Just back from India, and still with its aroma in our hearts, I wish to share some more of what’s currently being done in Pune. It isn’t easy to portray in words the joy that we get from seeing how the children’s smiles blossom.
The Day Care Centers continue their daily work – with more or less mishaps – and in them can be felt the atmosphere needed for children to… be children once again. Their time at the Centers is spent in play and learning, and tastes of support and lack of concerns. We think that these moments are a great gift for the children, and it is our intention to keep on propelling and enhancing our task of providing them.
Once again, the Center at Vishrantwadi – just as the slum it was located in – was demolished by the local authorities at the beginning of April. This is a familiar pattern in which the police tear all the shacks down and then allow people to rebuild them, so we expect to rebuild the Day Care Center where we already care for about 35 children who attend regularly and cheerfully. In the meantime, the teacher goes on with her work with the children out in the open, under a tree or in a shack.
The Day Care Centers are a useful tool in social work – they are a bridge that goes from neglect and oblivion to fresh opportunities of participation in society. As I have said before, the CFC’s become a space in which children don’t have to work or perform grown-up activities, but where they are allowed to fulfill their need to discover the world through reading, drawing, or simply playing with other children within a secure environment that aids their growth process.
On the other hand, the official inauguration of Yashodhara Shelter Home took place on April 7th, to which came members of other local NGO’s, our work team in full, their families and friends, the children who are already living there, children from the areas where the Day Care Centers are located, Hansa and I.It was an unpretentious celebration, but filled with great emotional content. It must be said that although we don’t need big inauguration ceremonies, Indians are keen on them and, simply taken, we value this one as a way of feeling the advance of our Projects. There were short speeches made regarding who we are. We were all given tea and patties, and the Home was shown and our Foundation introduced to those present. There are already ten children living at Yashodhara, and a few more are under consideration for their possible future admittance.
The Projects that we have in mind for the future are to build a Home with a capacity for 100 children, the launching this summer of a Sponsorship Program for the development of children in rural areas, and – at a later date – working with HIV+ children. Again, you are welcome to visit us in Pune to get to know our work first hand. As I said in a previous letter, the work “we end up with” in Spain is sometimes dry and difficult, but feeling the fruits of our labors in the lives of the children is the momentum that we bring with us back to Spain and that we share with you with vitality. We hope to continue to count on your support. There is much work ahead and new projects to be undertaken.
Best regards from Fundación Asha-Kiran.
