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People We Have Helped
Anjali, 32 years
Anjali is one of the many Indian women in India who have suffered domestic violence. Women are often uneducated and unable to support themselves financially, and therefore and dependent on men who often dominate and abuse them (some surveys have estimated that physical or emotional abuse of women in India is as high as 70%, but it's hard to say).
Like many women, Anjali was bought up to believe that one should stay with and serve one's husband for life. She hid her black eyes as best she could. She confided that her husband had broken 6 belts on her. She still does not know why her husband beat her. Then her husband started abusing her 2 year old child also. When I met Anjali she and her child were very thin and had eyes wide with fear. Her mother (a vegetable seller) was kind enough to accept her back in the house. This is not normally the case. Large families often cannot afford to accept back their daughters and divorced women become social leppers in lower and middle class circles. Anjali lives in her mother's front yard. Her house is a tin roof which is 1.5 metres by 1.5metres between a fence and the front of the house. Her walls are flimsy wood made from packing crates.
We have offered counselling and food to Anjali and are currently seeking a sponsor for her daughter to go to school.
Anjali is one of the many Indian women in India who have suffered domestic violence. Women are often uneducated and unable to support themselves financially, and therefore and dependent on men who often dominate and abuse them (some surveys have estimated that physical or emotional abuse of women in India is as high as 70%, but it's hard to say).
Like many women, Anjali was bought up to believe that one should stay with and serve one's husband for life. She hid her black eyes as best she could. She confided that her husband had broken 6 belts on her. She still does not know why her husband beat her. Then her husband started abusing her 2 year old child also. When I met Anjali she and her child were very thin and had eyes wide with fear. Her mother (a vegetable seller) was kind enough to accept her back in the house. This is not normally the case. Large families often cannot afford to accept back their daughters and divorced women become social leppers in lower and middle class circles. Anjali lives in her mother's front yard. Her house is a tin roof which is 1.5 metres by 1.5metres between a fence and the front of the house. Her walls are flimsy wood made from packing crates.
We have offered counselling and food to Anjali and are currently seeking a sponsor for her daughter to go to school.
Below are the stories of some of the people we have sponsored or taught.
Certain names have been changed to protect privacy, but the stories are true...
Latest people we have helped with domestic violence intervention:
Vaishali Phule 2013; Deeksha Prem 2013; Sangeeta Warwe 2014; Manisha Borkar 2014
Certain names have been changed to protect privacy, but the stories are true...
Latest people we have helped with domestic violence intervention:
Vaishali Phule 2013; Deeksha Prem 2013; Sangeeta Warwe 2014; Manisha Borkar 2014
Satya, 24 years
Satya's father died prematurely when he was 21. Satya had done some illegal things and when his father found out he died of shock and stress. This bought shame on the family and in the middle of Satya studying to become an accountant. When this happened, the whole family fell apart. Satya's mother is an uneducated house wife and was only able to find work as a door-to-door saleswoman. Satya was taken out of school to try to support his two sisters. The shock of his middle class world falling apart was heavy, the family had to move from a big house to the local slum. Satya, trapped by shame, bad friends, grief and depression turned to gambling and alcohol to numb his pain. He started riding a cycle rickshaw to support his family, but most of it he spent on drink.
In conjunction with the work of another counsellor, we counselled Satya and were able to bring him round to the idea that his life was not completely lost. We encouraged him to go back to school, which he has since done. If he had not, it's possible that within 10 or 15 years he would have drunk himself to death because of the sheer hopelessness of his life. He is slowly giving up drinking (unfortunately there is no Alcoholics anonymous in Nagpur slums). There is now hope for Satya and his family. His two sisters have been able to find good jobs and his mother has also improved her situation. He continues to receive counselling and support.
Satya's father died prematurely when he was 21. Satya had done some illegal things and when his father found out he died of shock and stress. This bought shame on the family and in the middle of Satya studying to become an accountant. When this happened, the whole family fell apart. Satya's mother is an uneducated house wife and was only able to find work as a door-to-door saleswoman. Satya was taken out of school to try to support his two sisters. The shock of his middle class world falling apart was heavy, the family had to move from a big house to the local slum. Satya, trapped by shame, bad friends, grief and depression turned to gambling and alcohol to numb his pain. He started riding a cycle rickshaw to support his family, but most of it he spent on drink.
In conjunction with the work of another counsellor, we counselled Satya and were able to bring him round to the idea that his life was not completely lost. We encouraged him to go back to school, which he has since done. If he had not, it's possible that within 10 or 15 years he would have drunk himself to death because of the sheer hopelessness of his life. He is slowly giving up drinking (unfortunately there is no Alcoholics anonymous in Nagpur slums). There is now hope for Satya and his family. His two sisters have been able to find good jobs and his mother has also improved her situation. He continues to receive counselling and support.
Stories of Hope From the Slums
Asha is a little girl of four. When I first met her and her mother Gita they were living on the verandah of Gita's mother's house. Inside the one room house (5 by 5mtr) lived Gita's mother, brother and his wife and child. Gita had no toilet and was making her house out of packing crates. Asha's eyes were big with fear and she wouldn't go to anyone else to be held. She had already seen too much. Asha's father had been an abusive alcoholic. Asha's mother had had the courage to escape a man who had physically and mentally abused her. Asha was covered in heat rash because her mother lived under a tin roof in 47c degree heat.
Asha is a little girl of four. When I first met her and her mother Gita they were living on the verandah of Gita's mother's house. Inside the one room house (5 by 5mtr) lived Gita's mother, brother and his wife and child. Gita had no toilet and was making her house out of packing crates. Asha's eyes were big with fear and she wouldn't go to anyone else to be held. She had already seen too much. Asha's father had been an abusive alcoholic. Asha's mother had had the courage to escape a man who had physically and mentally abused her. Asha was covered in heat rash because her mother lived under a tin roof in 47c degree heat.
It was very lucky that Asha's grandmother allowed Gita and Asha to live on her
verandah, otherwise Gita may have had to become a prostitute or search
through the garbage for recyclables to make ends meet. Being uneducated and
without money, she had few options. Now Gita sells chillies on the side of the
road. Asha would play in the dirt next to her. I wondered what kind of future
Asha would have, I was moved by her plight. Fortunately some generous
Australians had gotten in touch with me and said they wished to sponsor a
child. This family is not wealthy, the family consists of a single mother, a
pensioner and her daughter. It moved me that living on so little in country
town Australia, they were still able to set something aside to change the live
of a little girl in desperate circumstances.
I enrolled Asha in a posh grammar school. This was only approx $50/mth. Only an excellent education will allow a child to overcome the intense competition that exists in India for good jobs. Asha's Grandmother was very supportive of enrolling her in school and the whole family was willing to do the extra work to give her a good future.
Children go to school quite young in India. Asha was already considered old at 4! The morning I went to take Asha to school, she had already been awake from 5am because of excitement. Asha was beautifully dressed in her school uniform and ready for a new life. Her mother was also dressed nicely. It was very exciting for all of us. I have to say that if I died tomorrow, I would feel my life was meaningful just because of seeing this day, a little girl going towards hope.
We walked up the stairs of the school, which was like a huge office building. There's something very satisfying about walking up the stairs of a bastion of power and elitism and demanding entry for a small child from the slum. Ironically, the school was surrounded by slums. It became clear to me that there are many more children in the world who need our help. In fact, according to UNICEF,
22000 children die each day,
because of poverty related illnesses
such as diarrhoea.
More girls have been killed in the last 50 years precisely because they were girls (100 million) than people slaughtered in all the atrocities of the 20th Century. More women died in child birth because of lack of maternal health care during the periods of the first and second world wars than men died in fighting these wars (from the book - Half the Sky - 2010).
After we enrolled Asha in school, we took her out for coffee and ice cream at a coffee shop with her mum and our other social worker. They had never been into an air conditioned place filled with mirrors and polite staff before. Asha is now very happy and has completed one year of school. We offer a bit of extra food to her family and books, school fees, uniforms and bus fare. She now has a future and can live life to her full potential. She has been given the gift of hope.
I enrolled Asha in a posh grammar school. This was only approx $50/mth. Only an excellent education will allow a child to overcome the intense competition that exists in India for good jobs. Asha's Grandmother was very supportive of enrolling her in school and the whole family was willing to do the extra work to give her a good future.
Children go to school quite young in India. Asha was already considered old at 4! The morning I went to take Asha to school, she had already been awake from 5am because of excitement. Asha was beautifully dressed in her school uniform and ready for a new life. Her mother was also dressed nicely. It was very exciting for all of us. I have to say that if I died tomorrow, I would feel my life was meaningful just because of seeing this day, a little girl going towards hope.
We walked up the stairs of the school, which was like a huge office building. There's something very satisfying about walking up the stairs of a bastion of power and elitism and demanding entry for a small child from the slum. Ironically, the school was surrounded by slums. It became clear to me that there are many more children in the world who need our help. In fact, according to UNICEF,
22000 children die each day,
because of poverty related illnesses
such as diarrhoea.
More girls have been killed in the last 50 years precisely because they were girls (100 million) than people slaughtered in all the atrocities of the 20th Century. More women died in child birth because of lack of maternal health care during the periods of the first and second world wars than men died in fighting these wars (from the book - Half the Sky - 2010).
After we enrolled Asha in school, we took her out for coffee and ice cream at a coffee shop with her mum and our other social worker. They had never been into an air conditioned place filled with mirrors and polite staff before. Asha is now very happy and has completed one year of school. We offer a bit of extra food to her family and books, school fees, uniforms and bus fare. She now has a future and can live life to her full potential. She has been given the gift of hope.
A 'Slum Dog's' Struggle:
My name is Vijay and I've been asked by Ayya Yeshe to write a story about my life. I am the middle child of my parents. I am 17. I have two brothers and we live in a slum. Our house 10mtr by 5mtr and we have a kitchen, bedroom and a living room. Our TV is broken because my father smashed it. My father has smashed many things in our house and destroyed a lot of happiness in our family. He was forced to leave university and get a bad job as he needed to support his family and many of his dreams were crushed. Then he married my mother when he was 22 and my mother was 17.
My father is not a bad person, even though I often feel angry at him. He has just given up on life. That's why he drinks. He even broke my mother's arm. Unfortunately domestic violence is very strong in the slum where I come from.
My mother is very hard-working. She gathers the other women in our community around to make sari embroidery. She is the leader of the group, and seems very happy and independent, but she has to hide her bruises. Most people in the slum work hard, but due to lack of education and the availability of good jobs, they never make enough to get ahead. The good thing is now me and my brother are big enough to stop my father beating my mother, but that means that one of us always has to be around the house when my father is there.
I am almost completely deaf. It took my parents quite some time to realise this. They just thought I was a bad child. I used to misbehave in school because I couldn't hear the teacher and I didn't want to admit I had a problem. Most of the time in my school, the teachers never turned up anyway. I can just hear enough to communicate and speak.
"I thought that life was full of misery and had no meaning."
I had nothing to look forward too as I couldn't study well and get a good job. That was before I met Ayya Yeshe and the social workers of the Bodhicitta Foundation. I learnt about how to calm my mind and not get so angry. I learnt that there are kind people who care about people who suffer. I met other young people who are on a good path and are recovering from bad circumstances. I even got to see (going around with Ayya Yeshe) that there are people even worse off than my family. At least my father and my brother have jobs.
"I was thinking of joining the Mafia"
before I joined Ayya Yeshe. Every young man in my slum who had aspirations to do great things and make a lot of money either does it through doing well in his exams or through crime. All the young guys around me were a bad influence and I didn't know that there was another way. In the slum girls get married at 18 because their parents can't afford to educate them and they are worried they'll get molested. Girl's often can't work, and the family can't afford to feed them.
I'm really grateful that Ayya Yeshe has shown me a good path in life. She has sponsored me to go to a college for the hearing impaired and now I'm learning sign language and heaps of good things. I'm lucky that I can hear a bit more than most deaf people. I sometimes help run the youth group with Sister Yeshe and it makes me happy.
"It means a lot to have people who show me genuine friendship."
It has given me the courage to try new things and create a better life for myself.
Thankyou Bodhicitta Foundation.
My name is Vijay and I've been asked by Ayya Yeshe to write a story about my life. I am the middle child of my parents. I am 17. I have two brothers and we live in a slum. Our house 10mtr by 5mtr and we have a kitchen, bedroom and a living room. Our TV is broken because my father smashed it. My father has smashed many things in our house and destroyed a lot of happiness in our family. He was forced to leave university and get a bad job as he needed to support his family and many of his dreams were crushed. Then he married my mother when he was 22 and my mother was 17.
My father is not a bad person, even though I often feel angry at him. He has just given up on life. That's why he drinks. He even broke my mother's arm. Unfortunately domestic violence is very strong in the slum where I come from.
My mother is very hard-working. She gathers the other women in our community around to make sari embroidery. She is the leader of the group, and seems very happy and independent, but she has to hide her bruises. Most people in the slum work hard, but due to lack of education and the availability of good jobs, they never make enough to get ahead. The good thing is now me and my brother are big enough to stop my father beating my mother, but that means that one of us always has to be around the house when my father is there.
I am almost completely deaf. It took my parents quite some time to realise this. They just thought I was a bad child. I used to misbehave in school because I couldn't hear the teacher and I didn't want to admit I had a problem. Most of the time in my school, the teachers never turned up anyway. I can just hear enough to communicate and speak.
"I thought that life was full of misery and had no meaning."
I had nothing to look forward too as I couldn't study well and get a good job. That was before I met Ayya Yeshe and the social workers of the Bodhicitta Foundation. I learnt about how to calm my mind and not get so angry. I learnt that there are kind people who care about people who suffer. I met other young people who are on a good path and are recovering from bad circumstances. I even got to see (going around with Ayya Yeshe) that there are people even worse off than my family. At least my father and my brother have jobs.
"I was thinking of joining the Mafia"
before I joined Ayya Yeshe. Every young man in my slum who had aspirations to do great things and make a lot of money either does it through doing well in his exams or through crime. All the young guys around me were a bad influence and I didn't know that there was another way. In the slum girls get married at 18 because their parents can't afford to educate them and they are worried they'll get molested. Girl's often can't work, and the family can't afford to feed them.
I'm really grateful that Ayya Yeshe has shown me a good path in life. She has sponsored me to go to a college for the hearing impaired and now I'm learning sign language and heaps of good things. I'm lucky that I can hear a bit more than most deaf people. I sometimes help run the youth group with Sister Yeshe and it makes me happy.
"It means a lot to have people who show me genuine friendship."
It has given me the courage to try new things and create a better life for myself.
Thankyou Bodhicitta Foundation.
Job training for a young woman
Parvati is a 30 year old woman who's husband died from HIV. She had lost faith in life and human goodness. She is currently making about $40 US per month tailoring clothes which is hardly enough to buy food let alone rent. We are sending her to beauty school college that is of a good standard. She has committed to do beauty treatments from home and prepare brides (a good business) when she completes her 4mth course. Now she has the hope of being independent and finding a dignified way to make a living.
Parvati is a 30 year old woman who's husband died from HIV. She had lost faith in life and human goodness. She is currently making about $40 US per month tailoring clothes which is hardly enough to buy food let alone rent. We are sending her to beauty school college that is of a good standard. She has committed to do beauty treatments from home and prepare brides (a good business) when she completes her 4mth course. Now she has the hope of being independent and finding a dignified way to make a living.
Achana's father was an alcoholic who drank himself to death out of
poverty and desperation. She faced neglect and didn't go to school for
many years. Then her grandmother took charge of her life and enrolled
her in a local cheap public school. These schools are pretty bad. Teachers
do not attend classes and students are packed in together and do not
receive help and care. We have enrolled Achana in a better school, have
helped her get a second hand bicycle to go to school and arranged for
tuition, uniform and extra clothes. She starts school in May and is very
excited. Her mother cleans houses for a living and barely makes enough
to feed one person ($60 US per month).
Her father died from Tuburculosis, her
mother cleans houses and hardly makes
enough to feed her family. Our sponsorship
pays for school, transport, unforms, books,
tuition and extra food to ensure that Payal
will reach her full potential.
Shittal is 9 years old and comes from a family
of four girls. Her father is very sick and her
mother works cleaning. Her sister has a life
threatening illness. Shittal loves to wear
boys clothes, play rough and tumble games
and wants to 'make my family happy' when
she grows up. Our sponsorship will ensure a
good education and financial future with
security and independence for Shittal.
Himanshu is a happy boy who loves to climb trees and draw pictures. He wants
to be a police officer when he grows up. We are paying all the costs of
Himanshu's education and are offering food and clothing to his family and
nutrition supplements to his hard working mother so that together, they can
once again look to the future with hope and without fear.
Ayya Yeshe with the new hut built for $250 for
orphan Vicky and his brother Pandu.
Saving the Life
of a Tribal Mother and her Children...
of a Tribal Mother and her Children...
Payal is 11 years old.
Himanshu and his mother
Priya. Priya is a village
woman who didn't finish
school. She is
dangerously
malnourished. Priya's
husband died due to a
poverty related illness.
Because she is not
educated, she can't get a
good paying job to
support her family.
School Admission
for a tribal girl
Achana is a beautiful and vivacious 13 year old girl from a Christian tribal background.
for a tribal girl
Achana is a beautiful and vivacious 13 year old girl from a Christian tribal background.
Yashodhara, 26 years
Yashodhara is a child of the slums. Her father works at the mill, where he inhales the poisonous fumes of dyed clothes all day. This has destroyed his health and his lungs are almost at collapse point (he is 50). His two sons are uneducated and work as labourers who earn approx $50 a month (you need at least $100 to buy food and pay rent). Yashodara is the only person in her family who has a college degree, but she is still unable to find a job. She does not have the money necessary to bribe her way into a government job and she lacks confidence to find a job in the highly competative private sector where english and good looks are essential. 'You are too black' they said when she applied for a job. In India, connections are everything.
Yashodhara's roof leaks in the 3 month monsoon season. Her brother needs and operation and her father needs to retire. We are helping her when no one else would. Otherwise poverty would force her into an abusive marriage where poverty is passed onto another generation (domestic violence is very common in financially strained families, and also pervades upper classes to, but there are also many loving marriages). We are training Yashodhara in English, computer skills and employing her as a social worker, which empowers her and her family. She is able to educate and improve the lives of other women around her, as well as help her own family and community.
Yashodhara is a child of the slums. Her father works at the mill, where he inhales the poisonous fumes of dyed clothes all day. This has destroyed his health and his lungs are almost at collapse point (he is 50). His two sons are uneducated and work as labourers who earn approx $50 a month (you need at least $100 to buy food and pay rent). Yashodara is the only person in her family who has a college degree, but she is still unable to find a job. She does not have the money necessary to bribe her way into a government job and she lacks confidence to find a job in the highly competative private sector where english and good looks are essential. 'You are too black' they said when she applied for a job. In India, connections are everything.
Yashodhara's roof leaks in the 3 month monsoon season. Her brother needs and operation and her father needs to retire. We are helping her when no one else would. Otherwise poverty would force her into an abusive marriage where poverty is passed onto another generation (domestic violence is very common in financially strained families, and also pervades upper classes to, but there are also many loving marriages). We are training Yashodhara in English, computer skills and employing her as a social worker, which empowers her and her family. She is able to educate and improve the lives of other women around her, as well as help her own family and community.
Padma, 48 years
Padma has nine children and was married to a labourer (who makes about $100 a month). Their family was verging on starvation already, but when her husband left, she was forced to take a job as a cleaning woman for $60 a month (she works 14hr days, 7 days a week). Padma has a son who is mentally and physically disabled. Her daughter was in a motorcycle accident and desperately needed an operation to fix her knees. Several of the daughters were quickly married off and others worked and studied part time. The whole family worked very hard, but there was seldom enough to feed the family and Padma was doing everything she could to keep her daughters in school so they could go on to live independent and fulfilling lives and not just be at their husband's mercy for all financial support.
We offered Padma some financial support in a time of crisis, we put her daughter through a computer course. We continue to remain in touch with the family who's situation has gradually improved with the employment of several of the families children.
Padma has nine children and was married to a labourer (who makes about $100 a month). Their family was verging on starvation already, but when her husband left, she was forced to take a job as a cleaning woman for $60 a month (she works 14hr days, 7 days a week). Padma has a son who is mentally and physically disabled. Her daughter was in a motorcycle accident and desperately needed an operation to fix her knees. Several of the daughters were quickly married off and others worked and studied part time. The whole family worked very hard, but there was seldom enough to feed the family and Padma was doing everything she could to keep her daughters in school so they could go on to live independent and fulfilling lives and not just be at their husband's mercy for all financial support.
We offered Padma some financial support in a time of crisis, we put her daughter through a computer course. We continue to remain in touch with the family who's situation has gradually improved with the employment of several of the families children.
There are many other women in
situations of domestic violence who
are too afraid to leave and who need
to go into hiding if they do leave. We
need to find work, counselling and
secret living situations for these
women. See Social Work Projects -
Women for more information.
Our Centre recently invested in a tiny 100cc 8 seater Suzuki van to take
children to hospital, act as an ambulance, buy large supplies for our
community centre etc. The van was 'christened' when a 22 year old Tribal
woman's waters broke on the backseat. We had been taking her 10 month
old baby who was near death after 2 weeks of diarrhoea (the baby is 5kg and
should be 8kg). Megha got pregnant immediately after having her last child.
This little girl is her fourth. She is almost illiterate and married at the age of
17. Her husband is an alcoholic and her mother in law supports a family of 8
on the meagre wage of a house cleaner (barely enough to buy food).
Princes on White Horses
Empowering Young Women Through Employment
Hello, my name is Anita and I have recently been employed by Bodhicitta Foundation as a Tuition Teacher. I am so happy to do this job. I am the first person in my family to pass 12th class in school. My father started driving trucks when he was 11. My mother is a simple village woman who gave up school in year 8 to care for her 4 younger siblings while her mother worked. When I was born my father drank out of desperation and hopelessness and beat my mother. After me there are my brother and younger sister.
I didn't do that well in my 12th exams because my family didn't have the money to buy books, but I passed, that was a miracle. My family live in a one room house, 8m x 8m. We also have a cat that we love very much. My family is happy now because my father became spiritual and gave up drinking and has a job as Bodhicitta Foundation's driver. Both my parents work very hard, but we still only have money for food and sometimes for new clothes.
My mother spends 5 hours a day cooking all the food from scratch, washing all the pots and plates in a bucket and carrying water buckets from the tap where the water comes once a day. She washes all our clothes by hand and has to scrub the floor on her hands and knees because of the pollution and dust that creep into our house from coal fires and diesel fumes.
Now I'm enrolled to study social work. I'm happy with that. I dream of getting a well paid job so I can lift my family out of poverty. At my age my mother was married and pregnant with me to a man who beat her. She had to cover her head when her in-laws came and had no say in family affairs. I am going to be independent. I travel to school on a scooter that Bodhcitta foundation gave me a loan for (there are no buses to my school). I work 2 hours a day with slum children as the tuition teacher. We have 20 children in the class and we also give them protein powder and vitamins and record their weight and health. Some of those children don't have proper clothes, live under black plastic and can't read and write. They go to school late because they have to wait to collect water from the communal tap (there is one tap for 100 people) or from the government water tanker and then the teachers beat them because they are late. In India we don't have even basic things like quality education, health care, electricity and clean water. We fight like dogs for everything, people even have to hold onto the side of the bus from the outside to go to work. When they say we are the second fastest growing economy, I wonder who is growing? It's certainly not the labourers who are paid $30 per month to build the glass skyscrapers that the 'new India' lives in. It's not their children.
My family left the village because there wasn't enough land to support all of us, not enough water and my parents dreamed of a better education for us. I was lucky I met Bodhicitta Foundation and got good advice. Now I will help my people and my family and myself. I have hope for the future. I have education, independence and dignity that few girls in my slum have. Some of my school mates are already married. In the beginning they think it's really exciting to get new saris and new jewellery and go somewhere else, but in the end it's like a cage, because they are not financially independent, they depend on their husbands and in-laws and can't leave the house without permission. So many times I see that after a few years and a few kids, a beautiful young girl who entered the house like a queen has become like a haggard slave. Her husband starts drinking because he can't get a good paying job due to lack of quality education or laziness and then she has to go to work cleaning others pots because that's all she was trained to do. I think it's a sin to not make your daughter independent – to indenture her to others as a biological and emotional slave.
Stories tell us of Princes on white horses who will rescue us, or of the faithful Indian wife who will follow her husband through fire to prove her devotion and meekness. But I live in the slum. I don't see any princes on white horses. I realise I have to be my own prince. My father is a good man who works hard for us. Now my mother is really the boss of the family, but it took a long time for her to have independence. I don't want that to happen to me. I will get a good job and have a love marriage – I will choose my husband and my life. Thanks to all our friends at Bodhicitta Foundation.
Empowering Young Women Through Employment
Hello, my name is Anita and I have recently been employed by Bodhicitta Foundation as a Tuition Teacher. I am so happy to do this job. I am the first person in my family to pass 12th class in school. My father started driving trucks when he was 11. My mother is a simple village woman who gave up school in year 8 to care for her 4 younger siblings while her mother worked. When I was born my father drank out of desperation and hopelessness and beat my mother. After me there are my brother and younger sister.
I didn't do that well in my 12th exams because my family didn't have the money to buy books, but I passed, that was a miracle. My family live in a one room house, 8m x 8m. We also have a cat that we love very much. My family is happy now because my father became spiritual and gave up drinking and has a job as Bodhicitta Foundation's driver. Both my parents work very hard, but we still only have money for food and sometimes for new clothes.
My mother spends 5 hours a day cooking all the food from scratch, washing all the pots and plates in a bucket and carrying water buckets from the tap where the water comes once a day. She washes all our clothes by hand and has to scrub the floor on her hands and knees because of the pollution and dust that creep into our house from coal fires and diesel fumes.
Now I'm enrolled to study social work. I'm happy with that. I dream of getting a well paid job so I can lift my family out of poverty. At my age my mother was married and pregnant with me to a man who beat her. She had to cover her head when her in-laws came and had no say in family affairs. I am going to be independent. I travel to school on a scooter that Bodhcitta foundation gave me a loan for (there are no buses to my school). I work 2 hours a day with slum children as the tuition teacher. We have 20 children in the class and we also give them protein powder and vitamins and record their weight and health. Some of those children don't have proper clothes, live under black plastic and can't read and write. They go to school late because they have to wait to collect water from the communal tap (there is one tap for 100 people) or from the government water tanker and then the teachers beat them because they are late. In India we don't have even basic things like quality education, health care, electricity and clean water. We fight like dogs for everything, people even have to hold onto the side of the bus from the outside to go to work. When they say we are the second fastest growing economy, I wonder who is growing? It's certainly not the labourers who are paid $30 per month to build the glass skyscrapers that the 'new India' lives in. It's not their children.
My family left the village because there wasn't enough land to support all of us, not enough water and my parents dreamed of a better education for us. I was lucky I met Bodhicitta Foundation and got good advice. Now I will help my people and my family and myself. I have hope for the future. I have education, independence and dignity that few girls in my slum have. Some of my school mates are already married. In the beginning they think it's really exciting to get new saris and new jewellery and go somewhere else, but in the end it's like a cage, because they are not financially independent, they depend on their husbands and in-laws and can't leave the house without permission. So many times I see that after a few years and a few kids, a beautiful young girl who entered the house like a queen has become like a haggard slave. Her husband starts drinking because he can't get a good paying job due to lack of quality education or laziness and then she has to go to work cleaning others pots because that's all she was trained to do. I think it's a sin to not make your daughter independent – to indenture her to others as a biological and emotional slave.
Stories tell us of Princes on white horses who will rescue us, or of the faithful Indian wife who will follow her husband through fire to prove her devotion and meekness. But I live in the slum. I don't see any princes on white horses. I realise I have to be my own prince. My father is a good man who works hard for us. Now my mother is really the boss of the family, but it took a long time for her to have independence. I don't want that to happen to me. I will get a good job and have a love marriage – I will choose my husband and my life. Thanks to all our friends at Bodhicitta Foundation.
Only two weeks before we saved Megha's baby boy Sahil from death by
getting him hydrated with saline and much needed food and vitamins.
Megha didn't realise that babies need to be fed several times a day (as
opposed to the adults in her family who eat once or twice) and their food
should not be placed on the floor. Our organisation started feeding her
children as they are severely underweight (her 3 year old girl is only as big as
a healthy one year old and her 5 year old boy has behavioural problems and
often fails to go to school). We have created an infrastructure so that several
malnourished children in Megha's area receive food and tuition (because
their parents are alcoholics and unable to care for them and their schools
have 70 children in one class).
Megha had no blankets to wrap her new born in, so we gave her some. We took food everyday as her family live too far to bring it and we paid for much needed medicine (which is not provided by the government hospital where up to 30 women in one ward, 2 in each bed give birth simultaneously with a few doctors looking on. Shilpa was then moved to a mattress on the floor of the hospital amongst the cockroaches. The hospital refused to discharge her until someone from her family offered blood to replace the blood she had received. Her husband was rejected because he was too drunk, and everyone else in the family was rejected because they were under 40kg. In the end Ayya Yeshe had to donate to free Megha from hospital!
Miraculously, Megha's new baby girl was born normal and healthy. Both mother and child are well and are taking medicine and food sponsored by Bodhicitta foundation.
Normally our foundation tries to take what is called a 'sustainable' approach to social work – that is we don't just focus on one individual, we make programmes that will help many needy people at once. But there are frequently desperate cases of people who are clearly unable to help themselves such as the elderly, children or those who are mentally or physically challenged. These cases require special care.
Megha's husband agreed to have a vasectomy (as Megha was refused for tubal ligation as she was too anaemic), but then got drunk and refused the operation. Our social workers chased him down the street trying to question him about why he'd changed his mind! It is sad that we live in a world where children still starve, where girls are so ignorant they don't know how to feed their babies, use birth control or keep themselves clean. Your kind donations saved the live of this young mother and her two babies and her other children who are severely underweight. We have also given the family clean clothes, blankets, painted and baby proofed the house and assigned them a social worker. Now these children have a chance.
Megha had no blankets to wrap her new born in, so we gave her some. We took food everyday as her family live too far to bring it and we paid for much needed medicine (which is not provided by the government hospital where up to 30 women in one ward, 2 in each bed give birth simultaneously with a few doctors looking on. Shilpa was then moved to a mattress on the floor of the hospital amongst the cockroaches. The hospital refused to discharge her until someone from her family offered blood to replace the blood she had received. Her husband was rejected because he was too drunk, and everyone else in the family was rejected because they were under 40kg. In the end Ayya Yeshe had to donate to free Megha from hospital!
Miraculously, Megha's new baby girl was born normal and healthy. Both mother and child are well and are taking medicine and food sponsored by Bodhicitta foundation.
Normally our foundation tries to take what is called a 'sustainable' approach to social work – that is we don't just focus on one individual, we make programmes that will help many needy people at once. But there are frequently desperate cases of people who are clearly unable to help themselves such as the elderly, children or those who are mentally or physically challenged. These cases require special care.
Megha's husband agreed to have a vasectomy (as Megha was refused for tubal ligation as she was too anaemic), but then got drunk and refused the operation. Our social workers chased him down the street trying to question him about why he'd changed his mind! It is sad that we live in a world where children still starve, where girls are so ignorant they don't know how to feed their babies, use birth control or keep themselves clean. Your kind donations saved the live of this young mother and her two babies and her other children who are severely underweight. We have also given the family clean clothes, blankets, painted and baby proofed the house and assigned them a social worker. Now these children have a chance.
Megha's Story (continued from above)
We are sponsoring
Prateeksha for a good school, food, uniform and hope.
Her mum is a widow who lives in a crumbling house with no electricity for a fan in 47c heat.
Prateeksha for a good school, food, uniform and hope.
Her mum is a widow who lives in a crumbling house with no electricity for a fan in 47c heat.
A Poor Woman's
Journey from Poverty
to Empowerment
I was born in a village of 13 houses. My parents were simple people. They had no land. My parents were only educated to 1 or 2nd class.
I was born in a village of 13 houses. My parents were simple people. They had no land. My parents were only educated to 1 or 2nd class.
My mother was married at 15
which was the normal age in those
days. I was a bit of a miracle baby. I
was born after 12 years of
marriage. My parents moved to
Kamptee, a town 12km from
Nagpur. They made beedis
(cigarettes made of tobacco and
leaves) from their home, which
was the work of poor uneducated
people.
When I was 14 my mother had a paralysis attack (stroke?). She was paralyzed in half of her body. From that day I took care of my mother's every need, bathing, cooking, housework, bathroom etc. I attended school in the day and my father cared for my mother. After 10th class I also gave tuition classes to children to get extra money for our family. I was busy from morning till night. I understood that we were poor when my entire father's income went to medicine for my mother. So I stayed awake till late at night trying to make extra money sewing.
When I was 14 my mother had a paralysis attack (stroke?). She was paralyzed in half of her body. From that day I took care of my mother's every need, bathing, cooking, housework, bathroom etc. I attended school in the day and my father cared for my mother. After 10th class I also gave tuition classes to children to get extra money for our family. I was busy from morning till night. I understood that we were poor when my entire father's income went to medicine for my mother. So I stayed awake till late at night trying to make extra money sewing.
Our family had abandoned Hinduism
due to its inhumane treatment of our
community who were 'untouchable'.
Our hero is Dr Ambedkar, who was
the first of our community to get an
education and lobby for our human
and civil rights. We have basically
been slaves for 2000 years. We
occasionally went to the temple
where the monk would tell us about
Buddhism and Dr Ambedkar. In my
area we were all Dalits
('untouchable') and poor so no one
really treated anyone with
discrimination because we were all
the same.
I loved to study. My favorite subject was history. I would study under our one dim light bulb. I was 21 when my mother died. I lived with my father and his Stepmother. She didn't like me studying and wasn't very kind. I went to university and did two years of a commerce degree. But after my mother died I had no heart to study.
For the rest of "A Journey to Remember" see the December 2013 Newsletter
I loved to study. My favorite subject was history. I would study under our one dim light bulb. I was 21 when my mother died. I lived with my father and his Stepmother. She didn't like me studying and wasn't very kind. I went to university and did two years of a commerce degree. But after my mother died I had no heart to study.
For the rest of "A Journey to Remember" see the December 2013 Newsletter
Some of the children we sponsor to go to school. We give them
food, clothes, books, bag and transport fees.
Bodhicitta Foundation
Taking Light into the Dark Places of the World