ONE STEP FURTHER....

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.

YASHODHARA , official inauguration

WELCOME TO YASHODHARA SHELTER HOME

Hi.
Again in touch with you to draw you closer to the work in progress in India and its unfolding.

At last, on the 25th of February, we opened the doors of Yashodhara Shelter Home to the first eight children who will be living there permanently. Another four will arrive in April, and the situation of a brother and sister, who are homeless in the streets of Pune, addicted to substances and without protection from any adults, is currently under study.

As I said in my last letter, we decided to rent the bungalow that houses the Yashodhara Shelter while we secure the necessary financial means to build the definitive Home. Thus, we think that our current capacity – 20 children – will be at its limit pretty soon, so our hope is to continue working in order that the project evolves with quality and we may take in a larger number of children.

Presently, we have two women who tend to the children at all levels – creating a home for them – together with Vaishali and Anirudha, our social workers, who are in charge of coordinating tasks and needs, as well as of overseeing the education and daily activities of the children until they start school in June, when the new school year starts.

The personal history of these ‘small people’ may be very different, but all of them have something in common: the experience of a state of inequality, neglect and hopelessness to which millions of children are condemned daily in the world and, more concretely, in India; a stark reality that demands reflecting on the values and motivations – whom do we serve? – which move each one of us, understanding and remembering that this is not about ‘helping’ them, but about making it possible for all human beings to live with dignity and, why not, with the same abundance that we already enjoy in this part of the world.

Welcoming these children to the Day Care Centers and to Yashodhara is a reason for immense joy for Fundación Asha-Kiran. With great courage, said children allow or make it possible to be set on the road to new possibilities and life prospects. It is an intense undertaking, in many aspects, for all of us who work to make it come true, but a child’s smile or the look in his/her eyes is always a reward that cannot be compared with anything else, and which makes us rediscover the motivation that impelled us to do this work to begin with.

We invite you to continue to visit this blog and our website, so you may stay close to the work that we are undertaking with disadvantaged children. It is now that we need your support and cooperation the most, so that all that has been started won’t come to a halt. We want our labors to resound in you. Don’t hesitate to come to our office in Madrid or to get in touch with us in any way if you need further information, wish to make a suggestion or are interested in working as a volunteer. We are in need of hands and ‘minds’ for very diverse tasks – you will be very welcome.




Warm regards,

Uttam.

Asha-kiran Espacio

Welcome to Asha-Kiran Espacio.

In its work of aid to development, Fundación Asha-Kiran, Home for Children aims to create places where sensitization can take place, as one more step in its social endeavors. Thus, Asha-Kiran Espacio is born as a supporting tool for such endeavors, moved by two main objectives:

On the one hand, to create a sensitization milieu where one may awaken to the recollection of that which is more genuine, true and honest in oneself, through the use of creative and bodily techniques and practices for wellbeing, so that one may remember others. We set out from the base that the natural state of a human being has to do with his integration into everything that surrounds him and with his surrender to it, including other human beings.

On the other hand, the running of A-K Espacio is done without profit in mind, and without belonging to any specific religious or political orientation; wholly allocating its benefits to the projects that Asha-Kiran Foundation carries out with vulnerable children in India.
Not only does Asha-Kiran espacio adapt itself structurally to the social aims of the Foundation, but also gathers as its creative momentum its experience of Vitality sharing Vitality.

We view this motto as a prime mover in our work. In this manner, we wish to offer a Space where the discovery and/or learning of new ways of living, the development of that which goes beyond one’s self, and the exchange between people will allow the awakening of vitality and the sharing of it – a Vitality that is always welcome as an added gift in children’s presence in general, and in the presence of the children in India in particular.

As always, we invite you to cooperate actively in this sharing between two ‘worlds’, which intends to overcome the division created. Asha-Kiran Space offers the means for your potential individual development to bear fruit in turn in the wellbeing of humanity as a whole.

“Love is overflowing joy. It comes when you have discovered who you are, and nothing is left except sharing your being with others. And in this sharing, you enrich yourself.”
(Contemporary mystic)

YASHODHARA SHELTER PHOTOS

YASHODHARA SHELTER HOME

Hi all,
At Fundación Asha-Kiran, two opposite poles move in unison as if they were an orchestra rendering a musical piece. While teamwork becomes a necessity more than ever, it appears magnificent to the beholder in its unfolding. The task that our team undertakes of overcoming obstacles without losing vitality is perhaps one of the most complicated aspects of the work we have set out to do.

After our last trip to Pune at Christmas time to get a close look at the work that is being done, we have become more aware of how these two sides of our team flow. On one hand, we see the enormous amount of work that is being done in Spain in order to make a name for the Foundation, raise funds for our endeavors and make people aware of the need to remember that even if they are not present in our everyday lives, street children exist – a whole universe of inequality, neglect and neediness. On the other hand, we see what is being accomplished by our team (social workers, teachers, directors and coordinators) with the children in Pune (India).

A sort of … happiness and gratitude arise from the opportunity we are given to see that the liveliness and the thrill of every step that the Foundation takes encourages the children to smile. We hope that you may someday come to Pune to see for yourself the results of your support in the lives of those who need it and welcome it.

Thus, while we continue our activities at two Day Care Centers which around 70 children attend, we have also rented a house with a capacity for 20 children, where the work of the Yashodhara Shelter can begin. Meanwhile, funds keep coming in as we look for the right place to build a ‘home’ to house about 50 children. We have hired another social worker (Aniruddha), who will be in charge of coordinating the staff for the Day Care Centers and the Yashodhara Shelter. Additionally, we will hire two cooks for Yashodhara, a teacher and two social assistants who will tend to the children day and night. The house is located in a quiet Pune neighborhood called Dhanori, close to schools and a hospital, and is 15 minutes away from our office in Koregaon Park.

It is enormously rewarding to see how Asha-Kiran grows with your support. We hope this will just be the beginning, and will keep you informed of our progress so that we may all grow in trust and vitality.

Until soon,
Uttam

Our day-to-day work

Dear friends,
We’d like to show you the letter we got yesterday from our project director in India, Manish. In it you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the ‘shades of grey’ of the work we have undertaken and the challenges we face daily, many of them at the hands of the Indian authorities themselves…

Hi, Uttam and Hansa.

The new CFC (Child Friendly Center) was opened in the Vishrantwadi area, close to Yerwada, Pune. The CFC was built out of bamboo and bamboo sheets covered by plastic. The materials used are not of very good quality, just average, due to the fear that the local authorities might tear it down. As the whole community is illegal, it could be demolished any time, that’s why we made a simple shelter so as to not spend too much.

To our surprise…

Yesterday, December 5th, 2007, was the first day at the CFC. Thirty five children came, very happy to be there. They were so excited with the Centre, that they didn’t want to go home for lunch, and we had to make them go. Classes continued after lunch and I was there to take some pictures. While I was taking pictures, many people came and, to our surprise, they were the local authorities, who had come to bulldoze the slum and the CFC. I was almost in tears. Finally, I decided to talk to the municipal officer and ask him not to tear the Centre down. He didn’t agree to it, but promised he wouldn’t harm it and would take it down carefully. We have put the material in a safe place, and will build again in the next couple of days. I would like to go on with this Centre, since the children and their parents cooperate with us. The parents will help us rebuild it. We haven’t stopped the classes – the teacher will continue with them out in the open for two days, until we build it again.

Child labour:
The impact of the new CFC was such that a ten-year-old girl was working as a servant in a nearby house, but when the Centre opened, her parents sent her to the Centre instead of sending her to work. Of course, we had to do a lot of counseling, but in the end, the results are obvious.

Regards,
Manish Shroff (Asha-Kiran Shelters Foundation)