In the past two months, the Yashodhara family has grown visibly larger. The last two newcomers are Pragati and Pallavi, 12 and 10 respectively. Two days after their arrival, they were already attending the local school.
Pragati and Pallavi used to live with their mother, blind in one eye, who worked in a telephone shop that was shut down by the police. Widowed since the girls were very young, her income suddenly stopped and the possibility of providing for her family was drastically reduced due to her impairment. The family lived on their neighbors’ charity, but the mother did not want her daughters to stop going to school. She contacted Asha-Kiran through an acquaintance; our social workers quickly came to visit them and started the necessary admission procedures.
Both mother and daughters are very grateful for the opportunity given to them. We will make our best effort to exceed their expectations.
Pragati and Pallavi used to live with their mother, blind in one eye, who worked in a telephone shop that was shut down by the police. Widowed since the girls were very young, her income suddenly stopped and the possibility of providing for her family was drastically reduced due to her impairment. The family lived on their neighbors’ charity, but the mother did not want her daughters to stop going to school. She contacted Asha-Kiran through an acquaintance; our social workers quickly came to visit them and started the necessary admission procedures.Both mother and daughters are very grateful for the opportunity given to them. We will make our best effort to exceed their expectations. 
Ana, Elena, Montse, Álvaro and Ane (accompanied by her son and daughter) have brought with them interesting and different ideas such as handicraft making, painting, juggling and puppet making, body language, etc. One of the Volunteers, Maddi, is making videos and a photographic record of the workshops. The activities selected were chosen from nearly a hundred Volunteers who finally made up a group eager to experience, learn and share their knowledge and solidarity with the children.
When the workshops began at 
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Life in India contrasts dramatically with life in Spain ... it invites one to let go and relax again and again. Hence, the Volunteers have also had to make significant adjustments in things like being flexible in view of constant plan changes, simplifying their activities, adapting to the food and non-stop rain, learning to listen to local people in order to get the real gist of what is said, and so on.
Children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain to keep them alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends for a lifetime, and they simply have to toil hard and depend on the mercy of their ‘owners’ without any hope of release or redemption. The parent of the bonded child is usually an impoverished, uneducated landless laborer, and the mortgagee is traditionally some big landlord, money lender or business man who thrives on the child’s vulnerability to such exploitation.
The government did take few directions on the right track initially, but most of their efforts came to naught with time. Moreover, the government’s efforts did not reach high profile industries like cigarette making and carpet weaving. According to Cousen Neff - an official of the Human Rights Watch – “Instead of living up to its promises, the Indian government is starting to backtrack, claiming the problem is being solved. Our research shows that it is not”.
During childhood, children get loving care without asking for it, and since it is as necessary as light and air, it is seen as a normal element in the growing process. But any child who is deprived of it at a given time, is certainly impoverished – this is why no child at the Shelter goes without the affection and care of the professionals who are working for their development.
Prem and Parshuram used to live with their grandmother and father. Their mother left without a trace. Their father, an alcoholic, is often missing for several days at a time and doesn’t work. Their grandmother works in the big market buying and then reselling goods in the street, so she leaves home at 4 am and comes back at 2 pm in order to earn about one euro a day. The children were not attending school and were left alone in their shack in deplorable conditions.