ENJOYING COOKING AND EATING

As was the case with the crafts activity for girls, the session on Food and Nutrition was conducted by the Spanish volunteers Nerea Durán Terrón and María Lucero Rodríguez, who wished to share this dessert recipe with the community housewives and mothers so they could make it for their children.

Also, María and Nerea organized a special session for the women of the Sahachari Self-Help Group to teach them how to make orange jam. The community women enjoyed and tasting and eating what they prepared with the help of the volunteers.

A SMALL YET BIG ENTERPRISE

A successful chemical engineer, Shalini Datta always wanted to do something meaningful with her life, something which would leave a positive impact on the lives of others. When she got her first job in an IT company, she signed up for corporate responsibility activities to come closer to her dream. After a time, however, Datta quit her job to create After Taste, an organization that helps women in a marginal community of fishermen to earn a living by making handicrafts out of paper.

What started as a small initiative gained momentum and more and more women joined the enterprise. In 2012, Datta organized the first exhibition of hand-made products. Even before starting, Datta was sure she could gather a group of women with no previous knowledge and teach them the trade from scratch. “I also wanted to instill a sense of teamwork in them”, she says. “Since they hadn’t worked together before, I taught them how to cooperate rather than compete.”

Currently, the company manufactures various paper products which include custom-made bags, lamps and picture frames. Among its clients are 25 corporations, organizations and various educational institutions, as well as individual customers. The focus of this company has allowed women who face difficult situations at homes to improve their quality of life, be economically independent and be more confident and outgoing in their social interactions.

Although their workplace is a small room in a suburb in Mumbai, Datta’s dream is to expand the business and get more a bigger place. Her goal is to increase the number of workers so as to reach out to more women, and start selling online. She explains that “We’re not asking for charity; we want to offer a tangible solution to the difficulties that these women face”.

Source: thebetterindia.com

MORE IMPORTANT THAN TECHNOLOGY

On Saturday April 25, the 3rd regional meeting of TESOL Spain Castilla La Mancha, was held in Puertollano. After reading an article that I had published in the newsletter of TESOL Spain about my stay with Asha-Kiran in India, Anita Lutterkort, regional coordinator, asked me to give a short speech and share my experiences, impressions and conclusions from my participation as a teacher at Yashodhara Home with my colleagues - an experience that changed both my approach to my classes and my outlook on life.

Silvia Benitez
Volunteer with Asha-Kiran

“Silvia Benitez gave a talk about her experiences in India, giving the teachers a very personal vision of her stay at Yashodhara. How different it must be to teach a class there! Without any high technology but being supported by the good heart of her peers and a burning desire to learn from her students. We should take note and reflect on our daily lives, so full of objects that we sometimes forget that human relationships are the most valuable thing we have.”

Anita Lutterkort
Area Coordinator, TESOL-Spain Castilla La Mancha.

AN EXCEPTIONAL STREET BOY

Life taught him early on how to survive with nothing. When he was only five, Amin Sheikh left his slum to “settle” in an old train station. As his younger sister joined him soon, he had to learn to look after two people. Shortly thereafter, someone stole everything he had, he was raped, and his sister was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in the red light district. Like Amin, the UN estimates that some 150 million children are living out in the open in the world.

Helped by a taxi driver, his sister managed to escape from her captors. Once Amin understood the risk they were in, and with the help of a nun, he agreed to live in an orphanage where at least they would have their basic needs met. Amin says that although that shelter was not all that comfortable, he considered it “the home he had always dreamed of”. The nun had saved them from the likelihood of dying in the streets like many others: from illnesses or drugs or at the hands of gangs. A series of terrible circumstances brought Amin to the train station and to a life of hunger and suffering, but if all that had not happened, he would not be helping other children in the same situation now.

At present, Amin is a business man, as he defines himself. Aside from having started an orphanage, he dreams of opening a restaurant that will employ young men from his orphanage who, having become of age, are still out of work. This way, they won’t have to take to the streets again. He also wants the 'artists' to have place where the artists where they can show their work, and make a waiting list from which local business men can hire these young men.

To launch the project he has in mind, he says he will need around €300,000. Getting this amount implies going against the odds, but it just may be possible for someone like him. In fact, he thinks he has already found the solution by telling his life story in a book. Through the sales of his novel, he has already raised €40,000 and it looks like this figure will continue to grow. His autobiography “Life is life: I am thanks to you” has already been translated into five languages.

In early 2003, the person Amin worked for as a driver and whom he describes as the father he never had, decided to take him with him to Barcelona. During that trip, he began the process that, years later, moves everyone who comes to know his story. All the people he befriended in Barcelona encouraged him to write what he experienced during the hardest years of his life. Amin realized that he did not have to resign himself to his lot in life.

When not traveling, Amin shows tourists around Mumbai – the more authentic side of the city he knows so well. This activity, aside from bringing funds to his project, is also a way to meet foreigners who often offer to tell others about his work in their countries of origin. Says Amin: “If I survived after everything that has happened to me so far, I can also handle what the future holds for me”.

He knows he won’t change the world, but knows his small contribution can, along with many others, serve to create something greater, and the mere fact of improving one child’s life prospects thanks to his efforts, gives Amin a reason to carry on.

Source: elpais.com

ARGAR HIGH SCHOOL: HELPING SAVE A LIFE

Given that solidarity is a much needed value in society, it is important for schools to encourage it among children. In this respect, Argar High School is very aware of how important it is for its students to understand that there are people who have no resources to face difficult situations, illness, or even daily life.

On the occasion of World Book Day on April 23rd, Argar High School began to entertain the idea of organizing a charitable activity. While looking for a cause to support, Mª Angeles Arráez, a volunteer with Asha-Kiran and a teacher at the school, introduced the case of Hritik, a 15-year-old boy who lives at Yashodhara Home and was recently diagnosed with lymph-node cancer.

Once the idea was presented to the student body, they began to make bookmarks and raise funds from their sale so that Hritik’s treatment could be carried out in a hospital that will give him personalized and effective service. Although the bookmarks only cost between 20 cents and one euro, the collection came to about €700, a high figure considering that the students only had two weeks given the need to start the treatment as soon as possible.

We are delighted that María Angeles is continually instilling a caring spirit in her students, and thankful that the hearts of the Management, teachers and students of Argar High School are willing to launch initiatives that support those in need.

THE CHALLENGE OF BEING A GIRL'S MOTHER

Indian mothers are not only mothers, but also the possible promoters of a much needed change in their country. For millions of women who belong to the lower castes and who have limited financial means, being a mother is a struggle for survival. First, their own, and then their children’s, even before they are born. They have to pick their way through a society that has a strong preference for sons based on beliefs and religion.

Already in 2001, there were 35 million more men than women in India, whereas in most countries it is the female population that predominates. The reasons why an Indian family may prefer to have a son are that males are a means to ensure proper care to aging parents, as sons are the only ones who can be financially independent, inherit goods and property, and pray for the souls of the deceased.

A woman is just a financial burden because she must not contribute to the household income at any time and because at marriage, families pay a dowry for their daughters even though dowries are prohibited by law. Moreover, once married, the daughter ‘belongs’ to her husband’s family and loses contact with her own. Sending a teenage girl to school implies a high risk as she may be harassed, raped, abused and even killed. Women are also seen as the weakest and the ones with the greatest need for food and medical care, which means higher expenses.

All these reasons have led to increased selective abortions and infanticides in the country. The frequency of this practice is so high that there are villages where there is no drinking water but where this system exists. The an alternative for women who do not have economic access to selective abortions is infanticide practiced on girls from birth to age nine, an age range in which the female population decreases drastically.

Given that India continues to be a male-oriented society, it is women themselves who will actually have a say in changing the current situation. Gradually, more and more mothers decide to have daughters despite all the disadvantages that this decision can bring. Thanks to these women, the consequences of discrimination and degradation of the female gender in India will be addressed, such as is the increasing difficulty to marry because of the lack of women, and a stagnation of social development which should have matched the economic progress.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers who love and struggle for their children.

Source: elpais.com