Action! Women empowerement

As for many families in the past, they have not had a chance to send their kids to school. For many young men it is easier to find small odd jobs every now and then even without any education, but for women the answer is usually an early marriage and from that moment you will be the housewife, for the rest of your life. Children, cooking, cleaning, washing....imagine that.

Responsible Charity wants to help the girls and women, who did not have the chance in their childhood, to learn how to read, write and count and together with Peters Day School and their director Lovina Khan a study group for these women was started earlier this year.

Theree times a week, two hours each time, they have lessons in english, bangla and simple mathematics. Some lessons will also be about family planning, parenthood. Maybe in the future even working skills, as the goal has been that in the end of the course we could find jobs to all the women who have been attending on regular basis.

Some of the women have been really enthusiastic and been going more or less daily.

There is for example young Firoja, who at age 17 is gonna get married next february, The husband to be is already chosen. For most, marriage would mean an end for studies like this. Firoja though, has decided that she does not want to be a housewife. She wants to study, and get a good job, and provide for her family. Children only in far far in the future. Hope this is how it goes.

We have young twin girls Rubina and Rukshar who used to go to a day school but quit for a reason or another, saying they were not teached at this institute. Hopefully they now can get the knowledge and work before the family will find them suitable boys. There are already married women, who have no children yet. And some older ones with family.

With Responsible Charity it has been important from very beginning to work together with the women, and most of the work is done through the mothers of the families. We do not forget the men, but for us the women are most of the time the heads of the houses. In many places in the world, as well as in India all the decisions in the families are often made by men. We want to encourage the women to take some action too!

Through this education we wish to raise the status of the women in their community and give the women a chance to improve the lives of their families. We do not want to be there to give shampoo and milk for rest of their lives, but we want them to find the ways to get all this and more themselves. We hope to inspire the young girls to think about different kind of future, where they could work, have less children and be able to live a better life, maybe even get out from the slums. And to be respected in their community through this.

Action! -Medication

Yesterday we took a taxi, and went for Bara Bazaar, a huge whole sale market from where our Super Kutushhad found a medical seller from whom we can get big discounts. Our medical worker Celine from sistercharity Gimme Shelter was like a child in a candy shop, picking all the necessary items for the rounds next day in the slum. The price was around third or fourth of the price we would have paid in the pharmacy we used before, and even them were giving us discounts.

Medical issues are one of the major problems we face when working in the slum. Low-hygiene and malnutrition causes many symptoms in all chidlren as well as in adults. Everytime I enter the slum i hear so many stories about what is going with the father of 5, the new born baby, the pregnant girl or the grandmother of neighbour. Celine comes with us once a week to try and heal all these. We have had also other volunteers coming in the past with us sometimes, which has been amazing. Plenty of meds and a lot of dressings are being delivered every time they come.
In many cases though, being clean and eating enough proper food would be the answer.

We are of course also facing more serious diceases. Malaria, tuberculosis and even HIV. For all this we have co-operation with some local clinics and hospitals. Actually many diseases can be treated for free, if you know where to go. Sometimes we can see, how the people have already got used to us coming there and getting lazy in going to elsewhere when they would need more acute cures. That is why spreading knowledge among the slum is one of the main jobs we are doing. We cannot make them dependent on our work, as there will always be times we cannot be there. Hoping to have in the future a powerful and working local team to fill in while all of us are gone.

Tomorrow is dedicated for our special cases Arman, Ishmael and Sarfaroz. Ishmael is going to be taken to Mercy Hospital, a big local place where he will be checked with his injured leg our dear nurse Celine healed. Healing is though still in process and we will go and see how far we are. Sarfaroz is getting blood transfusions at the same place on monthly basis and we need to do check on how it is working, and how much balance we have left.

Arman was a very special case. He is a brave 2 year old boy who fell in fire and got burned badly. He was treated for long time in the hospital and survived. He has gone through several operations and is fine now. He needs few more operations more to reconstruct his hands. Some money needs to be raised in order to do this, as operations like these can get costly even here in India.

Sometimes I do feel medication should have been the area what to study, back when i was young and energetic. With that kind of knowledge so much can be done here. But I am so happy we have met with Celine who can do, what us others cannot. And big thanks to all the donors without whom none of the medicines could not have been bought!

Action! - Education

It is a rainy Tuesday morning but I am heading to the slums anyway. It is a big day for one person there, and I cannot miss it. Little Esha, 3 years old, is going to be admitted to a good school today.

Esha is already in her fine red and black dress and the mother is brushing her hair. She is smiling widely when she sees me, and repeats me ABCD. She already knows this much. She can also count: "one, two three, seven".

It starts to rain even heavier when we leave. We will get wet but it does not matter right now. In many cases kids will not go to school if it rains, but we are not gonna miss this just because we dont want to get wet. I see many kids just wondering around and when asking why are they not in school they claim the rain. I think we need a donation for raincoats and umbrellas!

The principal of the school is already waiting. We have a talk about the rules of the school, fill up papers, check birth certificates and add photos. When it is time to pay the admissions, fees and books I notice that Esha has fallen asleep. It has been a day she has been waiting a lot, and with all the exitement she got tired. It does not matter because from tomorrow she will attend the Lower Nursery classes at Krishmont School where already 5 of the kids are studying Thanks to the dear supporters of Responsible Charity. Now all we need to do is to get her the uniform and nice pair of shoes and she is ready to start.

Coming from a country where every single kid, no matter what, is attending the best schools in the world I see this as one of the biggest parts of the work we do. Giving education for children of the families we will give them a better future. As when you get educated, and especially when you really put effort on it, you get good marks, you learn skills and you get a better job. School is a rare luxury for many children in India who come from poor backgrounds.

There is a story i want to share with you. Few years back i met a foreigner who was volunteering in a school for children from the slums here in Kolkata. She had got especially close with one 12 year girl. She was willing to pay the education for this girl for as long as she wanted. The teachers invited the girls parents to the school for meeting to discuss about which school would be best for her. She was a clever girl and could have made it far with proper ecucation. The parents came, listened and then said NO. They had found a husband for the girl, older man from a village who did not want dowry. If the girl would be too wise and clever, this man would not accept her. Nor would any other. When you come from poor background you do not have chance to give much for the grooms family (and ancient custom in India is, that when gettin married the girls family must give usually many, expencive gifts and money for the boys family as they take the girl into their household). Not too much later the girl disappeared, and was never seen again.

In many families they do not have money to educate all the children. The ones who get it are mostly the first sons, and if possible the other sons. Only then comes the girls. This is still true though changing slowly. Education can be free in India, but you still have to pay for the uniforms and books and other items. And usually the government based free schools are not always the best ones. Many times education also fails as families don't pay attention for the homework or studying for the exams. Many of the parents actually are illiterate and so cannot help the kids in their studies. Attending tutoring classes is expencive.

Now that we are willing to find sponsors for as many children as possible from the slums, we are facing another problem. Not many schools want to take in children from the slums. This is because many richer families do not want their children to interfere with poor children. Even though cast system is not legal anymore the attitudes towards poor and "lower" people are there. So far we have placed more than 10 kids in two different schools and hoping to put more soon.

In the future Responsible Charity hopes also to open our own school where everybody would be welcome. It would be same time a center for all the other actions of the NGO. If you are interested, please consider donating for the cause. Let's give these beautiful children a great education, and better future!! (Just an idea for the coming Christmas gifts!)

Ps. Sorry for no photos... both my camera and laptop stopped working, most likely because the huge rains i got into and the humidity (or a virus in the computer) Hoping to get these solved ASAP.