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This new period in Yashodhara brings with it not only the move to a new, more spacious building, having more children under our care and collaborating with SAMPARC, a local NGO. For us at Asha-Kiran, this new stage begins with reaching an objective: some of the children that we have supported over the last five years can finally go home and be reinserted into family life.

For a couple of years now, and with the conviction that a family is the best environment for children to grow up in, we have been intensifying the work with the parents of Yashodhara children. The objective of this work has consisted in strengthening the mechanisms that parents have to protect their children, and supporting parents to find better jobs that will enable them to provide a healthier environment to their offspring.

The social workers at Asha-Kiran have intimate knowledge of each family’s circumstances and the setting where parents carry out their activities. This allows them to offer real and timely support to all. It is a slow and difficult process, but we are getting there! At the beginning of 2011-2012, Deepti and Aniruddha, our social workers, identified six families whose situation had improved markedly over the three previous years, and worked with them wholeheartedly to ensure success in the process of reinserting the children.

The result was that before moving to the new Yashodhara premises last month, we succeeded in bringing DEVYANI back home with her mother under full safety and protection conditions. Thanks to the constant support of Asha-Kiran and her determination to succeed, Meri, the mother, got a stable job at a beauty parlor in Pune and is registered in the municipal records as a beneficiary of the urban relocation program. This means that in a short time, Devyani and her mother will leave their shack in Koregaon Park and move to a small apartment in Hadapsar neighborhood. Deepti has helped Meri with Devyani’s school change procedures, who will begin 9^th grade this year. Asha-Kiran will continue to support this family throughout the school year to ensure that their new situation stabilizes and improves as time goes by.

Work with the rest of the families identified at the beginning of last year continues with all the energy we get from the results we are getting, and we hope to have more good news to tell and more children back home soon.

JOY

Since I joined Asha-Kiran in 2007, I have been travelling to India three times a year. The country never seemed foreign to me. Quite on the contrary, it always felt like home, probably because, having been born in a third-world country, the beneficiaries of our projects reminded me of the people from the disadvantaged social groups I grew up with - different language, different dress, different religion, but so much the same heart.

Spending time with the children from our projects -‘our’ children- brought me very close to them, just as if they had been part of my family. Considering the terribly hard lives they had led, their blooming after joining Asha-Kiran is something to behold. It is hard to imagine children from ‘developed’ countries having so much resilience and being so grateful.

Soon, I’ll get to visit and communicate with our children in sign-touch language once more… a most welcome prospect. I will also meet my Indian coworkers and see our new Day Care Centers at construction sites. I look forward to feeling the warmth of the people and their relaxed inner pace, seeing and hearing the bustle and constant horn-blowing in the streets, watching the monsoon rain pour, and feeling the mosquitoes mercilessly eating up my legs in the evening.

As my journey is about to begin, my wish is that everyone who hasn’t felt the welcoming embrace of these unassuming and sincere people will have the chance to do so some day.

Sadhana – Volunteer at Asha-Kiran

IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN AT THE DAY CARE CENTERS

500 children from six different Marvel Builders’ construction sites participated in the vaccination campaign that Asha-Kiran carried out along with Marvel Builders, the Builders’ Association and Pune Municipal Corporation.

250 of the children who got immunized came from five Day Care Centers that Asha-Kiran manages at said construction sites. The children, aged 0 to 14, were vaccinated according to their age and previous health records. Their mothers received ample information on the importance of vaccines at the various stages of a child’s life, together with an immunization card with clear explanations of the timetable to follow to complete the full immunization schedule.

Parents who work at the construction sites where Asha-Kiran operates the Day Care Centers will receive support and special monitoring with regard to vaccinations and consultations at the health center.

NO SILK LINEN FOR THEM

It is easy to get money in exchange for child labor in the silk industry in India. As the amount offered on loan - from 40 to 350 Euros - is higher than in any other industry, parents are encouraged offer their children as payback as a matter of course.

According to South Asia Coalition, 80 million children have been kidnapped or forced by their parents to pay off family debts or payment of loans with high interest rates.

Leela borrowed 2,000 rupees (30 €) to repair her house. As collateral, she committed her ten-year-old son to work twelve hours a day in a local loom and thus pay her debt. The child's work consisted in stretching meshes and manually feeding thread to make the designs of silk saris, earning the paltry sum of 10 rupees (15 cents) a day.

Most of the families that nurture the child labor market are below the poverty threshold, but the main reason for this practice seems to be greed, not poverty. Mothers always express remorse, but the use of cheap child labor continues. In addition, according to The Times of India, contractors cheat the farmers by buying silk cocoons for just 150 rupees (3 €) per kilogram.

Those with vested interests argue that poverty will increase if silk stops being sold, but if such patronage over generations had improved the standard of living of the needy, parents would not continue forcing their children to long working hours for such low pay.

Nowadays, most ‘slaves’ are women and children unable to break free from inhumane working conditions, while many factories of the so-called called civilized world are still crowded with innocent beings - human and nonhuman – who are doomed to be exploited or exterminated.

Source: ivu.org

CHILDREN'S VIEWS MATTER

The children were aware that two teachers in their school had not been coming to class for a few days. After asking around, they decided to ask their principal to check the teachers’ leave applications. Seeing that there were none and no sign of the teachers returning, they took up the matter with the ‘sarpanch’ (head) of the village. When that didn’t work, they called a local journalist and brought the issue into the open.

These are the ‘baal gats’ - activist children’s groups that have sprung up in two of Maharashtra’s districts where the agrarian crisis has worsened the already crippling rural poverty. These young crusaders have zeroed in on issues like education, child labour, cleanliness, etc., and taken it upon themselves to transform their villages. Though they are only between seven and fourteen, the collective power they exude is unparalleled.

With the help of Save the Children and other local organizations, the children’s groups were formed in over 900 villages with the issue of child labour in mind. All the children of the village are encouraged to be part of the groups and join the monthly meetings to discuss what ails them and their village. The youngsters then devise ways of tackling issues linked to child labor and education, directly or indirectly.

In one of the villages, the children basked in their victory of getting Manda (12) admitted to school. When they went door to door to see if all the children were getting a formal education, they realized that Manda had been working in the fields. "She was a very quiet girl who never spoke to anyone. She hadn’t been going to school for two years because her father made her work in the field. It took us a long time to convince her and her father", says 12-year-old Vishakha. Convincing her younger brother, however, has been an unfruitful task. “Every time he sees us, he starts running away from us. He just doesn’t like going to school,’’ the children say.

Just the same, the children from these villages have succeeded in ‘waking up’ the adults in their communities to their own reality and have successfully promoted change as a result. Their near-perfect view of the world and their vitality empowers them to do so. Perhaps we, as adults, should stop and listen to children more often with an open attitude, and then do our best to integrate their outlook in decisions that matter.

Source: The Times of India

YASHODHARA, BIGGER THAN EVER

We are starting a new period in the implementation of our projects in India. The children from Hadapsar, Yashodhara, and the schools we work with have enjoyed a well-deserved vacation after an intense academic year. We have also assessed the objectives attained and looked for new ways to make the projects as efficient as possible.

Bearing this in mind, and always having as our main goal the true benefit of Yashodhara children, we succeeded in associating with SAMPARC, a local NGO with many years’ experience in managing Shelter Homes. Until June of this year, SAMPARC operated a Shelter Home located a few hours away from Pune. However, their main sponsors were severely affected by the crisis in Europe and SAMPARC suddenly found itself lacking the funds to continue managing its project while having to care for 120 boys and girls aged between 10 and 15, who depend on them to access development opportunities for their future.

On the other hand, the laws applicable to Shelter Homes in the State of Maharashtra changed drastically in the last yearly period and Asha-Kiran had to quickly adapt to these changes in order to go on offering the same care and protection to Yashodhara children. To continue managing the Shelter, we are required to have our own premises and they have to be a certain minimum size; this involves a monetary output that is presently impossible for us to bear.

The missing piece of the puzzle was put in place after the first meetings with the people of SAMPARC - they needed support to finance and manage the Shelter, and we needed new premises to house the children and continue working as before. The result: Yashodhara Shelter now has a new building in a beautiful area in the outskirts of Pune, which is now home to a total of 140 boys and girls from 6 to 16 years of age. With the support of SAMPARC, who in addition to letting us use their facilities, is committed to managing the project jointly with us, we have managed to TAKE A STEP FURTHER AND ENLARGE THE SCOPE OF YASHODHARA EVEN MORE.

The same as every year, our commitment is to move towards the ultimate goal of reaching out to and supporting more and more vulnerable children in India.