Aid Delhi Newsletter July2006

Association for India’s Development Delhi Chapter Newsletter

Table of Contents Editorial Articles Where is the future for them? TSR number for Delhi Project Updates Timarpur AID Gurgaon Nai Disha Prayas Khoj Volunteer Profiles Vipul Pheroza Parashar Errata

July, 2006

Where is the future for them? 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 5 5

Editorial Life is full of joys and sorrows. Rain and sunshine coexist at times. As India is taking a step backward by proposing amendments to RTI Act, AID Delhi is moving forward with a new initiative of girls' class at Prayas, Noida. Such is life! AID has been an active proponent of the RTI Act ever since it came into being last October. Coupled with the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), it becomes a powerful tool to solve many inter-linked problems facing our country today. But perhaps the Bureaucrats are not happy about that. The amendments proposed to the act actually disarm it by acting contrary to the “Knowledge is Power” doctrine. Let’s unite and act together to oppose these amendments. This month’s newsletter introduces new volunteers into the publications team – Chandan and Vaibhav. We would be glad to have more volunteers aboard. As always, we look forward towards your feedback. Contributed By: Riputapan

One day, as I was waiting for my friend to turn up at Priya, Vasant Vihar, a small poor girl came to me and showed some drawings which her elder brother had made. She very blankly looked at me as if probably knowing that there was no way I was actually going to buy this drawing from her. At first I was ready to refuse her as I do to all beggars without even looking. I never liked to give alms to beggars, because I always believe that there is always something, which a person can do, however much handicapped you are. But this little girl held my attention with those drawings and that languid expression. Then I realised that she was not asking for free money, but was trying to earn money the hard way. A sort of pity came over me and I invited her to sit with me. With an apprehensive and scared look she sat beside me. I asked her name, to which she answered with her head bent down, "Lubina". I had to stoop my head to catch her reply. Then I asked her if she had made the drawings, she replied that it was her elder brother who had made the drawings whose name was Saddam. She and her brother both go to school - she in 4th class and her brother in the 7th class. The drawings, which she showed me, were very simple, a parrot and the other was a fish. Simple, but drawn carefully. I chose the parrot drawing and gave her the money. She first looked at me before accepting the money, to make sure that I was actually giving it to her. She took the money hesitantly and looked at me again as if I was mad, probably thinking that I will snatch the money back from her. After making sure that I was not going to do anything like that she ran off quickly. After that I saw another small baby crawling on the floor, putting any dust or wrapper into its mouth that came into its way. I felt so sick seeing that that I thought I won’t be able to eat again. I started comparing between the two situations before me. There were two kinds of people – one, the rich, born with a silver spoon in their mouth, squandering money at movie halls, food joints, and shopping. The other class was the begging class for whom even 1 rupee was a grand thing.

They probably think 10 times before spending it. This contrast really shook me up at that time. But like all teenagers I did not give much reflection to these ideas. So when my friend came I forgot all about it and had a luxurious lunch, forgetting all about what had happened just some time back. Later in the day, when I was looking at the drawing, everything came rushing back. And I felt ashamed of myself. At the end of the day, I was feeling like a scoundrel, another one of those rich spoilt brats. Many people have said this, but I have to say this again, because I really felt it truly today. This experience made me count my own blessings. I felt I was the most privileged being on the earth. I had everything, which a teenager could want. But what about these kids? They have the vision, the dream, but no future. Today, while Laxmi Mittal is piling millions in his safe with the Arcelor deal in his hand - these children are fishing for even single rupees to make ends meet. According to the 2005 United Nations Human Development Report, half of the children in India suffer from malnutrition in spite of the growing economy of India. 2.5 million Indian children die annually. India accounts for one out of every five child deaths worldwide. These children also face a grim situation with respect to educational facilities. I know I will probably again forget all this tomorrow. Nobody wants such depressing thoughts. But I just want all of you to read it once and count your blessings too and think about those kids. In the end I would just like to quote Eugene V. Debs, "Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least." Contributed By: Soumya Jain

TSR number for Delhi Friends, I'm sure all of us would have faced the wrath of the auto rickshaw wallahs of Delhi whether it is about the use of the meter or going to a particular destination. The solution to the whole problem is just a phone call away now. The new number for TSR complaint is 42400400. AID volunteers have used this number and have

found it to be working pretty well. The best thing is that now even the auto wallahs know that this number works well against them and even the sheer mentioning of the number can solve the problems sometime (from my personal experience). Another way of complaining is by the use of postcards available outside New Delhi Railway Station. Bhargava used these postcards and found that proper action was taken. The only drawback being that these methods of complaining cannot be used in the rest of NCR. I encourage everyone to use these methods of complaining and then soon the Delhi auto-wallahs will be well-disciplined. Contributed By: Aparna

Project Updates: Timarpur July 1, 2006 was a great day for the AID Delhi Timarpur team. It was the day when one of the most challenging hurdles of the Tirmarpur project - getting a room for the weekly classes - was overcome. After huge efforts of Sudipta and other volunteers, the local counselor got convinced and gave a confirmatory answer for carrying out the classes in the vicinal MCD godown. This was a much awaited decision and the whole team of volunteers got filled with excitement and optimism with the news. On the first day, both the classes of vocational training as well as informal education were carried out at the godown room. The enthusiasm and excitement of the kids was very motivating for all the volunteers taking the classes. As MCD godown provides a proper and secure place to carry out the classes perhaps we can now make permanent clusters of students according to their classes and can teach them different subjects separately. Currently the team plans to take Mathematics, Hindi and English classes for the children, after separating them into smaller clusters. However for vocational training, not many girls turned up as they were reluctant to come to the godown. It was later decided that for future classes, the vocational training could be done at the older place and informal

education classes at the godown. Overall, it was a great success story day for most volunteers. A new volunteer, Amit, also joined the team. Contributed By: Sudipta

Project Updates: Aid Gurgaon The initiative to get two Mobile creche kids into Sankalp (a regular school) is underway. Children are being taught basic maths, english and hindi and it is felt that we need start with exams or some sort of measure to assess how much information the kids have retained. Deepak has done a trial run and the kids have shown good retention abilities and have as always shown great enthusiasm. Volunteer effort commitment seems to be a big problem. This as we all know is across the chapters and is not a new fact. Essentially, I am trying to get visibility towards this issue in AID Delhi and see if it may be useful to collect some proven methods in addition to the intuitive ways each of us do to get folks in. Contributed by: Karthik

Project Updates: Prayas Prayas has added a new dimension to its already successful night school by starting with an evening class for girls of the community. The community wanted us to take these classes for quite sometime now but we could not start due to lack of female volunteers to take the class. Thanks to Pheroza who took the first few classes, we have finally made a foray into this initiative. Other volunteers who have started taking the evening classes include Harleen, Ankita, Deepali and Amita. The classes are held from Tue-Fri from 6:30pm - 7:30pm. The enthusiasm of the girls attending the class is amazing and community members are also quite happy about this class. Rahul and our existing volunteers at Prayas deserve kudos to be able to build trust with the community.

Project Updates: Nai Disha Activity Highlights: v Since the vacations were on for the students, there was a low turn out for the classes. v Volunteers are helping the students with their homework and doubts. v Neelam has decided to move on in life to pursue higher studies. She had a long and fruitful association with Nai Disha and will be surely missed. The volunteers saw her off with a farewell lunch at Desi Vibes. v We are also conducting computer classes over the weekends at Nai Disha. The regular students are showing remarkable progress at grasping the concepts. v Pheroza and Vipul are actively involved in the preparation of flip charts on Personal Hygiene as directed by Gunjan. v One of the plans currently in the pipeline is the Joy of Learning classes. v Volunteers: Shammi, Vipul, Pheroza, Peeyush, Rajat, Neelam, Shivam Contributed By: Pheroza

Health and hygiene class was also conducted by Priyanka who wishes to contribute this way in future as well. Gunjan and his mother Dr.Kusum Sharma conducted a medical camp in which more than 50 children were examined. The children were checked for basic illnesses including anaemia and other respiratory diseases. They were also given deworming tablets and a spoon each of vitamin tonic. Selva was also present at the camp besides Pheroza, Shammi, Ripu and Deepali. We need more female volunteers for the class and also some male volunteers to escort them to the class. Contributed By: Gunjan, Riputapan

Project Updates: Khoj Khoj has seen tremendous growth in the last couple of months. It is immense pleasure for me to share my experience with the children of Khoj. Khoj – Steps for Change was started at Dilli-Haat by Pawan and his friends by grouping the kids who can be easily spotted roaming on roads, doing shoe polish and other petty jobs. Initially, we used to bring children from nearby places, such as R.K.Puram, Hayat Flyover, Jor Bagh etc. to Dilli Haat and classes were held there. But very soon we realized that a lot of time gets wasted in bringing the kids to Dilli Haat. We then started running Khoj centers at four places of South Delhi: Dilli Haat, Jor Bagh, J.N.U, and Hayat Flyover. Classes are held at these four places daily, except on Sundays. Pawan and Zubair are having tons of loads on them, and I wish to share their load by volunteering for Khoj more often. We are a team of enthusiastic volunteers and Khoj has been extremely lucky on having Vaibhav, Jasmine, Jyoti, and Smita Dayal as volunteers in its fold. It feels great to be with the children. Initially, the kids were more interested in playing games rather than studying but the things have started improving as now they are interested in learning as well. Earlier, the children would play most of the time. With the regulation of the timings, however, the children have started taking interest in studies. They play joyfully but they learn enthusiastically! This is especially true about the Dilli Haat center. Jyoti is coordinating activities at Ber Sarai, Jasmine at Jor Bagh, and Vaibhav is extremely enthusiastic about the happenings at the Hayat Flyover center. These kids are brilliant in grasping whatever is taught to them.. They are brilliant in street plays. Audience was amazed at their performance at Operations Review. We are now planning to go beyond non-formal education. We are planning to have sessions on some other engaging activities like painting etc. We hope to develop their creative faculties through these activities. We are planning to take this up first with the children at Dilli Haat, since we have been interacting with them for quite sometime now. The other centers have just begun. As things start rolling on at these centers, they will follow the footsteps of the Dilli Haat center or whatever works out to be the best there.

We are facing many challenges in running the centers. We lack the funds, to be precise. We are soon planning to have a dedicated set of volunteers, who can help us in raising funds required to run the centers. We will soon be coming up with some awareness skits to be performed at various places. We would also be visiting various colleges in Delhi to conduct workshops and seminars, to elicit support for our activities. The team has identified that more frequent presentations by volunteers and screening street plays by the children can prove to be good measure to garner the muchneeded support. The volunteers who find it difficult to pay regular visits to the centers can contribute to the initiative by collecting clothes and books for the kids. They can also help prepare charts, playcards, and flipcharts. Jasmine, who is an active volunteer, took the responsibility of preparing a questionnaire, based on which children profiles have been created. Ritika took the initiative of making posters and the activity is complete. I have prepared a Brochure for us and have finalized on the monthly budget for Khoj. It will soon be presented to AID for getting the monthly funds sanctioned. A great milestone has been achieved, as we were able to convince the parents of Sooraj and Manisha at Dilli Haat to send them to school. The parents have also taken up the responsibility of the expenditure that goes into teaching the children. We intend to keep a track of their progress and provide them with any learning guidance that they may need. The two children have been admitted to Class II, in a Government School, near Dilli Haat. Talks are on with the parents of other six kids at various centers to send them to school, and we hope to succeed in convincing them too. Recently, an educational trip was organized for the kids. We took the kids to the National Museum of Natural History. There were 10 volunteers, who took 20 children with them. Kids enjoyed the trip to museum in the morning session as they came to know about different animals and different kinds of forests and other things about nature of which they were not much aware. In the afternoon, they visited India Gate where they had lots of fun. “You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” Contributed By: Selva

Volunteer Profiles: Vipul Vipul is working as a Software Engineer with Birlasoft Ltd. I have known him for over a year and a half and he was eager to join AID India. He is a regular volunteer at Nai Disha, and one of the most enthusiastic volunteers on the team.

Being a South Indian, he was initially a little hesitant to teach, as the medium of instruction at the school is Hindi. Students at the school would often joke with him saying, "Bhaiya, aapko hindi theek se bolni nahi aati?" Vipul being a great sport would take these in his stride and would go on to improve his Hindi with some help from the children. His simple game of finding places on the map is a big hit with the kids and is a regular event on Sundays. The game improves children's General Knowledge as well as their reading skills. He also helps in conducting computer classes for the kids.

Her zeal to do something good for the underprivileged students led her to volunteer with AID by teaching at Nai Disha. She even stifled the notion about girls visiting Prayas by visiting the center after 9 pm during the session conducted by Gunjan on Hygiene.

She is one of most regular volunteers. She has also taken up the responsibility of creating flip charts for JoL (Joy of Learning) and HELP. Her ardor, sincerity, and cheerfulness is inspiring and motivating for others. Contributed By: Shammi

Errata

Contributed By: Pheroza

Volunteer Profiles: Pheroza Parashar This summer when we were getting students of Nai Disha admitted to higher classes in different schools, we faced many practical problems. Then, I met Pheroza, a Software Engineer at Birlasoft, Noida. She had come personally to enquire about the ways to contribute at Nai Disha. She has been helping students financially.

Pheroza and Shammi were wrongly mentioned among the regular volunteers at Prayas, instead of Nai Disha. However, at times, they visit Prayas too. We humbly apologize for the error and will take utmost care in future to verify the contents.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. - Mahatma Gandhi

Feedback: [email protected] Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167 DONATE TO AID Publications Team Online: E-transfer to ICICI Bank a/c 602201200299 Editors: Puneeta,Peeyush,Riputapan, Vaibhav By Cheque: Mail cheques in favor of AID-India to :Designer: Chandan, Peeyush AID Delhi,B121,MIG Flats,Phase-IV,Ashok Vihar,Delhi Coordinators: Puneeta, Riputapan