This past March, my students from 9th grade decided to sing "Happy birthday to Uttam" at the end of the class and recorded their voices to send him their song. They were one of the groups that attended the inaugural lecture of IES Agar SOLIDARITY PROGRAM on 14 December, who were delighted with the information they got on India, Fundación Asha-Kiran and the answers to the questions they raised.
The part where Uttam shared his personal experiences unmistakably caught the students’ attention, as it is not commonplace for them to come this close to the founder of an NGO. Reporter Inmaculada Acién from IDEAL newspaper (published in Almería and Granada, Spain) attended the event and interviewed Uttam.
Thereafter, she published a full-page article about the event and the contents of the talk in IDEAL.
Clearly, Uttam's work is not only aimed at the children in India but also to children and youngsters in Spain, because it gives them a vision of solidarity, of creating a more just world, and learning to live from being. THANK YOU.
Here are some of the comments from the students who attended the talk:
“I think meeting Uttam and going to the conference was a great opportunity to learn about other cultures and to remind us how lucky we are to have everything we need and more.”
Alba
“Uttam’s conference seemed fantastic to me because of the way he explained things and what we learned about the NGO. We learned that it isn’t easy to run and that it takes a lot of effort and love for all the children.”
Máximo
“The conference was very interesting and I was thrilled to see the Indian children in the pictures, and the video was very nice.”
Andrea
“I thought it was great that Uttam came. That day we were very excited on account of his visit. When he got here, we began to ask him questions. Some were in Spanish and some in English. We also saw a video about the NGO.”
Esther
“Actually, we were excited about Uttam’s visit since no one like this had ever come here. At first I thought it was going to be boring, but then when I went into the conference hall I got very curious and started asking questions. It was great. I’d like to do it again.”
Valentina
M ª Angeles Arráez – Volunteer at Asha-Kiran
