A-K's NEW OFFICE IN PUNE

In our effort to provide an ever-better response to the needs of our beneficiaries, Asha-Kiran’s office in Pune has moved to larger, more spacious facilities, while still being in a centralized location with respect to our projects.

Our team -Sujata, Kalpana, Nirmiti, Kavita and Subhash- participated fully in the move after painting and getting the space ready. At the end of an intense week of moving and arranging furniture, computers and documents, our office opened its doors once again to continue offering its services to vulnerable social groups in Pune.

NEW COLLABORATION: A-K AND COMMUNITY WOMEN

This month we combined the sales initiative of Asha-Kiran’s bookmarks with an activity for the women in our Community Center in Pune.

As ornaments for the bookmarks will be needed, our collaborator Lina Ramirez devoted several sessions to teach the women how to make them. And since there are a lot to manufacture – eight thousand - the housewives can engage in this activity for some time and get financial compensation for their work.

We hope that their skilled work and the love and care they put into it will result in ample demand for the end product and therefore continued benefits for themselves and their families.

HELL CIRCUS

Each year, hundreds of Nepalese parents sell their children to circuses in India, thinking their children will have a better future. For just $30, the children leave their homes behind only to become slaves. At the circus, they will be exploited, subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and their lives will become a living hell. When they grow up, the girls will be distributed among the showmen as sexual objects.

Philip Holmes, a former lieutenant colonel in the British army, left his former life to fight this scourge and rescue as many circus children as he could. His foundation, The Esther Benjamin Trust, has already rescued hundreds of them. Biker and writer Fabian C. Barrio, supported by Mutua Madrileña, has joined his undertaking.

These little acrobats are potential slaves. ‘We’re talking about children who never leave the fenced structure of the circus. Many child slaves are used for child prostitution, and forced marriages are not uncommon to preserve the circus tradition’, states Fabian.

Fabian met Philip during one of his trips in Nepal. When they met, Philip put Fabian up to date with the extreme situation faced by children there, where his NGO is simply overwhelmed with work. Trained through beatings and after years of forcing their small bodies to exhaustion, many of them end up with disabilities, begging in the streets.

Esther Benjamin Trust rescues about 100 children each year from this living hell. Philip organizes raids constantly, together with a team of volunteers and the police. To date, his NGO has managed to put fifteen traffickers in jail. Unfortunately, trafficking has intensified and new routes toward Africa are emerging.

Once children are rescued, those who are undocumented are taken to Philip Holmes’ shelter home in Kathmandu. There, the children go through a long recovery process because of the disorders engendered by their suffering. Without an ID, it is almost impossible to locate their families. Insecurity, fear, rejection and nightmares accompany them throughout their rehabilitation.

Esther Benjamin Trust’s work is critical for thousands of children who lack a past, a present or a future. Fabian C. Barrio gives his heartfelt thanks to Mutua Madrileña, who ‘from believed in the viability of the expedition and supported me without a second thought. There are twenty million children working in India’s streets, and half of the children in this country are sexually abused at least once in their life’, says Fabian bitterly.

When Fabian is asked what people that can do regarding the rescue of circus children, he answers ‘Spread the word. Stories exist only when people know they happen’.

Source: libertaddigital.com

MENTAL DISORDERS IN INDIA

“Mangala” was rescued by the women who lead The Banyan, an NGO that is home to low-income women suffering from various mental disorders, most of them picked up from the streets. Mangala, who is following a treatment for a severe bipolar disorder which caused her to be cut off from her family, says that ‘In the first few months, I had no idea how to deal with life. Here I found a second chance, a second life. It’s the greatest gift any of us can get’.

The transition Center of the NGO, Adaikalam, is not a run-of-the-mill psychiatric hospital. Women are free to come and go, talk, walk, weep, play, or do various tasks. One of the managers of the Center notes that ‘We are interested in improving care for both men and women, but it is true that women, especially in our society, are especially vulnerable. In fact, many of them are found half-naked in the street, showing clear evidence of having been sexually abused’.

On the terrace, several women sew bags and purses, others make pillows or carefully weave baskets with natural fibers. These are some of the products sold in the Center’s retail shop, which let the women generate their own income. One of the greatest challenges has been to find living arrangements for those who, for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to go back with their families. For them, the organization has developed a program of Community Homes where six or seven women live independently while continuing their treatments under the supervision of The Banyan.

In India, ‘Mental health services are mostly inadequate; these disorders tend to be treated without taking into consideration a complex economic and social context. These diseases are closely linked to poverty, and close to 70% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day while 1.8 million people are homeless’, says the founder of The Banyan.

There is still much help to be exchanged by the human family.

Source: elpais.com

FRIENDSHIP DAY

ASHA-KIRAN organized an arts and crafts activity for the children from the Community with the help of the ImpArt Organization.

A total of 37 children enjoyed making and decorating cards on the occasion of Friendship Day. Aside from being able to congratulate their friends this way, everyone could express their creativity with the colorful materials available to them.

ART IN A SLUM

It all started when 24-year-old Sonal was shooting a film for a company. She came across a pregnant woman who already had six daughters and was expecting her seventh child. The woman was living in poverty and struggling to take care of her children. She told Sonal that if she had a daughter again she was ready to strangle the child. She was already planning on sending one of her daughters, then eight years old, to a brothel so she could contribute to the family’s upkeep.

Sonal froze upon hearing these words. It only took her only an hour to realize she wanted to help change the life of girls destined to prostitution and other occupations unfit for children. Within three weeks, she started Protsahan as a one-room arts and design school located in a slum in Delhi.

Her organization aims at empowering at-risk teenage girls with creative education and entrepreneurial skills so they have a chance to break the cycle of poverty and abuse. The NGO does this with the help of a creativity model which includes design, art, digital stories, photography, technology and cinema.

“We use simple techniques, but with a difference. We use scrabble to teach them English, cartoons and photographs to keep the interest alive, game and art based education, digital storytelling to make teaching a fun process. Our sole mission is to encourage creative education and skills development through creative design thinking approaches”, says Sonal.

The girls also attend a bridge course for approximately two years alongside the art courses. In the bridge course, teachers from the local community who have been trained by Protsahan over the years, teach them all the basics so they can be admitted in government schools.

Sonal says that in the NGO sector there is constant talk about scaling up. “Everybody wants to scale up. It looks good on annual reports, it looks good everywhere. But many people don't want to look at empathy. Here, we are trying to work with 400 girls for the last five years, making sure that (...) everything in their life is sorted - from the point when they were picked up from a garbage bin to the point where they are taking lessons in classes.”

It is a long way from being a child prostitute to having a fulfilling job, but it can be done with the proper motivation, tools, and some help from people who care.

Source: thebetterindia.com