A Visit Outside the Slums
Posted by Dina Fesler on May 5th 2008 in Volunteers, Organizations
ASHA girl enjoy the raindance.PUNE, INDIA Parveen, Salma, Noushad, Rani, Malika, Nishat, Sridevi, Anita, Fatima, Savitree, Samreen, Ashreem, Swati, Bhagyashree, Sulakshina, Rani, Ruksana, Heena, Neha, Pyeren, Parveen, Laxmi, Nilofar, Pooja, Gauri and Shanehej.
These are the 26 Indian girls I spent the last five days with in Pune, India. They are enrolled in ASHA’s Better Life Education Program, the Children’s Culture Connection-supported charity that helps Indian children in need. Coming from both Hindu and Muslim families, the girls are between 13 and 18 years old and live in one of India’s most oppressive slums. Life is especially tough for women in these shantytowns where domestic violence, illiteracy and health issues make it nearly impossible to create better lives for themselves. Most girls drop out of school by the seventh grade, are married off by 16 and have babies by 18…and the girls in this program are no different. Some already have arranged marriages in the works, those who have dropped out of school work full time as domestic servants, and those still in school spend their free time taking care of younger siblings and doing housework.
ASHA’s (Action for Self-Reliance Hope and Awareness) Better Life Education Program was created in 1997 to empower Indian girls by teaching them life skills, providing counseling, encouraging the younger ones to stay in school, and trying to get the dropouts re-enrolled. It also provides monetary school support, tutoring, and deals with misguided families who simply don’t see the point in educating girls. Overall, they encourage girls to have bigger dreams and try to give them the tools to create better lives.
A young girl writes in her journal.
This week’s adventure started 11 months ago when I stumbled upon ASHA while in India adopting my second daughter. All it took was one look into the bright, beautiful faces of these girls and I knew that we had to add them to the CCC-supported charity list, however, I’ve been plagued by one question: How do you know what to dream for in your life when you wake up every day in a slum?
I had this crazy idea that if we could raise enough money, we could take the girls on a five-day inspirational adventure. We would show them life outside the slums, infuse their world with new images and sensory experiences, ignite their dreams, inspire them, exhaust them, and then give them the tools to express themselves in new ways. We would also help give them a chance to be teenagers for a little while longer before the adult world swallows them up completely.
So last October we held a special fundraiser dinner to come up with the money, and afterwards, in an unprecedented event, the directors of ASHA painstakingly convinced nearly all of the girls’ families and/or employers to let them off-duty to attend this week-long retreat without penalty or loss of pay. Impoverished parents agreeing to pick up the household slack for the sake of their children’s entertainment? Employers paying their domestic help to NOT come to work for an entire week? It was truly remarkable!
Over the last five days we visited temples and parks, restaurants and ice cream parlors. We hiked in the mountains, watched hang-gliders sail off of cliffs, went on a road trip, sang songs, played games, and even partook in something called a “rain dance”—an enclosed courtyard where Bollywood dance music blares from loudspeakers while water sprays out of pipes overhead. For 45 minutes I watched 26 screaming, laughing girls in soaking wet saris dance like there was no tomorrow—likely to never be this carefree again.
Watching hanggliders out the bus window.
We also organized art projects, gave them disposable cameras and had them document the meaningful things in their world, and we outfitted each of them with their own journal to practice expressing their inner thoughts and feelings. Our time together was amazing and I think we did a pretty good job of getting them inspired. By the end of the week, three who had dropped out of school came to the director to ask for help re-enrolling.
What will the future be for rest of these girls? Only time will tell, but I feel pretty certain that their lives will never be the same. I know mine won’t be.
Note: Since the trip, many ASHA girls who had dropped out of school came forward expressing an interest in re-enrolling, but cannot due to economic circumstances. Some cannot afford the transportation costs incurred, some need special tutoring to catch up, while others must continue to work as domestic servants in order to keep the household afloat. To address this situtation, ASHA has set up a special fund to help these girls continue their education:
Children’s Culture Connection/ASHA Education Fund
P.O. Box 141
Dennison, MN 55018
