AN IMPORTANT FAMILY ISSUE

The last topic at our Parents’ and Women’s Self Help Group meeting was domestic violence against women and children. The attendants were shown some clippings of the Indian television show Satyamev Jayate, where several people share their experiences on how they have dealt with domestic violence.

The stories involve substance abuse, aggression on females at the hands of their husbands or in-laws, discrimination against female children and child abuse.  Everyone was shocked after watching the video and some of the women cried.

The community women said that this happens mostly in well educated, settled and economically stable families, and that they would never let this happen, but the fact of the matter is that domestic violence does occur across all strata of society, and it is necessary that all women be made aware of their worth so that they learn to respect themselves and defend their children's rights as well as their own.

LET'S MAKE THEM AWARE OF THEIR WORTH

THE OTHER MISSION OF TEACHERS

Basavaraju is a primary school teacher who evokes Gandhi – whom he emulates and impersonates amongst his school students and people on the streets in a small town in the State of Karnataka, India. He began doing this as a way to spread Gandhian ideology by using the power of visual imagery.

Born to a materially disadvantaged family, he studied hard and got the job of P.E. teacher in a small private school. Some label him mad, others think he has an innovative style to beg, while many come and question him on his impersonation. This helps him to open a tiny window in the minds of those who question him, and to talk about the relevance and the need to practice the Gandhian ideals.

He considers children to be important thought builders, so he spends time with them sharing the Gandhian ideology with them, because peace is what he yearns for everyone and himself. As he puts it, war is all around – amongst nations, religious communities, groups or even different castes. Basavaraju also spends time teaching yoga to school children. Nowadays, there is a huge demand on his time as other schools call him to teach their children about Gandhi and yoga.

No medals, no certificates, no awards or rewards, no pomp – just an incognito hero who is living by those ideals every day. If, like him, all teachers went beyond academics and helped to instill much needed values in young minds and hearts, there would be renewed hope for our world – the womb where future generations grow. 

LET’S CONTRIBUTE TO TRAIN TEACHERS WHO IMPART WORTHY IDEALS

Source: thebetterindia.com

NEW EYE CHECKUPS IN THE COMMUNITY

Asha-Kiran organized a new Eye Checkup Camp for the people in the community with the help of Bharati Hospital. Over a hundred people benefitted from the checkups, out of whom approximately half got new glasses.

Five people were diagnosed as cataract patients. One of them has been operated on already and is doing well now. The community people all came to take advantage of this health service and were very thankful for the care and glasses they received.

LET'S TAKE CARE OF EVERYONE'S HEALTH

SEWING THEIR WAY TOWARDS FINANCIAL STABILITY

A new Basic Tailoring Course started in September. The first day of class, the teacher, Mrs. Panchashila, distributed Certificates to the women who had attended and completed the previous course. Ten women are attending basic course, and those who have completed it come in regularly to continue practicing and honing their skills.

The basic course focuses on learning to design patterns for dresses and blouses, cutting and stitching. After completing the three-month course, the participants get a certificate from the Government Training Institute that helps them start their own business.

Asha-Kiran’s goal behind training women in garment making and design is to equip them with a valuable skill towards gaining economic self-sufficiency. We are also in the process of recruiting women for our upcoming Tailoring Business course, which will focus on the commercial aspects of tailoring.

UNCOVERING AND PUTTING THEIR POTENTIAL TO WORK

AN EXPERIENCE FULL OF LIFE

August of 2014.

Asha-Kiran gave us the opportunity to work in its projects. Uncertainty, nervousness, excitement, enthusiasm... so many emotions beforehand. The adventure began, India was waiting us and opened its doors to us.

“Namaste”: I know the place where love, peace and goodness resides. I know the place where if you live there in yourself and I live in there in myself, we will both be one.

And from this place, from its homes and Centers, from its women and children, from the office, from the traffic and the rickshaws’ hellish noise... from that place called India, we were able to do what we like, to teach and learn.

Every morning we got to know one of the Day Care Centers. There, we worked early stimulation of babies and offered recreational and cooperative activities so that the teachers could use them in their classrooms in relation to math, reading and morals. Every school, every child, every teacher, every life... awakened more interest in us and we were more eager to continue learning about this unknown and yet neighboring world. If at the same time we could contribute something with our ideas and experience... what more could we ask for?

After some spicy food to raise our spirits and not miss a nap (who would want to waste time sleeping?), we went to the Community Center, an open, living Center where work is done with children and women from the slum. Here our work, our beautiful work, focused on women. We did games, dances and cuisine sessions with them. Sometimes the colors of their saris moved to the rhythm of rumba and smelled like Spanish omelette. Other days, our pale bodies did Bollywood dances and enjoyed the smell of spice.

For a week we also got to know the work at Yashodhara. It is a Home and a school where peasant children live and study, as well as children in situations of extreme vulnerability. In this beautiful place, sheltered by Nori and Nora (two towering mountains), we experienced the monsoon daily.

We worked with students with a Tangram and made several psychomotor sessions, but perhaps, the most important work was the training day for teachers who work here every day. We met with them, we came to know their education system more in depth and we showed them different play strategies to teach mathematical concepts. Without any doubt, the best part of this experience was to live in a beautiful place sharing food, prayers, rain and games with them - hence its beauty.

We are still not sure what we brought to them. However, we have brought everything back from India. Its noise, mayhem, and the enthusiasm they never forget to share. The experience of a calmness unknown to us up no now and unthinkable in the midst of such chaos.

Something binds us to India, something keeps us there. An experience full of life, emotions and heartbeats. 

2014 Volunteer Team.

ERASING SOCIAL BORDERS

Civil organizations state that over a million people’s job is to empty latrines in India. They collect and transport the stools by hand without any protection, in a country where 597 million people have no toilets. They all belong to the most marginalized caste in the country, the Dalits or untouchables. Although the class division system was abolished in India in 1950, it still exists in practice.

In spite of attempts to end this work by the government, various organizations and the international community, they “have been derailed by discrimination and local complicity”, according to the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “People work emptying latrines because they assume that their caste must fulfill this role and usually can’t get any other jobs”, she says.

HRW has found that women do not receive wages in cash but food scraps, some grain at harvest time, used clothing or access to land for cattle, always at the discretion of the families they serve. Intermon Oxfam reported that those who do receive a salary usually do not get more than 30 rupees (0.50 €) per toilet per month. The children of these workers do not get an education because of their extreme poverty, and many of those who are enrolled in school end up dropping out due to severe discrimination.

Human Rights Watch also warns of the health consequences that collecting fecal matter entails - nausea, headaches, respiratory and skin diseases, anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, jaundice, trachoma and carbon monoxide poisoning, to name a few. The NGO wants the new government to undertake a comprehensive assessment of all agreements in force intended to offer this caste financial aid, scholarships, legal assistance, etc. 

However, what needs to be changed so that the enforcement of laws is not hindered are the entrenched cultural patterns of a society that divides itself in people of more or less worth. Despite being a slow process, this must be done with the people themselves irrespective of caste so that the boundaries of this social division may progressively become less rigid.

HELP US ERASE SOCIAL BORDERS

Source: elpais.com

JOY AND CREATIVITY

The teamwork done in the month of August between Asha-Kiran and a group of Spanish Volunteers consisted in bringing creative and leisure activites to our beneficiaries. One of them, the clown show, was a complete success among the children and their families. The aim of this activity was for children from the Day Care Centers at the construction sites as well as those from the slum community to laugh and have a good time.  

The volunteers made everyone enjoy a visual display of comedy without the use of language, yet this was not an obstacle to convey universally funny situations. There were infants, young children, adults and elderly people in the public. Some of the infants were scared of the clowns at first but soon became comfortable with the help of the teacher and her helper. 

The Volunteers stressed that it is good have surprises for the children, not only for enjoyment but also to interest them what the Centers have to offer and to encourage them to welcome new experiences.

LET’S KEEP ON BRINGING JOYFUL MOMENTS TO OUR BENEFICIARIES