KHAMAGHANI !!!!!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

29th of November 2009

November….

Sorry for not writing for long time, it was due to very heavy work and top of all my body got stressed our, I am feeling much better but head ache’s time to time.

This month was full of guest visiting us, On children’s day 14^th November which is celebrated on the birthday of our first prime minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, we had three top most judges of the town come to the trust and spoke about the legal issues of women and girls and empowered our girls by giving information about their rights, they were Shri Ishwari lal verma(ACJM-1), Shri Devendra Singh Bhati(JM3), Shri Shankar lal maru(JM2)

Later on the Same day the second guest we hosted were Ms. Anne Vincent and her sister in law Ms. Godelive coigny who is also on board to the Global foundation for humanity ( a foundation based in the USA and UK to help NGO’s working with medical and education relief’s for poor in developing countries).

Ms. Corinne Rose wrote down a wonderful report on the success of our graduates sewing centers, i hope you will like reading about it.

FIRST EUROPEAN ORDER FOR THE SEWING CENTRES!

In August, Christelle, a designer from France wrote to us as she had seen an article on Sambhali Trust on the internet. She was interested in the Empowerment of Women project that the Trust is running and that 11 girls who had just graduated were now making clothes and accessories in their own sewing centres which the Trust has established.

Christelle designs and produces children’s clothes and asked if the graduates could help produce her winter season of children’s clothes that she would then sell in Toulouse, her home town. We were delighted that she chose the girls to do this work for her and to give them an opportunity to produce items for a different market.

There were 3 designs, 2 dresses and one pair of trousers made from thick cotton/silk material. The designs were entirely different from what the girls had been used to, as they were specifically for the French market working with different cloth and fitting waistbands, straps and pinafore bibs, which was a new experience! So after working together on the designs and the prototypes, 8 of the 11 girls produced 23 pieces of one design, 22 of the second design and 23 of the third design (in 3 sizes), which they finished in 15 days. The different techniques and methods that were used, didn’t come without any problems, but together the girls persevered and learnt a variety of skills to produce some very smart clothes for children up to 6 years of age.

The girls were very proud of what they had achieved and although they have been making items for the Sambhali India shop since the middle of August, it was the first order they had to do within a fixed time and working with the designer to her specifications.

On the 23.November we had a group of six journalists come from big companies of

, they were leaded by the asst. Vice president of Distant Frontiers who works in collaboration with Kuoni destination management. We did our presentation for them but they were very tight of the schedule that all we planned could not be preceded.

On the 24.November we had Jodhpur’s leading hair and body care salon people come over and did a workshop on body and hair care, two of our girls got their hair cut done, it was a very interesting day for our new participants of Jodhpur project.

A friend from Switzerland invited me over to come and visit a NGO based in Ahmadabad called Manav Sadhna. I would like to share my report and my pictures below with you.

My report of my travel:

Ms. Eva, a friend and a well wisher from Switzerland stayed with us at the Durag Niwas Guest House for a week in April 2oo9 and visited me on my presentation in Switzerland, Ms. Eva’s partner works Dave works with a very well known NGO of Gujarat called Manav Sadhna established at Mahatma Gandhi Ashram here in Ahmadabad. Ms.Eva is visiting Dave and is volunteering with Manav Sadhna for a while now and wondered if I could visit Manav Sadhna and maybe some opportunity will build up for sambhali to work with them or at least learn something from my visit to the program.

I left Jodhpur with no expectations, sat in the train with some snob Indian men who were too busy on the black berry handy that they had no time to even smile. I was carrying a bottle of wine for my friends as a present from Jodhpur in a dry state of Gujarat where alcohol is prohibited legally.

I was by accident also carrying the army swiss knife and my new laptop incase if I had to do a presentation somewhere , well you never know with the snow ball rolling.

I was feeling scared if I was to be checked by police for security reason, I am already guilty of carrying alcohol and the big swiss knife, but than making myself relax thinking, a friend’s father is a station master and also my cousin Bunty’s maternal uncle is a police officer here in Ahmadabad and in case I was caught I can get out of the situation because of knowing the officers.

I slept in the train for few hours with the laptop and my bag close to my reach that if someone touched them (for stealing) I will get awake. I reached my hotel at 3.30am and in half an hour I could get a place to sleep in after some young Indians living in USA checked out.

I slept till late and than took an Auto rickshaw to the Gandhi Ashram where my friends were waiting, I was taken into the Manav Sadhna communal hall through the areas(rooms) occupied by Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba Gandhi. I didn’t believe at one time that I am at a place on the banks of Sabarmati River which I have read and learnt in my school history.

We went into the communal hall where I met with the founder Mr. Jayesh Bhai and his wife Mrs. Anar Ben, I sat there with my friends, there were many others who were part of Manav Sadhna and they were participants, volunteers or the staff. They were all very friendly; they welcomed me by giving me a traditional welcome and a welcome song. I was garlanded by a beautiful smiley flower made by their participants who were in one of their projects, we did meditation, shared stories, experiences for one hour and half or something. It was a wonderful experience for me. I also had time to talk to Jayesh bhai, he knows a lot, he has his own way of working and he has his own principals and goals. He has invited our team of participants and staff to come and live with Manav Sadhna for few days and learn some structural administration and see how the both sambhali trust and manav sadhna could work in collaboration. It would be nice if we could work with them on some level, later Dave and Eva took me to the Tekra , here we saw slums and some projects that Manav Sadhna works with or are building. I was soo impressed, projects I plan to implement in future were already running here such as a communal hall where people could come in to see a dentist, school for non school going kids, crèche for babies, Anganwadi, gymnasium, playing area for little children etc, I also met with a very interesting lady Vandana Ji, she is from Rajasthan and works with a income generating program of Manav Sadhna called GramShree, this program is looked after my professionals and the participants do communal work of making clothes and crafts, than they are sold locally and internationally in their own outlets. They pay their participants well and looked amazing.

I am learning very much in the few hours. I was taken to Dave and Eva’s home here in Ahmadabad, a cozy house with a balcony overlooking a garden. Young professionals, wonderful ideas, big team of passionate people……….

Next morning I had to meet with co-founder of gramshree and manav sadhna, Ms. Anar ben, we went to her house for breakfast, she is very nice and a friendly person, she has a beautiful boutique home, we spoke about sambhali trust and its initiatives , I made presentation of the sambhali documentary and came to a final decision that some team members of gramshree will come to train women and girl of sambhali’s jodhpur, setrawa and sheerni projects and the strong leaders of these projects will be brought for extra training at the Ahmadabad gramshree, I was later introduced to the team of gramshree where I showed them the documentary and spoke to them about sambhali and its participants, they welcomed my friends Eva, Dave and myself, the ladies of gramshree are strong candidates and outspoken, I was soo happy to meet with them and sharing my idea of training, teaching quality control to sambhali participants, they were enthusiastic about visiting sambhali and sharing their skills, they were happy to bring some of the participants back with them for a follow up.

After a good lunch at a fancy restaurant I went off to rest for a while, this evening Eva, Dave and myself meet again and go to Dave’s friend Ms. Manjari who works with Save the Child project and more interestingly we meet with Ms. Manjari’s mother Dr. Mrs.Pushpa Srivastava who is professor at the department of Botany at University of Rajasthan in Jaipur and a Emeritus Fellow-UGC, Mrs. Srivastava has been working on Spirulina for many years and have achieved a lot with this green gold. I have never heard soo much about the Spirulina before and have never met such an interesting yet simple Indian lady before. She has been working in Jaipur and rural areas around Jaipur, we had dinner with the family and spoke about the NGO’s and their work. I had another interesting day in Ahmadabad.

T he third morning I checked out of my hotel and took my luggage to Eva and Dave’s home, I stored my stuff here and we went out for lunch, it was good, today we had appointment with the person in charge of MAM Movies “media for social change” I met with Mr. Madhusudan, he was a young professional from Mumbai now based in Ahmadabad working on documentaries for social cause. It was n saw our nice talking to him; he saw our documentaries and really liked them much, I asked him to help me with making one documentary which we can use all the time with changing projects. He gave me some ideas about volunteers interested in helping make documentaries, he was very informative, helpful and friendly and he has offered any help we require from him. We walked around the Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati Lake and visited the museum, it was a wonderful informative day, I enjoyed every moment of it, we came back to their home and I had a nap, this evening I am leaving back for jodhpur full of impressions and help that the Gramshree has extended and I will never forget the friendly, helpful people of Ahmadabad.

I was by accident also carrying the army swiss knife and my new laptop incase if I had to do a presentation somewhere , well you never know with the snow ball rolling.

Marika's Final Impression:

After five weeks working with the beautiful girls and women of Setrawa village I am filled with so many emotions. Our time in village has been so special and slightly challenging. The girls and women, though especially the girls were so welcoming and by our second week there we were being lavished the hugs and kind words. From 11 to 1 each day we would go to the school and work on handicrafts with the women and girls who did not attend school. During this time I feel that they taught me more than I taught them. I learned to embroider and made a beautiful skirt, and more importantly I learned the beauty of sitting and enjoying some good company and music over simple creative work. There is no need to rush about or be concerned with what is happening tomorrow or in a week or month, it is time to just be present. Rajasthani and I am sure all Indian women are innately creative and it is remarkable the stuff that they can come up with, with the greatest ease. Unfortunately there are very few women coming to these sessions and it would be wonderful if there was a proper class or project that they could work on together to draw more in.

In the evenings we would return to the school and teach the school going girls English. Ever eager and excited to learn this was a very interesting experience for me after teaching in South Korea for a year. Unlike in Korea the children here have ample time to play and actually don’t often get a proper education when they are at school. So the girls were ever so happy to sit and read, write and do a very different style of lessons than I taught in Korea. But as little girls they do still love to play games and we definitely did play many, though their attention was much hard to maintain and they were not as well mannered when not seated and writing. We chose to teach a different topic each week, as we had a short time in Setrawa. Our first week was spent getting to know them and doing introduction games and activities, our second week focused around team work and unity, our third week focused on health and the body, our fourth week dealt with dreams and our final week was spent wrapping things up creating a photo collage and having a goodbye party.

The rest of our time was spent mainly at Usha’s home or going to neighbour’s homes for meals. The food in Setrawa is amazing, all vegetarian and super healthy and basic and if you like spicy like I do it is heaven. As it is very hot and sunny in the afternoon usually we would stay inside and read, write, play with the little kids or rest. The end of our second week and our third week Usha went to visit her pregnant sister and we were left to our own devices more or less as Usha’s family doesn’t speak a lot of English which made things a little more challenging and interesting.

Our time in Setrawa was amazing and I will remember it forever, but some things could be improved. It became evident to me while Usha was away and in trying to prepare lessons and determine what the girls already knew, that the project is in need of a proper teacher or administrator. Usha is a great asset and has the trust and respect of the girls and women but as she will be married off one of these days and will leave the village, I think it would be useful to have a full time permanent teacher to administrate and make sure lessons grow on each other and expand the girl’s knowledge. Also in our last week there was a serious problem with Usha’s father who after returning to the village on the weekend began drinking heavily and refusing to allow Usha to return to the school. This problem continued to grow throughout the week and turned into some very angry and painful screaming matches between Usha’s father and the family. There was a great deal of pain and grief in the house and my heart goes out to her family. I would say that I still enjoyed staying with Usha’s family a great deal and think it is very unfortunate that this had to happen in our last week. I do not mean to write this to discourage any volunteers from coming to Setrawa it is an amazing place and anyone will be greatly rewarded for going, but something should be done to prevent continued incidents.

My love and thanks go out to all involved at Sambhali; Govind and Mokta, Usha and her family, Ramu and Mulsingh and all the beautiful girls and women of Setrawa and all the awesome staff at Durag Niwas.

Catriona's final impression report:

Final Report.

Our time in Setrawa is up and we are back in Jodhpur getting ready to head home to Canada. The last week was a strange way to end our experience in Setrawa but eye opening to see what some women face in their private lives at home. Upon our return to the village last week we were welcomed by Usha’s father who had arrived home from working in Jodhpur, our first encounter with him. The entire household fell into a very deep silence, with a language barrier we had to wait for a few days to understand what was actually happening. After four heavy and dark days, we discovered that Usha’s father was drinking and angry with Usha for working at Sambhali as the full time teacher, it is unacceptable for daughters to be working in the village rather they should be at home taking care of the household and not in contact with men. In the end Usha was brave enough to move into her grandmother’s house, probably until the father leaves again, and we decided to head back to Jodhpur one day early. We witnessed Usha’s household transform into a quiet, sad and angry place from a happy, vibrant, loud, social and warm environment all because of the presence of their father, a tiny man. I don’t know what will happen with Usha, as this has been happening for many years but I do sincerely hope with the help of Govindh that the situation will improve for the best. This experience did not ruin our time in Setrawa, nor would it prevent me from returning to the village.

Our relationships with the girls and our routine quickly developed from the first week onwards. The girls, well accustomed to volunteers now were confident and open with us, and full of energy. They were quick to let us know if they were comfortable with the material of our lesson and ready to learn something new. As well, it amazed me how the older and more frequent students looked out for the younger and newer students. The girls were competitive, in a healthy way, and would fight with each other for a front row seat ready with the books open and a sharpened pencil in hand. As our time was short, we decided to choose a weekly topic and teach it via various daily activities. For example, if we were teaching about the body, we would teach an intro class with a vocab review, an arts and crafts class, a games day and have a test. It worked well, perhaps a little boring for the older ones but a great review for them.

The arts and crafts class we attended for two hours a day in the afternoon was very interesting, this is where the young women taught me how to sew and embroider for the first time, proving to be very difficult to do such detailed and precise work but I managed to complete a bag. The women are extremely gifted with their creative abilities, what seems to be very easy while watching them is in fact, very challenging when I attempt even a simple technique. This time provides a social space for whoever shows up and allows them to create clothes, projects for themselves, family or for selling purposes. Unfortunately, not many women or girls showed up for this class but from what I can see with the materials that already exist and sewing machines, if inspired to create or learn specific skills with an enthusiastic Setrawa teacher, I can imagine more women will attend and on a regular basis.

While not attending classes there was plenty of time to go with the flow, everyday unfolded differently, many days we were invited to people’s homes for dinner, celebrating the ending of a fasting period for the wives , the purchase of a new home or just to drink chai and eat biscuits. People were curious by the only foreigners in town and some were enthusiastic to practice their English, or just sit and enjoy each other s company. At night, the children from the neighbourhood and some students from Sambhali would stop by the house to play games, dance in the living room or go up onto the roof to talk. All of these experiences and interactions with the villagers helped us integrate easier into the village life rather than always feeling like strangers, even though, you never forget that you are a foreigner in a small village.

In the end, I am so thankful to have found Sambhali and experienced teaching and living with the girls and women in Setrawa, as it is difficult to interact with women as a tourist in India in my experience. The project is young in Setrawa and already I see these girls with such strong and vibrant personalities that I hope continue to be nurtured and encouraged to reach beyond their limits to have the ability and awareness to make the right decisions according to them. I encourage anyone who is reading this at the moment to come and share whatever gifts you have and to learn some very valuable gifts from the Setrawa girls and women. I am already missing the quiet and simple life in the village and the roaming cows, donkeys and goats.

Durag Niwas Guest House:-

With not having many guest, it is still rolling, highly recommended by the guide books it is a pitty that not many guest turn up, this shows how good the monopoly of the touts and rickshaw drivers is in the city, we do not entertain the rickshaw drivers with the big and fat commissions that it is very difficult to survive a guest house with 12 rooms in such heavy and dramatic competition.

We are always bringing in new ideas and new stuff to make our budget guest house look its best.

Family:

Mumy and Grand ma are usually in their rooms, hibernating because of the winter months, it get cooler by the night. Ayush and Mukta are good besides ayush who is studying hard because of his half yearly exams coming soon.

Shakti is fine and I am recovering from the ache’s and pains in the body.

Thank you for reading the blog, I hope to put in more interesting materials this December.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

4th November- starting of Sheerni Project!!

Greetings to our Dear Readers,

All is well on this end. We do well, wanted to share some information or Sambhali…..

On the 26th of October Ms. Jacqueline de Chollet from Global Foundation for Humanity UK/USA with Mr.Paul Zuckerman from Paul Zuckerman & Associates(Creative qualitative Research and Training) came to visit the trust's Jodhpur project and visited the Sewing center, We were very Honored that such dignified personalities visited our trust and build our confidence.

Our advisory board member Ms. Ernestine Badegruber of Soziale Initiative based in Linz , Austria came to visit the trust with friends. It was big honor for the trust that they inaugurated the new building for the Jodhpur project we will be using… the building is very useful to us. Ms. Badegruber also visited the two sewing centers; she appreciated our work very much and admired what the trust has done in such a short span of time.

Prithvipura Sewing center below-

Raikabagh Sewing center below-

We had Ms. Jacqueline de chollet from Global Foundation for humanity visiting us with her friend Mr. Paul Zuckerman from Zuckerman associates. Ms. Zuckerman and Ma’am De Chollet visited the sewing centers and said wonderful words for our work and appreciated our projects, Ms. Jacqueline went with me to setrawa and on the Friday 30^th of October the first Sheerni Self Help group started with 15 ladies… we are soo happy that the foundation got laid of the Self help group of Sheerni in presence of Ma’am De chollet who had planned the progress of under privileged women of the Setrawa village…

I have also written to UNICEF that we wont be able to work on their child marriage prevention issue because of my health, due to stress of work the doctor has prescribed me complete bed rest for a month… I am unable to put the documentation together without stressing my brain and it is not good for my health… with bad health I wont be able to help people at all.

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Ms. Caitriona Keown- Toranto, Canada

October 27.2009 for 5 weeks in Setrawa project

First Impressions:

Our original plan was to travel around India for the remainder of our time, about five weeks but after spending two months in India living in an ashram for three weeks, studying ayurveda massage for three and traveling around and staying with friends for two weeks, we decided to change our plan. My friend Marika and I sat down to set our intentions for what we wanted to experience. We both agreed that working with women and children would be ideal in a rural setting where we could be apart of a community in an environment that was empowering, supportive, creative and traditional. With these elements in mind we found Sambhali Trust on the internet and agreed that it was perfect. Within two days we packed everything, booked a train and arrived in Jodhpur to meet Govind and join the Setwrawa project.

After a short orientation in Jodhpur and introduction to the Sambhali organization, we headed off to Setrawa. From the moment we arrived at the guest house and met Govind, it felt as though we were meant to be here, a small grassroots organization with a sincere interest in helping to empower women and girls was definitely something we wanted be apart of, even if it meant committing short term.

We were greeted by Usha and a few of the girls from Sambhali school in town after an adventurous bus ride with big smiles and a warm welcome, everyone curious to see who were the new volunteers. It was evident that the previous volunteers left a good impression because everyone was very excited to greet and chat with us.

The first two days were spent introducing ourselves to the girls and women and getting to know them. It is not obvious that these girls are coming from difficult situations as they do not show it on their faces when they enter the doors of Sambhali, they bring their bright and eager spirits every day. I feel very blessed to connect with these energetic, sincere and joyful girls and women for the next five weeks and see that they will be empowering me a lot more than I will them.

There are no expectations for the next five weeks, I will take it day by day with the girls and let it unfold as it will. I am very thankful to the girls and women for opening up themselves, school and village to us.

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Ms.Marika Hall - Alberta, Canada

27th of October 2009 for 5 weeks in Setrawa project

First Impression Report

It is a long and surprisingly bump free road to Setrawa passing not the typical desert we think of but a land of hardy trees and shrubs living in the sand amongst people, goats, dogs and peacocks. As we sat on the bus and the suggested time of arrival had passed we began to worry, oh no did he miss understand us or miss the stop and not want to admit it. The tension rose as we hoped we would make it to our new home. But at last, only one hour later than expected, we arrived in Setrawa. Our host Usha, the teacher at the school was tracked down as school was shut for lunch. She came up to us smiling with a group of girls all curious to see who the new foreigners were. Immediately we were put at ease by the friendly nature of Usha and her friends. We were taken to a lovely blue and green house and were plunked down and offered tea and food. After filling our hungry bellies we talked about ourselves and must have met at least 20 aunts and cousins. Who all came waltzing in the door saying hello and then proceeded to try and talk to us in Hindi, stare at us or wonder off. Everyone was so welcoming and excited for us to be here.

Soon it came time for our very first class and many girls showed up at Usha’s to greet us and take us to the school. Holding our hands they pulled us along and soon we were seated surrounded by bright shining eyes. The girls were all fascinated by us and all was joyful except when they heard we would be staying for only 5 weeks. “Why do you only stay one month?” they asked us, which made me realize how much these girls need long term volunteers. However, I know our time spent with them will be magical and rewarding. The rest of our first class was used as getting to know you time. Some girls were painfully shy and others were right in our faces. Their English abilities varied greatly as did their ages. They are the perfect little crew of girls to play and have fun with.

After class we went home and ate some delicious food completely made of Onions, I must say this is a first for me. Usha is such a lovely woman opening up to strangers and helping take care of us all. We went to bed early as we were very tired from our day’s travels. In the morning the alarm went off at 5 to tell us it is time to wake up and do our yoga practice, but my exhaustion kept me in bed and suddenly out of nowhere a group of women began to bang on the door shouting Usha’s name. In they came and the morning’s puja was performed with much chattering. From that point on our morning was very relaxing; first yoga on the roof, then tea and planning and later some tasty and salty Poha for breakfast. Many people came to meet us and despite the language barrier there was complete love and welcome in them.

Finally it came time to go to school to meet the women, but this time there was no one who came to fetch us or even waiting for that matter. So we set about looking around and I began to wonder whether any women at all would come. Finally three girls came in, all 15 yrs old. They no longer attended school having stopped after fifth grade. Only having joined about 10 days before they were incredibly shy not used to foreigners but we sat together and embroidered sharing smiles and encouragement. It was sad for me to see these beautiful young women with so much potential who had been taken out of school so young. But coming to Sambhali is a good step in the right direction, learning skills that they can use to make money and help their families.

Of course, First impressions can be deceiving. Despite the fact that I knew I was coming to a village to help women at first it never quite seems that way, smiling faces and invitations to dinner can often be misleading and as an outsider you remain on the outskirts of what is really going on. But here in Setrawa we have experienced a phenomenal thing, an insiders view in a mere two days. On the Friday following our arrival a meeting was held with the women of the village to discuss the development of the Sheerni project. Sheerni means Tigeress which is more than appropriate for these women. The meeting began with women slowly showing up and general banter and curious discussion about what would happen. Once all the women had arrived the meeting began and the real issues of the village were brought to light.

The main issues centred around education, child marriage, the Nareja and Anganwari projects, the rapidly dwindling water and food supply and of course the sheerni project itself. I was shocked to find that only 4 of the 20+ women had gone to school and only 4 read the newspaper. Literacy as we found out from Govind merely means the ability to sign your name, doesn’t matter if you cant read what you’re signing. This has lead to a large problem in regards to the NAREGA project, which the Indian gov’t has set up to help poor women in times of drought. Women are given 100 days of work at 100 rupess a day in order to survive until the next monsoon, or at least they are supposed to be given. But as many women testified in the group they were only paid 30 after they had signed a form that they could not read at which point it was too late. Sadly the women did not defend each other in trying to get their full wage and the men will not step between their wives and the gov’t. Similar corruption has been seen in the Anganwari project which is supposed to ensure that children and pregnant women get enough to eat. This of course is a logistical nightmare with the number of people in India, and to make matters worse it is now being controlled by private self help groups who close early, don’t stock supplies and seem to be generally inaccessible.

All of these issues and more are what the women and girls of Setrawa and I imagine Rajasthan and India at large face. But on Friday the Sheerni project was given life and now 15 women have access to micro financing for projects they deem worthy. Some of these will be sewing, cattle farming and cooking. These women seem so resilient and determined I hope it brings them new hope and opportunity.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

22nd October 2009

The new building is ready and now we have two big rooms for the jodhpur project, we requested Ms. Ernestine Badegruber of Soziale Initiative to do us a favor by inaugurating(22nd October) the building for us to use and also to make an Evaluation on our projects (Jodhpur project, setrawa project and the two sewing centers) these reports are for our friends around the globe as a third party evaluation.

Ms. Ernestine came with Husband, Mr. Joseph Badegruber and four other friends; they visited our projects and were happy with the new experience and impressions.

Welcome ceremony of the group with our friend Ms.Ernestine Badegruber at the Durag Niwas Guest House

Welcome of Ms. Ernestine Badgeruber and group of friends and Inauguration of the new building at the Jodhpur project

Ms.Ernestine and Group visit to our setrawa village vocational training project

Dinner at Uncle's house next door to our house in Setrawa village, group with Ms. Ernestine Badegruber stayed at night.

My father's cousin(uncle) in yellow turban and the tribal man

Stars from the roof of our house in Setrawa village

Ms. Ernestine Badegruber's visit to the Sewing Centers

Graduates in front of the new building in Jodhpur project

Our Two volunteers from Switzerland, volunteering with us from 8th of October till 8th of December .....

Ms. Ruth Engler

First Impression Report Ms.Ruth Engler Oct. 17, 2009

After getting to know the Sambhali project last November during a trip through Rajasthan I came back to Jodhpur as a
volunteer to teach the girls of Sambhali English. I arrived on Oct. 8 together with another volunteer from
Switzerland.

Although Govind had told us a few things about Sambhali Trust last year and we had met the girls I did not really know
what to expect and how I was supposed to teach. What worried me a bit was the fact that there were no volunteers in
Jodhpur at the moment and I would not be able to sit in a class to watch or talk to other volunteers who already had
some experience. My question was also: would the girls accept an elderly woman after having had young volunteers
before? But the warm and friendly welcome at Durag Niwas Guesthouse made me feel quite confident.

I expected that after arrival we would have some time to relax and get used to things. Wrong guess! 10 min. after
arriving Govind asked me to give an interview to two television people who were in the house. 15 min. later we were
called to the first meeting with Govind and so it went on for the rest of the day! So our first but also the following
days were quite busy: meetings, visits, reading a lot of documentation and of course working with the girls in class.
Towards the end of the week things got more relaxed and we had 4 days off for Diwali Festival.

Margrit, the other volunteer, and I were also present when a delegation of 4 Swiss women from "Women Travel" visited
Sambhali project. They were very impressed by what is done here.

Friday when we met the Sambhali girls in their class the first time I had the impression that some of the girls were
looking at us rather suspiciously, but we soon found their confidence and felt definitively accepted after joining them
in their Indian dancing. They tried to teach us - of course much too fast for us elderly ladies! - and were so amused
when they saw what difficulties we had! We had a good laugh together and "the ice was broken" as we say in German. It
was really fun! They call me "Nani" which means grandmother. Yes I am a grandmother of 3 lovely grandchildren.

On Monday I started teaching English. Of course the classroom and the material they have here cannot be compared with
our classrooms. Everything seems so simple to us, but they have the ability to work, play games etc. with simple
methods and little aid, that is great!

The first week was not normal teaching. Govind wanted me to take it easy by playing, singing and dancing to give the
girls and myself time to get used to each other. I immediately got the impression that the girls were very eager to
learn as well in Margrit's knitting class as in the English. How much they enjoyed the song "if you are happy ...". Of
course it is not easy to communicate as the girls who have only been here since August know little or no English, but
by gestures, facial expressions and with the help of the two friendly teachers Tamanna and Damyanti I could make myself
understood.

Within a week I made so many new experiences and got such a lot of new impressions, it is unbelievable! After such a
short time I already feel very comfortable and part of Sambhali and Govind's guesthouse. Now I am looking forward to
next week when the real teaching starts.

Ms.Margret Nobs

Our New office in Jodhpur

Room Category'b' in Durag Niwas

Courtyard at Durag Niwas

Maharani room at Durag Niwas

lobby(first floor)

Roof Top-Sari curtained, cushioned floor area

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

21st October 2009

Khamaghani Dear Readers,

Forgot to add in my last post that Virendra got blessed by a baby boy, his name is Pyush, just like Ayush.

The construction has finished for the new room we got built for the sambhali Jodhpur project, the doors and windows are up, the bathroom is ready; it is also painted blue, like Jodhpur.

Our friend Ms. Ernestine Badegruber from Soziale Initiative in Linz, Austria is coming to jodhpur for few days with friends, she is our guest of honor and will inaugurate the new building of Sambhali Jodhpur project, our volunteers and participants worked hard with cleaning and preparing the new building to be ready to welcome our first guest since the building in finish and ready to be used.

Mumy and Grand ma are doing well, Ayush has holidays from school, Shakti is happy, Mukta, Myself, Bunty, Pintu we all are just fine, It was Mumy’s birthday, we all sat together and had mumy cut the cake, Grand ma also joined, we brought her to the courtyard, she doesn’t come out of her room anymore.

At the Mawar festival of Jodhpur to attract more tourist to Jodhpur, we took two of lady guest to participate in the show for foreign ladies in Rajasthani dress costume(our guest came first, like last 5 years our guest have been coming first in this competition)

we have done a lot of décor at the guest house courtyard, lots of plants etc but we are sad that there are not many guest like other years in this time of the year. We bought old wooden furniture for the courtyard.

I have lotus growing in the little fountain area in the center of the courtyard. The leaves have started to come and soon we will have lotus growing in there.

Maharanai room

Sambhali Jodhpur and Setrawa project are doing well, at my presentation in Basel this year in July, I had met quickly with a lady who was working with women travelers to India or something, It was such a short meeting that I couldn’t get much of her introduction, she works with a well known agent in India (Sita), she has four ladies visit our trust’s Jodhpur project and both the sewing centers, they were very happy to see our projects and passionate people behind its success. we had our guest Honor our new participant Sangeeta to be our new leader of the participant and present her with a sewing maschine.

We are working hard with the preparation of UNICEF program proposal to work with us on child marriage prevention issue and the Kuoni destination management who wants to bring us GAP year program participants to volunteer as a group at Setrawa project, I have sent them the proposal and hopefully they will like it.

Ms Margret Nobs(family friend) and Ms. Ruth Engler(participant of Rajput cultural adventure trip I made in 2008 with Mr.Max) and now have come back to jodhpur to volunteer at the Sambhali Trust.

Ms. Margret and Ms. Ruth visiting, my friend Virendra's baby(in the picture, virendra's wife, Mrs. Nirmala holding the baby, Ms. Ruth and Ms. Margret)

We applied for the FCRA permission(Foreign contribution regulation act )given by the RBI(reserve bank of India) and the respected Home Ministry to the NGO’s to legally accept foreign money in March 2007 and 12 government departments have made evaluation accordingly but 20 days back I received a letter that their procedure has changed and we need to re apply on their website, well disappointed with the delays but all this time when we were waiting for the FCRA permission we learnt a lot about the Government and its interesting ways.

Celebration Diwali on the 17th of October.Our family, our guest we celebrated with lots of joy.

Mukta and Mumy

Mukta, all nicely dressed

outside our home, playing with fire crackers

Durag Niwas, our home, on Diwali with our guest.

Mukta and Myself

Ms. Margret with other guest making prayer ceremony with us

oil lamps around the house for decoration on Diwali

Thank you for taking your time in reading this blog.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

30th September

Khamaghani Dear Readers,

Long time since I wrote, a lot going on over here. Thank you for taking your time in reading my blog and for encouraging me to write more.

Mumy is doing very well, she is watching her soaps and old movies on TV, Ayush is good in school, he came to me running with notebook today and said, the teacher said that he is a good student and he eats his lunch on time, doesn’t talk much to other students and concentrate on his studies, 2 weeks ago before he got punished by us, it was all opposite, Mukta was called in school and teacher said she knew everything about our family, house structure etc through Ayush who loves talking but dosnt study nor let other students concentrate learning.

Shakti is well, Mukta is happy with the Guest House, new guest coming in everyday, we have big expectation from business this year because of high recommendation in the Lonely Planet Guide Book, it holds a lot of our tourism business possibilities.

I am happy with the work in the guest house, Sambhali’s sewing centers (Corinne looking after them), the Construction of the new building for the Sambhali trust, The project in Setrawa is running well, the three new teachers in Jodhpur and Setrawa project are doing well, at this moment there are NO volunteers, Ms. Melanie was the last one few days back, still waiting for the Project final reports from some Volunteers and Literacy participants reports by Ms. Joanne Edward.

The New girls are amazing people, they are getting adjusted to the day to day routine of the trust and its projects, they are enjoying it very much

New construction for the project, the Bathroom

the big Room in place of the thatched roof

From the guest house

A New Office

After the SLT project was all about the FSD team and Stanford University self centered students. Now and than we receive their reporting. Where we are not mentioned in the reports as their hosts, instead FSD is mentioned on our work and popularity.

Monica went to Alwar city for 7 days to participate at State sports competition where her team was at 8^th level of 32 district teams. We are proud of her and the achievements she has got.

Certificate of Monica

As a follow up of the Sherni Proposal, I was requested to visit the Antenna Trust in South of India (Tmil Nadu state’s Madurai city), I went there for few days and met with the Founder/Director of the Antenna Trust, one of their Donor’s Mr. Denis from Switzerland, I went with Exit Trust and Dalit Trust Founders and Directors, their teams and participants, I fall in love with this place, it was wonderful, the people were friendly and very helpful, I have learnt soo much on the SELF HELP GROUP and MICRO CREDIT programming.

Self Help Group meeting in a village near Madurai, the women were soo happy and friendly

Above

Self Help Group meeting at the Exit Trust

It was such an eye opener, the people were soo open about their work and their ways of programming their projects. I was soo impressed. I ate on Banana leaf plates, visited the famous Meenakshi Temple in Madurai,

Good night ceremony at Meenakshi temple

On the way back, i stayed one night with my cousine living in Chennai, we went to the beach,(first time, it was dark, i could only hear the Sea) i am scared of water, but i went on the bank of the sea and had my feet inside the water.

I am excited to work on this project and hopefully we got granted than we will make the necessary change in the lives on the women in Setrawa affiliated with the Sheerni Project.

I hope you enjoy the pictures , thanks for taking your time in reading the blog

Warm regards from Jodhpur stepping in Cold season day after day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Melanie Schuster, Magdeburg, Germany

My Final Impression of Sambhali Trust

“Make the girls trust you, so that coming volunteers will have it easier to interact with he girls!”
One simple sentence; but it really determined my whole work with Sambhali Trust. Once Govind had given me this task, the sentence stood on my mind and I was eager to achieve exactly this trust.
But how do you make these girls trust you? All of them have some really serious problems to struggle with in their lives. Many of the girls aren’t treated well by the people around them.
I could know that from the interviews, which some other volunteers had had with the new Sambhali batch and which I was supposed to edit. Before I could get to know them personally, I read these interviews to get an idea of the life and dreams.
My heart was touched immediately: Touched by what they have to bear in their lives, but also by the dreams they have.
So I got to that question: How do I make them trust me, though they made so many bad experiences in their lives?
But at the same time I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. I could know their self-confidence from what they said about their future, their dreams and aims. All of them had such an optimistic attitude, that even I got optimistic about my task.
And I wasn’t wrong with that. Even on the very first day, I could feel they would become very close friends to me, as they treated me as one right from the beginning; even though I didn’t know their language. But a smile has no accent! Remembering that, I simply knew I was going to spend three wonderful weeks with them.
That’s what I actually did- just had a lot of fun with them!
I could feel their self-confidence, which is well-founded, as all of them are really intelligent, talented and ambitious. All the time I felt they really deserve a better life than that, I read about in the interviews.
But knowing that Sambhali ensures this better life, I felt really proud to work in this project.
All of the girls were so eager to learn English that I had to give them some classes, though I was told not to push them too hard with it during their first days here.
But I could feel it was really fun for them, as they told me the English word for the color of every object in the room, whenever the opportunity arose.
I could see their power and will to change their lives, to improve themselves and to reach their common goal: Seeing their families happy and proud of them. And as I know them quite well after these three weeks together; I’m happy to say that I’m absolutely sure they are going to reach this goal!

I think during my time here, I found some really good friends in them. We were eating, dancing and learning together. They told me a lot about their lives, their sorrows and hopes. I felt like a part of their group! And that’s what I was asked to do: making them trust me. So whom do you trust more than a close friend?

I gained a lot from my work with Sambhali: It was an experience that makes me see the world with different eyes and that gave me a deep insight into the Indian society.
But what is most important for me, is that I realized that it doesn’t matter where you come from or which way you will go, people can and should trust each other easily! Because this is what makes friendship, love and respect- the three ingredients for happiness.
I think this first step is done and I’m sure Sambhali Trust is going to lead the girls the further path.

I am happy I could take part in this project and hope to come back soon, as I will miss the girls, my friends, immensely!

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Some stories of our new participants of Jodhpur Project

SAMBHALI DREAMS

NAME: SABINA BANO
AGE: 12 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

What burdens Sabina is her uncle, who controls and beats her and her 6 sisters continuously. Often they are not allowed to leave the house, where they also face verbal and physical violence as their father is an alcoholic. That is why Sabina gets very sad sometimes.
But she really enjoys festivals and weddings, as much as dreaming of a better future.
All she wants to do is to learn how to sew, stitch, read and write Hindi and English, so that she can feel proud of herself and can easily handle insults. That is why she says she would come to Sambhali Trust and learn everything there if she could do whatever she would like to.
With these new skills she wants to earn money and buy a house for her mother.

NAME: SHAHIDA
AGE: 14 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: NONE

Shahida has to struggle with many difficulties in her life. Her parents do not allow her to do anything, she says. Her grandfather beats her because he does not like her friends and she has to pay rent to him, even though there is no electricity at her home.
Another thing that makes her cry sometimes is, that nobody wants to sit beside her father during a ceremony because he is a leper.
All she is longing for is her parents’ happiness, because that is the only thing that makes her happy. She prays for her father’s health and wants to earn money to help her family and pay the therapy her father needs. That is why she really wants to learn some useful skills, such as English and stitching, to make sure, she can get a good job in the future.
Because Sambhali Trust gives her these opportunities she loves coming to the Trust everyday.

NAME: SULTANA BANO
AGE: 15 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 8^th

Sultana’s father was killed by an electric shock, so that she stays with her mother’s family now. Seeing her mother sad and working too much depresses her very much. She wishes, her brother would help her mom by giving her some money, but he does not.

Therefore she wants to study to be financially independent by learning about stitching, embroidery and English.
Because she can learn all these subjects there, she really likes being in the Trust.
Especially English is very important to her, because she thinks, knowing this language she can talk to many different people finally.
As she likes to be with other people, the festival time is what makes her really happy.

NAME: RAMJANA BANO
AGE: 15 (engaged)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

Because Ramjana’s father died, the family is facing many financial problems, though her younger brothers work already. Ramjana often sees her mother sad and working too much. That is what makes her sad and wish that her family would always be happy and financially stable.
For her, becoming financially independent means to learn sewing as well as knowing how to read and write Hindi and English.
That is why coming to the Trust makes her feel as happy as attending festival celebrations.

NAME: RESHMA KATARIA
AGE: 25 (got married when she was 9 years old)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 2^nd

Reshma had some serious problems with her in-laws, so that she lives with her mother again now. Sometimes she feels very lonely when there is nobody at home.
But it really makes her happy to take care of her family, including her 2 sons (7 and 8 years old). That is why she loves to cook, sew and do other housework.
If she could have anything in this world, she would like to have her own house in Jodhpur, where she could live with her mother and her children rent-free, she says.
She wants her sons to have a good future in a government job, as well.
Because she is uneducated, she wants to learn sewing and English in order to talk to tourists and volunteers.
That is what she is enjoying the most in the Trust: Talking to foreigners and making many new friends.

NAME: PAYAL PANDIT
AGE: 19 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 8^th

When Payal’s older sister got married, her family had to borrow money at a 10% interest rate. So she is really worried about financial problems now. She only wants to help her parents to get happy again.
Therefore she plans to become a beautician and open her own beauty parlor afterwards, so that she will be able to pay for her wedding and does not have to ask her parents for the dowry.

For the future beauty parlor the most important thing to learn is English, she thinks. But she also enjoys the dancing, yoga, embroidery and modeling lessons at Sambhali very much.
Payal is very grateful for the emotional and financial support she gets from the Trust for her education.

NAME: JYOTI CHANDELYA
AGE: 18 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 7^th

Jyoti lives in a family with one brother, one sister and an alcoholic father, who often beats her mother and doesn’t support the family financially.
Because she wants her mother and siblings to be happy always, she wants to learn beauty parlor skills to become a beautician and make jewelry in the future.
To fulfill these dreams, she eagerly wants to learn English.
After her father made her stop studying she is now very happy she can continue at Sambhali Trust, especially because she forgets all her problems being there.

NAME: TEENA DEVADA
AGE: 18 (got married when she was 17 years old)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 10^th

Teena says about herself, she had no serious problems to struggle with in her life at all, except that she had to leave school when father had been unemployed.
But asking her about what makes her sad, you will find out that she has some serious problems with her in-laws indeed, as they want her in their house as a domestic servant.
Because she still lives with her parents, they put a lot of pressure on her to move to their house. And as Teena actually has very high goals this is a very serious problem.

She wants to become a doctor and wishes to study instead of living with her in-laws, because that means only doing housework and getting children.
So she is very happy to go to Sambhali, because she wants to learn everything, especially English.
All she needs is seeing her family happy.

NAME: SANGEETA
AGE: 20 (unmarried - broken engagement)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 8^th

Sangeeta is very concerned about the fact, that her three brothers are not taking care of her parents. So she wants to be like a son to them, supporting them always.
At the same time she really loves her boyfriend, misses him very much whenever he leaves the town and wants to marry him.
She also has a very close relationship to her best friend, who makes her smile always.
In the future she would like to become a nurse and run her own beauty parlor.
At Sambhali she wants to learn about embroidery, stitching and English, which she thinks is very important for her beauty parlor.
Sangeeta is very grateful that she has got the chance to come to Sambhali, because she feels she is gaining a lot more confidence there.

NAME: REKHA

AGE: 16 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

Rakha’s family faces financial problems that make Rekha’s parents fight very often.
No wonder, she loves to see the opposite: Wedding parties.
In the future she wants to be a good tailor. That is why she wants to improve her skills in English, embroidery and stitching.
Sambhali Trust will help her to become independent and to fulfill her simple dream of going shopping for clothes without worrying about the money all the time.

NAME: GULPSA
AGE: 15 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 4^th

Gulpsa has a younger sister who beats her and sometimes she has to face hunger.
To her, happiness means having a picnic with her family.
Though she does not know yet what kind of job she wants to have in the future, her biggest dream is to buy an own house one day.
She is eager to learn stitching and embroidery, as well as English, which means a lot to her because she loves to talk to other people.
Gulpsa feels like home when she is at Sambhali, because she gets so much help and finds herself growing everyday there, she says.

NAME: AFSANA
AGE: 13 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

Afsana has to struggle with many difficulties within her family. Her father does not work, thus cannot support the family financially and drinks alcohol very often. She also gets beatings from her aunt and uncle sometimes.

In the future she wants to concentrate on sewing as she wishes, she could help her mother somehow.
Another thing, she hopes to achieve, is learning how to read; especially Urdu, since she focuses on the Koran.
She really loves the Muslim Idd festival and being with her friends at Sambhali.

NAME: FARIDA
AGE: 15 (unmarried)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 3^rd

Farida is burdened by the circumstances under which she has to live. Every time it rains, she says, her family’s house is flooded.

That is why her biggest dream is to move into a new house.
To achieve this, she wants to become a tailor by learning stitching, embroidery and English.
She does not only enjoy learning a lot, but also going on a picnic with her family or attending the Muslim Idd festival.

NAME: SANGITA
AGE: 20 (married since June 2009)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: NONE

Sangita is an Orphan who always felt unwanted when she was a child. When her parents died, she missed them a lot and felt very sad and lonely.
After having had an inter-caste court marriage, she is really happy with her nice husband now, though she fears she has to move because of not being able to pay the rent for her house.
Now she finally feels like having a family and there is nothing she enjoys more than having her in-laws in her house.
So she dreams of having a house where the whole family could live together. For that reason she wants to become financially independent, helping her husband to earn money by making toys for children in the future. That is why she wants to learn sewing eagerly.

Sangita thinks, Sambhali is giving her this opportunity as well as the hope to find work someday.
Then, maybe, she can finally have the trip to Madras with her husband, that she always wanted.

NAME: NEELU
AGE: 20 (married)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

Before her marriage Neelu had some serious problems with her father, who drank a lot of alcohol and often had arguments with Neelu’s mother, beating her even.

But now she is really happy with her husband, though sometimes she gets worried, that her mother-in-law could say something wrong to her. Nevertheless she only wants happiness for all her family members and really enjoys spending time with her husband; especially when they go to visit different places.
She prays, he will get a job soon and that she can support him by becoming a tailor soon. As that means independence to her, she works hard to learn sewing and other tailor skills.
That is why she comes to Sambhali and everything she expected from it, became true, she says.

NAME: SONU
AGE: 19 (engaged)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 10^th

Because of her marriage, that is going to take place in November, Sonu had to stop studying though she really wanted to continue. That is, what makes her sad sometimes.
But actually she really loves her fiancée and has to cry, whenever he gets angry with her.
She loves to visit different places and to help her parents. That means doing a good job in the future, as well. That is why she dreams of doing a beauty parlor course soon, as she wants to become a beautician. A symbol of the independence she can get from doing this job, is a scooter, which she really would like to own.
For her future job, Sonu wants to concentrate on learning English in order to speak to her foreign customers then.
Because she learns many different skills and has a lot of fun with the other girls there, she loves to come to Sambhali every day.

NAME: SHABINA
AGE: 18 (got married when she was 14 years old)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 8^th

Shabina is a very unlucky girl, who had to suffer a lot after she got married. Her husband does not treat her well, beating her very often. He even gave her an electric shock and burned her arm, saying she had not given him enough dowry.
Now, Shabina tries to get divorced from him, but he refuses and asks three lakh rupees instead. Thinking of her grandfather, who died in 2002, also depresses her sometimes.
Her family is very important to her and she would do anything to see all her family members happy. Especially her two-year-old niece is giving this happiness back, as she loves to play with her.

In the future Shabina wants to be an independent policewoman, who never has to marry again. But before that, she really needs some money to continue her studies, she says. Then she would also earn respect for her parents, she thinks.
Sambhali helps her to achieve her goals; that is why she likes to go there that much.

NAME: FHARIDA BAANU
AGE: 23 (got married when she was 15, divorced)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: NONE

After her marriage, Fharida wasn’t happy at all. Her husband did not allow her to interact with any other men; not even her brothers. Because she suffered a lot from that, she got divorced and now wants to become independent.
Sometimes she really misses her dead father very much, but domestic work, she says, makes her forget her problems.
She really wants to earn her own money soon, so that she tries hard to learn stitching and embroidery quickly. One day she wants to go on the Haj-pilgrimage, as well. But her biggest dream is seeing her sister’s child, which is handicapped, walk and talk.
Fharida is very happy at Sambhali as it keeps her mind busy all the time.

NAME: SULTANA
AGE: 17 (engaged)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: 5^th

Sultana gets very upset when people yell at her and say bad things about her. Sometimes she also feels very bad, when something is going wrong with her body.
She enjoys simple things, such as watching TV, playing or doing housework and only wants happiness for her and her family.
As she wants to earn her own money by stitching and sewing at home, she is now very happy to have the chance to learn these skills at Sambhali.
She also wants to learn English and especially Urdu to read her holy book.
At Sambhali Trust Sultana always feels good, because she loves to be with her friends and can easily forget her problems there.

NAME: RAHISAA BAANU
AGE: 30 (got married when she was 18 years old, divorced)
STANDARD IN SCHOOL: NONE

After her wedding Rahisaa felt really terrible, so that she got divorced finally. But her sister-in-law still gossips about her, what hurts Rahisaa a lot.
She enjoys domestic work, as it keeps her away from thinking about her problems, she says.
Because her biggest wish is to become financially independent, she is very eager to learn practical skills, which help her earn money soon.

Those skills she can learn at Sambhali Trust, so that she is full of hopes for the future now.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Biggest ever, Baby and Smart kid Show- 6th September 2009

Few Days ago Dr. Ms. Prerna Job Director and Founder of Good Shepherd School came to me with a friend of mine , introducing the city's Biggest ever, Baby and Smart Kid show for 0 to 6 years of age, about 180Kids participated in the show.
With Johnson and Johnson and Cadbury chocloate giving gift hampers, the Sambhali Trust was requested to help fainancialy for the welfare of Mothers and their children, after thinking a lot about our resources and capabilities , we sponsored them with a little bit on the Advertisement materials.
The show was to build the self-esteem and confidence of the children and to provide their mothers a stage to speak about their babies and children. It was amazing, Most of the mothers were on the stage for the first time, they were very emotional, shy about their thoughts and some were confident to speak about their children/Babies.

Mother's with their Babies

Little Children

the Healthiest Baby ;)

Chief Guest of the Show, Ms.Smita Mohla, she is a leading actress of the Television in India, there is a show on child marriage called Balika Vadhu(the girld child Bride) she is playing the sweetest Mother in law of the little girl, she is loved by everyone and a dream mother in law for the Indian women.

children performing traditional dance

Pannel of Judges

One round of fashion show for some Local Designer

little children of Good Shepherd School

Saturday, September 05, 2009

6th of September SLT(servie learning trip)

Experience of Service learning trip was a masala(Good and Bad), good because of some students and FSD team's hard working on the projects and Bad because of unfriendly Team Leaders and also the miscommunication between the three companies. The Reports from the SLT team is pending and we are trying our best to keep our well wishers updated with the latest from here with these reports.

Reports by Ms.Jessica Robinson

---------------------------

Sambhali Trust

Jodhpur

Press Release

Date: 10-08-09

Under supervision of Sambhali Trust on this Monday 10^th of August 14 students (11 women; 3 men) from Stanford University will arrive in Jodhpur as part of a Service Learning Trip (SLT) organized by the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD). They will be staying for approximately one month and will be working between Jodhpur and Setrawa with the focus being on the Setrawa village community.

They will meet with Mr. Govind Singh Rathore, director of the Sambhali Trust, to discuss the SLT project. The Sambhali Trust is an organization focusing on women’s empowerment and development and has been operating for 3 years. It runs three projects: the Jodhpur Project, which focuses on women and empowerment in the Dalit community; the Literacy Project; and the Setrawa Project. The Setrawa Project aims to eliminate prejudice and discrimination based on caste. Sambhali Trust also operates a small center in Setrawa where participants are trained in basic academic subjects as well as practical topics such as health and hygiene.

The SLT students will begin by participating in educational workshops to learn about India, Jodhpur, Safety & Health, Development & Issues, Culture & Caste and Society & Behavior.

The group will then travel to Setrawa to conduct a community assessment including observational activities and discuss ongoing data collection & analysis. They will prepare their findings and conduct a community discussion to share these findings and future preparations, and plan projects. The SLT group will cover different area topics and gather different sets of information.

After this first week they will transfer to living with a host family in Jodhpur. Here they will meet with a lot of other Non profit organizations and different government authorities.

The group will also participate in cultural events organized by their SLT program placement agency on time to time.

They will then return to Setrawa to begin outreach activities and prepare for and conduct a community meeting. The outreach activities will continue over several days and the planned activities will be implemented. Education workshops and “Clean Village Campaign” activities will also be carried out. Following this there will be community meetings and evaluations, after which the findings will be shared.

Back in Jodhpur there will be a chance to review and reflect upon the trip as well as meet with Sambhali Trust Director Mr. Govind Singh Rathore one more time. The group will depart on Friday 5^th of September.

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Report-1

On Monday 10/8 the SLT students arrived at the Durag Niwas Guest House for an official Sambhali Trust welcome of refreshments and a rooftop presentation. Mr Govind Rathore spoke about the work of Sambhali Trust and how it began before screening a 10 minute film explaining the plight of Dalit women in Jodhpur and how Sambhali Trust is working to better the situation through its three programs. The student responded with a number of questions, such as what kinds of methods the organization employs to increase the attendance/retention rates at the Jodhpur project, the ways in which the girls’ responsibilities are affected by attending the program and what the main differences are between government and private schools in Jodhpur. Five of the Sambhali Trust graduates also came up to speak about their favourite activities and how their families responded to their becoming involved in the project. As a continuation of their orientation, on Tuesday 11/8 the SLT students participated in several workshops to introduce them to life and culture in India, and also had an opportunity to go shopping for Indian clothes.

On Wednesday 12/8 the students, Mr Govind Rathore, the FSD directors and three Sambhali Trust volunteers, Michelle, Leo and myself, ventured out to Setrawa and met the villagers for the first time. We split into small groups and walked around the entire village to distribute 400 leaflets explaining the project and inviting people to community meetings scheduled for the following two afternoons. The children of the village trailed behind us excitedly as we met with people in their homes to introduce ourselves and acquaint ourselves with the community. That evening, the group was accommodated in Mr Govind Rathore’s spacious and peaceful ancestral home nearby.

On Thursday 14/8 we returned to the village to continue community outreach activities. We met with a friendly sweets vendor who was pleased to speak with us and inform us of some of the issues his family faced in the village, such as poverty and the drought. We were also welcomed into a family home and given chai and snacks, where the students bravely utilized their Hindi with a “Khana acha ka!” and the women informed us of their problems with water and disease such as malaria. The young men of the house then accompanied us to the local hospital/relief centre, where the nurse generously took the time to explain that the centre’s doctor had not been available for a month and there were two other nurses like him. He noted that he saw 2-3 malaria patients per day, and that malnourishment was the biggest cause of unnatural death, despite the government’s provision of vitamins. He also mentioned that around 60-70 people come through the centre each day and must travel to Jodhpur for dental and gynecological services.

We also met with the manager of the local police station who explained that the heat and busy times such as the pilgrimage made effective management a challenge and also put further strain on many other ailing systems within the village.

In each afternoon for two days we then held community meetings in the Sambhali Centre. The attendance was excellent; whilst mainly women and children, many people had also taken the time to voice their concerns in written form on the backs of the leaflets we had distributed to them. The women were very open and helpful when discussing the issues that faced them: accountability and funding issues in schools, government grants/aid money not reaching the village, sewerage problems, water sanitation, illiteracy and a lack of rights awareness amongst people in the village came up many times as major problems. One gentleman explained that a lot of people accept that hardships are simply God’s will and are not aware of ways that they can seek assistance for their problems.

The children in the meeting told us how they wished to continue studying so as to become professionals and contribute to the prosperity of India, but that it was difficult for the girls because many parents did not approve of their daughter attending male-dominated higher education. We learnt that many girls do not remain in school past 8^th standard; they begin work in the household after this time.

The SLT students asked whether people were able to prepare for droughts somehow and the villagers explained that this was not financially possible. Around 10 of the people attending the meeting admitted that somebody in their family was forced to leave Setrawa to find work, which usually involved difficult commutes or extra money for alternative living arrangements.

The SLT students were consistently mindful of the notions that people in the village could have about foreigners and development work, and regularly discussed in de-briefing sessions the need to be respectful and objective when gathering information.

On Independence Day the SLT students took a break to attend ceremonies at the local government school and the Setrawa school. We witnessed beautiful performances of marching, prayer, dancing and singing and gave our own Bollywood-style dance show at the Sambhali school, much to the amusement of the children. At the government school 6 of us gave small speeches introducing ourselves and the project and thanking the community for their hospitality.

In discussion sessions following these few days in Setrawa, the SLT students considered the interconnectedness of the problems in the village and what the root issues might be. FSD director Garret Wong guided the group to think about how their projects could inform, empower and mobilize the community to find solutions that are congruent with culture, acceptable to the people and can be continued and committed to.

Whilst considering these points and preparing for their projects, the students will spend the coming week meeting with various local organizations to build a picture of the other issues people face in India, including the Mine Labour Protection Campaign, People Living with HIV/AIDs Swansthan, the Department of Water & Sanitation and the Department of Women & Child Development.

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Report-2

The second week of the SLT Trip was spent in meetings with various NGOs and departmental officials in Jodhpur.

The first NGO we met with was the Mine Labor Protection Campaign, which involved a presentation and an excursion to three field sites. According to the campaign’s website, their aim is “..to promote environmental justice through organizing the unorganized mine workers in the state of Rajasthan and building their capacities to protect their rights and environment.”[i] We were shown two different mine sites which people were working in, and then a day care centre funded by the campaign for sponsored children of mine workers. There we got to meet the children and learn about their backgrounds and the conditions for children who are forced to go to work with their parents.

The students then met with the Jodhpur Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS Sansthan in their Jodhpur office. We learnt about the challenges facing people living with HIV/AIDs in India and how organizations such as this are working to combat stigma by changing societal attitudes and providing support networks and counseling for people who are affected by this disease. Many people who have HIV/AIDs are discriminated against by society and indeed their own families. We spoke to some HIV positive women who attended the centre, some of whom were widows, or had been banished from their homes after their husbands had learned that they were positive, despite having passed the disease on themselves. They bravely told their stories and were happy to answer all of our questions.

On Wednesday we met with the Honorable Deputy Director of Jodhpur Mr. Shakti Singh Ji at the Department of Women and Child Welfare. Here were learnt about the various schemes that the government has in place to support women and children, such as grants for self-help groups - which empower women by providing a community network, and enabling them to begin a group enterprise such as a small business selling crafts or clothing. Other departmental focuses included the abolishment of child marriages, crèches for mothers participating in the NREGA national employment scheme, pensions for widows and the posting of Sathines, female messengers who visit/live in rural villages to educate locals about government policies and provide general community support.

The SLT students inquired about the villagers’ requests for a separate girls’ school but were informed that these are only possible when there are at least 250 female students in a village. The department’s stance is that parents have the responsibility to put aside their conservative attitudes towards their daughter’s education and not withhold them from an education purely because it is in a co-educational school.

On Thursday the SLT students met with the Honorable CEO Mr. Rajeev Jain of Jodhpur at the Department of Water and Sanitation. Following the students’ presentation of village issues, we were told that the government was already aware of them because they are common issues across all villages. We discussed the NREGA program, which is a national employment scheme which guarantees 100 days of work per year to any person who applies. One complaint in the village was that workers participating in the scheme were not receiving their full wages. The official explained that the work is task-based and monitored strictly by senior technical officers who determine the level of work that has been attained by each employee. We were informed that if workers wished to dispute this outcome, they could either write a letter or phone a 24-hour toll-free number, 1077, to lodge their complaint.

The SLTs also inquired about the programs in place at schools. We learnt that there is a free health card distributed to all students which entitles them to monthly check-ups at the district hospital. Each student is also provided with a daily meal of at least 600 calories, set by a medical officer/nutritionist. One of the reasons we discovered for the teacher shortage is that many teachers do not wish to remain in villages and would rather move to cities for work.

In regards to sanitation, the government has a toilet sanitation scheme whereby houses are selected to have toilets built within them. The government also ensures that every new building completed is fully equipped with a toilet. Despite this, we heard that many villages still prefer not to use the facilities.

In terms of accountability, we heard that the government has an Anti-Corruption Department (ACD) which works to keep administration as transparent as possible and provide opportunities for people to lodge their corruption complaints. This includes an audit system with surprise visits.

The Sarpaanch system was the other point discussed. We learnt that training for the Sarpaanches is mandatory.

Our final meeting was with the Honorable District Magistrate Mr. Naveen Mahajan of Jodhpur. He graciously gave us an impromptu timeslot to meet and the students were able to introduce their work and ask for general advice.

[i] http://www.minelabour.org/aim.php Accessed 1/09/09

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Report 3

In their third week, the SLT students divided into smaller groups to research and devise individual projects. They then met with Mr Govind Rathore to introduce these projects and seek advice.

Micro-Finance and Banking Project

Sharada, Kiki and Anna-Maria

This project is around the women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) with the focus to educate the women about these schemes. The project’s aim is to increase the financial independence of women through education. The main questions to consider are “What are SHGs?”, “What is the outcome of an SHG?” and “What kind of SHG is more successful?”. The project will use small scenarios, teach basic math and share success stories from previous SHGs.

The students will be looking at Sambhali Trust’s SHEERNI project. The women will be informed of the types of training they can undergo within an SHG, such as candle making, textiles, food and spirulina production.

Community Forum and Trash Disposal Project

Dennis and Karo

The community forum project is about creating sustainable meetings, potentially using the Sarpaanch, Sathines, Anganbari and community members. A possible meeting place is the Setrawa Rajput Communal Hall, located behind the Khonia Kheptal Ji Shrine. Community participants could include elders, and usually also wealthier people although there are few/none in Setrawa.

The trash disposal project is about cleaning up the village and finding a permanent place for trash. The proposal is stone trash bins with a slanted bottom and drainage hole, that can have trash burnt in them, positioned around the village. One day or one half-day is proposed to be committed to physically cleaning up the trash, an activity participated in by anybody/everybody including children from the local school.

It is also proposed that the sides of the trash bins be painted with the names of everybody who participated in the project and motivational slogans for the village people, such as child marriage awareness information. This can be a group project and children can help to paint.

General Health and Womens’ Health Project

Jessica, Eileen and Evelyn

The aim of this project is to educate and provide health care for all people in the village. The first aspect is a two-day health workshop for local women which will cover general health as well as specific womens’ issues. A health camp with an eye doctor, our priveledge was that Dr.Desai from the Tara Bai Desai Hospital in Jodhpur, came personally to take the eye camp in Setrawa, dentist and general practitioner is also proposed to provide check-ups and any necessary further treatment to everybody in the village. The Eye patients were also transferred to Jodhpur for eye surgery and were looked after by the trust.

The workshops will be advertised via distributed flyers and will teach home remedies as well as basic hygiene and health advice. A female translator will be present and the women will be divided into two groups – married, and unmarried. This is because it is not appropriate in the village to teach unmarried women certain topics.

It is also proposed that there will be a free demonstration by an ambulance crew on dealing with an emergency (emergency number is 108). Health education in schooling is present but minimal.

The most important message in the workshop will be one’s own safety. Major issues to be discussed include tobacco-related cancer, cooking outdoors so as to prevent lung damage from smoke, AIDS, malaria, menstrual hygiene, pregnancy, menopause and anemia, including information about accessing free iron tablets. An anonymous question box will also be provided overnight, and the answers discussed on the second day of the workshop.

Government Accountability Project

Jackie, Andrew and Melissa

The aim of this project is to increase the accountability of the village leaders and provide a voice for village people. It is proposed that a Student Council will be established, made of one boy and one girl, who can act as student leaders and approach the school Headmaster or any relevant authority when there is an issue. These students can also work from the platform of Sambhali Trust and support the work that the organization is doing.

Both elected students will need to provide a written application, run for election and were provided with a scholarship upon selection. Over 90% of girls do not stay in school past 8^th standard because of the conservatism of their parents, so it may be necessary to choose a girl from 10^th or 11^th standard if there are none in 12^th.

It is proposed that the elections be run akin to Indian Government elections, with an ink finger-mark for each voter. This will generate more enthusiasm and expose the students to real democratic processes. As a celebration following the formation of the student council, 50 trees will be planted around the school, to be maintained by the students.

Sambhali Students President of the Government School and Sambhali Setrawa project Teacher Mr.Mool Singh

Sambhali Students President of the Government school and Sambhali Setrawa School teacher Ms.Ram Kanwar Rathore

The students will be educated in all the issues facing the village and will act as role models, raising awareness about issues such as the caste system. They will also have their pictures in the local newspaper. Both the students were given paid job as Hindi teachers at the Sambhali Setrawa project from 4.00pm till 5.00pm tentatively on contract of six months.

Myself, Mool singh, Ram Kanwar and Usha Sharma, Our trust's Setrawa project's team.

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The Service learning trip(SLT) of Standford University even didnt care to come and see our team in the end to say good bye, nor they care to talk about the reflection, instd the group leaders wanted to go out shopping(as per FSD) but as per our knowledge and Duty we wrote to FSD and SLT of Standford University the letter of thanking and reflection.

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Friday, September 04, 2009

Letter for Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) Team, Jodhpur

To Whom It May Concern

We would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon the Service Learning Trip and express our gratitude for your involvement and contributions.

Despite the issues faced, this venture has been a valuable experience for all involved. The contributions made by the students have been overwhelmingly positive and Sambhali Trust hopes to continue the projects they leave behind.

It has also been an honor for Sambhali Trust to be able to work with students from such a renowned university. It is of great benefit to us in terms of the skills shared and the awareness created for our organization.

We must acknowledge that this project would not have been possible without your support and in many other senses. FSD has been a reliable source of organization and information for both the students and Sambhali Trust.

As a small grass-roots organization it is a valuable opportunity to be able to work with an agency such as FSD. Your contributions have enabled us to continue our important work, and we thank you.

Warmest regards,

Sambhali Trust

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Our second letter which we sent to the team leader of SLT program

Friday, September 04, 2009

Letter of Reflection

SLT Group Team Leaders

Stanford University

Dear Student Leaders,

Sambhali Trust would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your time spent working with the project, as well as reflect upon the successfulness of this venture and address some of the issues that arose during this time. We extend all messages of gratitude to the group.

Firstly, we are grateful for the efforts and enthusiasm brought to the project. It is a privilege to have students come such a long way from an institution as well-known as Stanford University and we are honored that you chose our organization with which to work. It is a brave decision to leave one’s own culture in the hopes of understanding other parts of the world more fully, and noble to actively seek out humanitarian work. We hope that you have a better understanding of the role you as individuals can play, both here in Jodhpur and Setrawa, and back at home, as part of a vastly different but equally as significant society in terms of the issues you have seen here. It is important that you not forget the people, places, obstacles and joy that you have witnessed and experienced here. They are intricately connected to your own lives in many ways.

We understand that you have had to give up various comforts and much of your time to come to a place so immensely different from your home country, and have sometimes been disappointed or inconvenienced by the conditions or discoveries you have made. It is always difficult to get accustomed to a different place, different people and different customs, even within your own country or within the Western world. Coming to India would undoubtedly have been an extreme culture shock for most of you and it is natural that this would have impacted upon the effectiveness of the tasks you came here to carry out.

However, as a small, grass roots organization which depends largely upon foreign volunteers, Sambhali Trust has found that it requires a certain level of organization, communication and dedication from anybody working within it, and many volunteers have had to adjust their perspectives and put aside discomforts in order to contribute to their full capability. This might mean having to summon the courage to involve oneself more fully in activities, ask more questions, change one’s point of view and think in a more innovative or less conventional way in order to fully understand the new culture. Cultural immersion is the simplest and quickest way to get to the root of a community’s problems and begin to understand what people within the community truly require, from their own community, the community’s leaders and from foreign volunteers.

Sambhali Trust is of the view that this Service Learning Trip has not been as successful as it could have been in this regard. As you are aware, we have faced issues on all sides, some that have taken too long to be resolved.

One issue which arose was that of the behavior, notably enthusiasm and focus, of some of the students. Upon witnessing an interaction with a government department official, Sambhali Trust was disappointed by the disinterest showed by some students. This was noted in the absence of questions posed by students and the seeming lack of desire to fully follow and understand the conversation. It was embarrassing for a small organization, which has to depend completely upon its public reputation, to have its representatives showing apathy towards such important discussions.

At other times, Sambhali Trust has felt that the organization was being overlooked unnecessarily. This has occurred on at least two separate occasions; initially, when the Sambhali Trust was not mentioned in an introductory letter to a government departmental official, and later when it was omitted again in a letter prepared for a local health organization.

One final problem that Sambhali Trust needs to address lies in the structure of the trip. We feel as though the expectations for this venture, from all sides, were too high for the short time frame arranged. It is possible to learn a significant amount in four weeks; it is perhaps a strain, however, to research and implement projects during this time as well. Health issues, such as sickness attained from the heat, new diet and general stress, have impacted upon this also.

With more adequate preparation, a narrower focus and the resolution of issues addressed above, future trips could possibly be more successful. However, Sambhali Trust feels as though further Service Learning Trips would not be beneficial for the organization. This is an unfortunate conclusion and has been considered quite carefully.

Despite this sentiment, Sambhali Trust would like to thank all of students once again as we are genuinely grateful for all of your time and work, despite the difficulties faced. Please know that there are no hard feelings. As an experimental venture, there was always a possibility that this would not prove to be a success. It is all that we can do to take the lessons and experiences and move onwards to more successful projects.

All of your work here has been valuable and we have been impressed by your enthusiasm in the project planning and implementation stages of this trip. We will, after obtaining documentation from you, strive to keep these ideas alive and continue the projects on your behalf.

Thanking you for your understanding, contributions and efforts,

Sambhali Trust

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August2009

Michelle Kaminski

I had an enlightening experience with the Sambhali Trust project. These courageous young women really deserve a chance to better their lives through their own achievements. Their bright smiles and smart eyes reveal their potential to fulfill their dreams.
The Trust has given them hope for a better future and the practical skills they will need to realize their goals. You can see their self-confidence growing daily – whether in speaking English or sewing. They are curious and anxious to interact with foreign volunteers and guests.
My short time at Sambhali Trust has made me reflect and be grateful for what I have and the opportunities that we take for granted in the west. It has also impressed me how unselfish these girls are: They want to learn new skills so that they can support themselves and not be a burden on their parents.
I believe the Trust is preparing them to stand on their own feet and is giving them the skills and self-esteem they need to make a comfortable life for themselves, niot being dependent on others or expecting handouts but feeling the satisfaction and confidence that only good honest work can give.
I have definitely taken away more than I have given!

Leo Turini

Departed from the frantic western lifestyle, we have run into, almost by luck, this heavenly corner, where we found some exceptional people, who give their time and energy to help these disadvantaged girls. Girls similar to any other girls in the world but with the bad luck of being born feminine in the Dalit (Untouchable) caste.
I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking to them, to hear their moving stories and to tell them about myself.
In their eyes I saw an incredible energy; the desire to change their destinies and to learn new skills. This energy is often missing in the eyes of western children brought up in a spoilt society.
I hope I will never forget these images and the atmosphere at Sambhali Trust.
With best wishes for the future success and goals of your students and this inspired Trust!

5th of September 2009 - UNICEF involvment and New participants!

Removing of the roof and building of the proper roof as a huge room for the Sambhali Jodhpur project and a private bathroom for the trust

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Jodhpur project new participants starting from 15th of August 2009 till 15th of August 2011 statements available online soon.

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Meeting with UNICEF and Senior officials of Jodhpur and a follow up of that when UNICEF Team visited the Graduates Sewing centers and the Jodhpur project to meet with the new participants.

Jodhpur Project New Participants with Melanie!

Myself, Anuradha Ji, Sulagna Ji and Sanjay Ji

Visit to the Jodhpur project

Visit to the Prithvipura and Raikabagh sewing centers

Meeting with UNICEF!!

I had a meeting with members of Unicef in the High Court Jodhpur on the 31st August 09 to discuss ways in which Sambhali Trust has helped to prevent child marriages.

On 1st September Mme Sulagna Roy, Education Specialist, Sanjay Minala, Child-Protection and Mme Anuradha Chandran Maharishi Communication Specialist, all from the Rajasthan main office in Jaipur came to visit Sambhali Trust and the 2 sewing centres that have just opened. They were very interested in the work we are doing and they discussed how they would like to take the message of women’s empowerment and independence out into the villages and how Sambhali Trust may be able to help them in this respect. We thank Unicef for taking the trouble to come and visit our centre and hope that we are able to work with them in future to convey this message to a wider number of women and girls in this area of Rajasthan.

: Name: Govind Rathore; Location: Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

I'm a 25 years young man from Jodhpur and have been indulged in few different activities, finally for the moment I am settled in with Sambhali Trust and Rajput Cultural Adventures. My family has been into tourism for 18 years running the Durag Niwas Guest House, I live in a family of 6 members. We are my grandmother Dev Kumari, mother Badan Kanwar, brother Shakti Singh, wife Mukta Kanwar and son Ayush. We all live under one roof and host people from all over the Globe.

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