various development activities we do in India. With a small contribution – 21 Euros – sponsors will come closer to India’s vulnerable children through Asha-Kiran Foundation Home for Children, they will back up the children’s hopes and will provide an alternative to the disregard of their rights, to neglect and to indifference.

If you aren’t already doing so, PLEASE COOPERATE ACTIVELY WITH OUR WORK. If you feel that now is the time, that it is now possible for you, please fill out the sponsorship form at our website www.asha-kiran.org.es, or get in touch with us at (34) 913 920 688. You may also contact us in case you wish to find out more about us. Keep in mind that there are also other ways to collaborate in our social endeavors.91 392 06 88

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PUBLICIZE THIS CAMPAIGN.

Love Happening

From your Hands to the Heart of India: onward we go.

Dear collaborator,
We’re happy to get in touch with you again, hoping that through this blog we’ll be able to transmit to you some – or all – of the cheer and vitality that we are working with in order to give shape ‘on this earth’ to the dream of our Foundation.

This has been an intensely eventful summer. Aside from the two trips that were organized in India with two groups of 20 people each with the intention of coming into close contact with the reality of the country, getting a foothold in it, and seeing the work of the Foundation in Pune, we have made great progress in relation to the children and our work with them.

Thus, we would like to inform you about the present state of our projects – the Day Centers and the Yashodhara Shelter in Pune, India – and also about the activities we are undertaking in Spain so that we can make them come true. We are growing day by day.

As you probably already know, our projects are based on the creation and execution of transition programs destined for vulnerable children, such as working with children on the street in order to bond with them; listening to and understanding their needs; inviting, suggesting and facilitating change; building Day Centers so that protection and health care will be available to them and their community, with the aim of mainstreaming children into formal schooling; and building a shelter home (the Yashodhara Shelter Home) to provide a stable home base to those who most need it – a home in the full sense of the word.

We are consolidating everything concerning the organization and administration of the Foundation in Pune, where we are known as ASHA-KIRAN SHELTERS FOUNDATION. We’ve had an office there since last May, and hired Manish Shroff as our director in India, who has ample experience working with vulnerable children through his former work for a prominent NGO in Pune. He is in charge of managing the Foundation in India, and also of planning and carrying out projects. Also working with us are Vandana and Lata, two teachers, and Vaishali, a social worker, who are, likewise, all familiar with working with children. Lata and Vandana teach in the two Day Centers that are already functioning. Vaishali helps the teachers draw up educational plans, and takes care of the personal needs of the children at the same time. She also assesses new areas for possible future intervention by contacting community members and building rapport with them in regard to our work. In addition to them, we have a doctor who is helping us out with the task of implementing health and food programs. We have done medical check-ups of the children who come to the day centers, and their corresponding records. Besides this, a local hospital in town has offered to back up our health program.

Three slums were chosen in June of this year where no other NGO’s were working, and in which it was possible to begin to work confidently on account of their size. Two of them are in the Koregaon Park area, and the other one in Hadapsar (both in Pune). All of the slums have a child population of between 35 and 40 each. They all live in unhealthy conditions, and none of them attend school. They are the children of central India farm workers who migrated here in search of a better life.

On September 11th, we officially inaugurated our first day center in Koregaon Park. Its name is Savitribai Phule Daycare Center. The educational program has been implemented here, as well as the medical and food programs. At present, 70% of the children who live in this slum attend our day center.

We have finished our assessment of the second slum – also in Koregaon Park – in order to pinpoint the existing needs and to justify the need for our work there. In this area, the major hurdle is that the settlement is divided in two by a canal. Each half has its own leader and its own religion, one of them being Christians and the other Hindus. The leader of one of the halves has already agreed to our day center being built there. On the other side, however, we have yet to have the necessary support. Our challenge is to cater to both halves of the slum with one day center, so we are presently studying the best way to secure the community’s, and especially the leader’s, trust and support. We hope that we’ll soon be able to start the construction of the day center. A third teacher will be hired to work in this slum.

The third area we’re working in is Hadapsar, where, faced with the difficulty of finding a suitable place, we decided to begin our educational program in a temporary shelter – a bamboo hut which was donated by a kind old man. We will widen the hut this week so as to have more room for the 20 or so children who come daily to meet with one of our teachers for five hours a day. This slum is next to a highway which will purportedly be widened, though this remains to be seen. The community has been asked to leave this settlement countless times. It is our intention to remain by them until there is no one left, not with a temporary but with a permanent character. When it is time for them to move, we will move along with them.

On the other hand, as you know, our most important project ahead is to build the Yashodhara Shelter, which will take in approximately 50 children. This home will be a stable shelter for the neediest children, where they will find all they need for their personal and global development – in one word: a home. We are now looking for land in Pune for this purpose, while also working on getting the necessary money to purchase the land and to build the home.

As part of our work, Asha-Kiran Foundation organizes cultural and therapeutic activities in Spain so as to obtain the funds for its social work, and also to create outlets to promote creativity and beauty. The upcoming activities are the following:
Taking part in the Ayudar Fair-07, to take place in Zaragoza on the 17th and 18th of October, where we’ll have a booth to inform the public about our work.

Solidarity Drinks. Some food and drink establishments have offered to cooperate by donating a third of the sales on certain dates and times to Asha-Kiran. The first of them will be Guau in Madrid, on October 25th, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Other activities are also planned, like photograph exhibits taken by Uttam, piano music concerts, dance shows, shadow theater presentations, and other activities of which we will keep you informed.

We are thrilled to see that our projects are coming true. The Day Care Centers are very unpretentious – as you can see in the attached pictures – but aspire to be a prominent point of support for the children and families who live in the slums we have chosen. These Day Centers are the door to our next and important project, the Yashodhara Shelter. We will keep you informed of our progress, in the hopes that you’ll continue to be motivated to help us.

A hug,
Uttam – in the name of Fundación Asha-Kiran.

Asha-Kiran takes its photography exhibit “Miradas de India” to The English School of San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa).

As part of our fund-raising activities and the dissemination of our work in India, we were invited, last 17th of June, to participate in the end-of year party at The English School of San Sebastián. The students from the tenth grade who just finished their academic year surprised us with their decision to donate half of the money they raised in several activities – Santo Tomás flea market, sales of second-hand sales items provided by their parents, drinks and dessert sales at the Halloween party, etc. – to Asha-Kiran. This money was intended to cover the expenses of their end-of–year trip, which didn’t take place in the end.

By this deed we have seen that the children from The English School, with the backing of their teachers and parents, are growing academically while also keeping in mind ideals of solidarity and respect, and showing enthusiasm in sharing their own dignity with other children.
We enjoyed the children’s performances such as rhythmic dance, songs, dances, etc., in a warm and cheerful atmosphere where children, families and teachers all took part.

In representation of his class, a boy of Indian nationality handed over the €450 donation to Paloma Sousa (co-founder of Asha-Kiran). This was a heartwarming gesture, since the donation is destined to children from his own country. We are certain that the Indian children, who this money is for, will not only benefit from said money, but also from the vitality that other children such as them show in pitching in to make a different world possible.

Thank you for your cooperation. We hope to continue to have invitations such as this.
We wish all children a bright and happy future in life.

Paloma Sousa (Hansa),
Co-founder of Asha-Kiran.

First report

Hi.
We have started this blog so that it may serve as a link between Fundación Asha-Kiran and all those who are interested in our social endeavors. Through it, we will keep you informed of the evolvement of our projects and of the steps we are taking, so that your possible contribution will be backed by the assurance that it is in fact reaching the addressees that our projects aim to help.

Thus, after our – Hansa’s and mine – trip to Pune in April, our projects have gained new momentum and new perspectives. In order to implement our work in India, we’ve had to found another Trust without profit in mind – ASHA-KIRAN SHELTERS FOUNDATION – which will be a tool to make our projects a reality there. In this manner, Asha-Kiran India will be a receptacle for the funds of Asha-Kiran Spain, so that we no longer have to depend on any other local NGO in order to transfer funds into India – that is, we are completely independent.

On the other hand, we now have our own office in Pune, and have hired Manish – of Indian nationality and with 10 years’ experience in working with street children for a prominent NGO in Pune – as the director. After ascertaining the basic needs of street children in Pune with him, we have decided it would be important to begin our journey by opening a Day Care Center (CFC – Child Friendly Center) with the aim of supporting them on a day-to-day basis, coming into close contact with their needs, and assessing their possible admittance into the Yashodhara Shelter, if deemed advisable.

There are no day centers of this type in Pune, though there are many children in need of such a facility, where they can feel free to come and go and feel supported and protected at the same time. Day shelter, food, healthcare facilities, an education, clothing, protection, affection, and a listening attitude will be given in the Center to those children who need it and who come to it of their own free will. At this time we are in the process of choosing, from among five areas where the children are to be found, the most convenient placement for the CFC, so that it may be easily accessible to them. The drawing up of our project is almost finished, and we will be opening the Center in August of this year. To that end, we will hire two social workers, a teacher, a cleaning person and a part-time doctor in the next few weeks.

As you already know, our mid term project is to create a Shelter for street children in Pune (India). We had seen some land for it, but it didn’t work out. We hope to keep searching for another piece of land this summer. So, at this time, our energy and vitality are geared to get the Day Care Center going, where we intend to offer free services to as many children as possible. We will publish said Project in the web soon. We hope it will interest you and that you’ll want to cooperate with us. Now that we are beginning to embark on our journey, we need much support and sponsors to back up our projects financially.

Feel free to tell your close ones about Fundación Asha-Kiran. As we always say, we wish to serve as a means for your social commitment to bear fruit in the lives of those in need.

Please Visit our website and this blog to know ‘where we’re at’.
Regards from the heart. Until soon,
Uttam.