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 chang
e; 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 n
ame 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 co
me 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.
