JKSMS – A minha ONG

O trabalho na ONG finalmente já se iniciou!

Vai ser um projecto longo e árduo…

Vamos começar por visitar as favelas em grupo e a fazer relatórios sobre os mesmos.

De seguida iremos ficar cada um responsavel por fazer um case study de 3 a 4 crianças. Teremos que analisar as suas condições de vida ao máximo, conhecê-las no seu extremo e perceber no que podem evoluir.

Estes case studies serão apresentados numa exibição organizada pela AIESEC onde estarão presentes várias empresas que irão passar a financiar estas mesmas crianças.

Ofereci-me também para fazer um relatório que irá ser apresentado na exibição sobre o Teatro para as crianças das favelas. Um projecto que já está a ser implementado à 10 anos e que precisa também de mais financiamento.

O dia de hoje foi intenso…nem estou com muitas palavras para explicar.

Deixo aquí o meu primeiro report que irei entregar amanha à ONG.

Beijinhos a todos e muito obrigada do fundo do meu coração por todos os comments…nem imaginam a força que me dão…não imaginam mesmo!!!

Visit to Slum Group 1

22nd July 2009

Intern: Marta Monteiro

Project: “Creations”

Jaipur, India

 

It was impressive to get face to face with the idea I had about what was a slum. It is definitely completely different to see it behind screens and personally. I consider it a lifetime experience and an essential moment that anyone should pass through.

I had the pleasure of visiting two slums during today: VT Road Slum and Chokhi Dhani.

Both of them were filled with shelters in shape of tents, where people live. The materials used to build these tents were sticks that held up some big plastic bags that covered the house, along with some cotton materials and anything suitable for avoiding the rain to get in. Of course these are impossible conditions to survive and life in and after speaking to the locals I got the information that whenever it rains their tents stay soaked in water and there isn’t anything they can do about it.

In VT Road specifically I felt quite shocked about the conditions those people live in. Nevertheless, there are people living there for the last 35 years. Born and raised on that place. Right beside a large road, cars pass only a few meters from their tents, infested with mosquitoes, flies, and flees all around, making it difficult to stay longer than a few minutes speaking to the locals. I had the pleasure to meet a family that has been living in this slum for the past 10 years and who don’t have a future plan to improving the conditions they live in.

Food is sometimes taken to them by individuals but besides that they get no food for the family. Children are sometimes fed at the local school.

The family members work mainly on labor work, like for example sweeping streets and their daily gaining is around 50 rupees out of which none is saved up. They use it all on food and necessary first class needs. There is no potable water, no electricity, and they don’t have a bathroom. In the families’ opinion their hygiene is good and regular.

One thing I acknowledged is that it is very important to analyze this situation in a critical way, not letting myself getting drawn into everything the locals are informing me about. These individuals live in very poor conditions but still think their hygiene is well done. They can nearly make us think that the conditions aren’t that bad…but the truth is these people have not seen anything else during their lives besides the low conditions they live in. I understood in their words that they don’t have much of an idea of how different this world is and how many opportunities there are in the world, for some people. They are truly conformed to their life and reality and don’t see a brighter future either to them or to any of the several children standing around them.

After meeting this family I finally met the local school that teaches around 20 to 25 children aged between 2 to 10 years old. It is a small hut, built by straws will nothing more than a cloth on the floor and some books offered to them by JKSMS.

The main teacher was sick so there was a substitute teacher, named Snehalata, who says that her motivation to work with these children is the hope she has on their future. The main preoccupation is that they get into a private school and this way, get more motivated about learning and growing professionally in life.

The subjects they learn at this school are Hindi, English and Mathematics.

Regarding medical assistance, there is a doctor who passes by everyday during morning or afternoon and takes care of anyone in need.

In Snehalata’s opinion the main needs for the school is pens, boards, books and food.

Later on at the Chocki Dhani slum, the conditions were a little different.

It was a big area, all made out of dust and the tents were quite alike to the VT Roads ones. It was quite cleaner though.

The school was a small hut also made out of straws and it teaches around 60 children a day, 30 in the morning, 30 in the afternoon. This school had a small table for children to sit and work, an improvised black board, some big boxes to keep food and materials and a bed where a small baby was sleeping.

The teacher was named Kum Kum and had a particularity. She motivates each child to have a bank account at the bank institution created by JKSMS only for children in need. Each child has a bank account and deposits all their savings there. This way they will probably one day have enough money to get into a private school and continue studies.

In this school I felt a more pacific environment. Children were working on their writing exercises and somehow weren’t as happy to see us as the one’s at VT Road.

The subjects they study and Hindi, English, Mathematics and Environmental issues.

Regarding medical facilities, this school benefits from a partnership done between JKSMS and MDM France. They receive frequent help from doctors and all the needed vaccinations are provided to them freely.

I insisted in speaking to one of the girls named Manbhar. She told me she was around 10 years old, lives with her parents and has the privilege of not having to work. Only her mother and older sister work. Her father is currently sick and cannot work. She has 7 more brothers and sisters and does not have an idea of what she sees herself doing in the future.

I noticed she doesn’t know what different jobs there are, like for example the difference between a doctor, a teacher, etc.  She does really not have any type of preference on to what she would like to grow up to do due to the lack of knowledge gained throughout her life.

She only eats twice a day, at lunch and dinner time, and not in big portions.

The problem is these children, as well as in the adults, is that they don’t have a minimum idea of what a different future is. They live each day, one after the other, and just hoping to have enough food to survive and feed their children.

It is truly exasperating and frustrating to see big luxurious buildings being built around these slums when what these families need most is a decent shelter, a humanly place to live in, food to survive and people that believe in them and teach them the importance of using money on the right things and about the different opportunities they can get in life.

Today I am sure that in this place called World, there are many worlds.

When I was face to face with those people I felt like I was in a different world of theirs, like inside an unbreakable bubble.

I have hope in these people. I truly want to get out of my unbreakable bubble, my “civilized” world, and try to help these individuals, alerting others like me about the reality of other people’s world. About everything that is happening at the same instant we live in, but that just pass us by.

This was my first experience, and this is what I got out of it.

Last words:  Thank You for the opportunity. I’m enlightened.