A Trip To Delhi

First Impressions of the Slum

2011-02-24T02:27:00.001Z

It's Thursday! The week has slipped by very quickly and there's been hardly the moment to update the blog. I was up early on Wednesday to try to get you more news, but there was no connectivity, so my plans were scuppered. I am hoping to get some news in now.

We're working in Trilokpuri, a slum on the east of Delhi, and across the Yamuna river. It's not an area I've been to before and the drive out takes us past India Gate and the impressive roads and fairly organized traffic, and across the wide Yamuna river which I believe is a dead river. There are canals or tributaries running into the Yamuna and all are so unbelievably heavily polluted. One feels that a week of heavy focused litter collecting would breathe a new life in everywhere. In fact this is the general comment from those who've not been before. Why do people just discard litter as they walk? There is in general no sense of tidying up after you and with such a massive population, the litter problem is really quite something.

So, to the slum. Our clinic as two stories - 4 rooms downstairs, and three rooms upstairs. The second floor was previously occupied, but unused and only recently given to Asha. Unlike previous trips, we did not have to paint the interior of the building, as this had been done for us. We were required to paint murals or decorate 4 of the rooms which the children will be using. We have used the posters we made of the London sights for the computer room and have had great fun painting murals in the remaining three rooms.

Only painting murals has freed us to spend time with the children and woman and people in the slum, which is great.

Trilokpuri is a small colony, with one clinic, which 4 slums use, and 500 families. One of the slums is predominantly Muslim and the others have more Hindus. Either way, there is quite a mix of faiths and beliefs.
Asha have been in Trilokpuri for 20 years and their influence is evident everywhere. Sweeta, who is from Asha and manages 4 slums has spent the last three days with us and has worked with Trilokpuri for the past 19 years. She knows the families and their stories and continues to encourage those who are on the periphery to join the women's group or the children's group. In this slum there is also a recently started youth group. Walking in the slums there are concreted lanes throughout and drinking water taps outside most homes. This is a huge improvement over what I have seen in the past, where water points were dotted about the colony, meaning that families had to collect water and bring it home for use. In fact I'm struck everywhere by the huge improvements to life in this slum over what I have seen in the past. Make no mistake, this is still no way for people to live. Families of 6 share two rooms, of 8' by 10', and there is a communal toilet block, which I'm pleased to say, I have not had the opportunity of seeing, but which some of my teams members were taken to inspect.
Time to sign off here. Do read the St Stephen's blog too, http://ststephensdelhi.blogspot.com/, where the team is writing up the news. There are two great pieces on the work we've been doing in the last three days.
Next time I'll add a piece on the workshop we did with the students. Last year this slum sent 1 student to university and this year 7 started first year. Wonderful stuff. More later.

Sunday in Delhi

2011-02-20T12:33:00.002Z

I'm on the team blog today - so you'll find our news and my entry there! http://ststephensdelhi.blogspot.com/

We're here!

2011-02-19T14:24:00.000Z

It's strange to be back. It's been three years since I was last here, and there is so much familiar to me, the noises, crazy chaos and the smells! Yet so much has changed. The airport is unrecognizable! To be fair both previous arrivals were at night and my last trip here I arrived at 2am, so a noon arrival was a change. There is a strangeness to arriving in any new city late at night, and I have recollections of being hit by the air pollution and swirling dust as it was bounced off the car headlights. Even so, the airport could now be any airport I fly into on a regular basis. (Not so previously) Wide open (carpeted) corridors and a large and organized customs halls. So tales of the chaos that met me the last time were no longer true. Also the area outside the airport is now a tar road and there are good parking spots, so much change from the outset. Even the journey in to the city shows signs of change, with lots of construction on either side of a wide and open highway. A lot of the work was done for the Commonwealth Games and I'm sure the difference to the arriving teams and spectators must have been really good. There are still signs advertizing the games, so it must have been very bright and festive at the time.

The YWCA, where we're staying is just the same, and I'm transported back to my first trip. The risk of course is to be too familiar with the area and not to be as alert, but it's great to be with the team. Aah, and there is the same dodgy looking internet cafe, but I'm using the computer in the little lobby, which does not seem to have the same traffic, and appears to be a little more reliable. Time will tell.

Today, our first full day here had two goals, one to meet the team leaders we'll be working with next week and the second was to get a few outfits for the week. We wear the traditional Salwaar Kameeze when we visit the amilies in the slums, so spent the afternoon in a local market shopping. I must say to the horror of the guys with us, who managed to get their shopping done in moments and then were ready to find a telly to watch the cricket. Instead had to hang about watching the street dogs and fending off hawkers.

We spent this morning at the main Asha polyclinic hearing about all they do and the programs they run. The biggest impact on me is the amazing progress they're making with the education programs. So Asha's initial goal is the medical program and the clinics, which grew to the women's programs and the children's programs. They work with the men and the elderly, and have financial schemes. All these to continue to work with improving the conditions and lives of the urban poor. Yet the biggest impact to the slum dwellers is the education program. They were just starting this three years ago when I came out to teach here, but this has grown and the now have the goal of getting 5000 slum children through college education in the next 5 years! An enormous challenge, but hearing the progress they have made to date, I'm certain they'll reach this goal. It's amazing.

Preparing for the Trip

2011-02-13T22:58:00.000Z

Once we've decided to do the trip to Delhi, instead of just waiting for the time to pass 'til we go, there are a few things to do. Unlike other trips I do, when the preparation work for the trip might be about setting up computers or planning your presentations, for this Delhi trip, the preparation is about ensuring we have all our vaccinations up to date, and of course getting our visas in order. The team had to meet and get to know each other and make a few plans. One of our team events was spending the day in London "site seeing" together. Armed with a poster we moved from one notable landmark to the next., taking photos. It's a fun day and we can walk and chat and get to know each other. We then each prepare a poster of photos and snippets of information about a landmark, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace etc, which we take to Delhi with us. These posters should brighten up one of the rooms we'll be refurbishing in the clinic in the slum. We've also planned and run a few fund raising activities, and will continue to raise money to send to the charity. Tonight was our last meeting, so all that remains for us to do is pack (nearly done) and meet at the airport...aah and get all our tasks done at work before we go!

Depending on the Internet access, I'll try to update this site a few times while I'm out there. There is also a team blog that has news from previous trips to Delhi, http://ststephensdelhi.blogspot.com/ and that the team will try to keep up to date.

A New Trip to Delhi

2011-01-12T10:12:00.000Z

It's over two years since I last updated this blog. In the time between entries, other teams have been back to Delhi to work on different clinics in different slums. I wanted to go back in 2010 with a team of teachers, but the year passed and we never went. So towards the end of last year, when they were looking at putting a new team together from St.Stephen's I decided I join the group.

We're off in 4 weeks! It's a 10 day trip and we're visiting and working in a slum I have not been to before, on the east side of New Delhi. We're a small team so it should be an interesting trip.

Once again we're raising funds to take with us, you can mail me for more details or use the online Just Giving site here: http://www.justgiving.com/Asha-Delhi-2011

I'll be updating this blog with news about what's been happening in the last year or more and then when we're out there, I'll post a few more bits of news.

You've been away? ...

2008-04-06T10:49:00.003Z

Just in case I forget my place... on my return to the office, it was as though I'd never left. A few close friends have said hi, but most didn't seem to notice I'd been gone, with one colleague saying "oh, have you been away?", when I said something about the traffic in India.

India and the trip already seem so far away. I have made new contacts and was more involved with Asha's activities this time, so I hope that I can continue to keep contact. I will drop a note here on the blog from time to time, specially if I hear of of something new. I also have a few pieces which I still want to add from my trip. I'll also be updating my Fun with Images photo blog.

The Ones Who are Left Behind

2008-04-05T16:57:00.008Z

Someone said to me recently that it is always more difficult for the left behind than it is for the leaver. I cast my mind back over the different trips I have done over the years and the trips friends and family have done. I recalled the excitement of getting onto planes or trains and waving goodbye to those on the platform and also that sense of emptiness as I turned away from dropping someone off at an airport and retraced my steps, knowing they were the ones full of excitement for the trip and I’d be returning to an empty house…and my thoughts turned again to the women and children I’d met and worked with in my month in Delhi.

For the last visit to the slum I had taken drinks and eats, for the children. I mentioned that the women had painted my nails earlier in the week and I had agreed that I’d put on makeup and wear some jewelery on the Friday. For me “makeup” mostly just means mascara and lipstick and jewelery is a simple chain and some earrings. Having apologized for my lateness in arriving, I saw that everyone was smartly dress and I was asked to sit while I was dressed with more chains, my earring were replaced and my arm filled with bracelets. It all felt a little much, but we all laughed and the women passed around my little camera, taking pictures. Regrettably, most of these shots have tops of heads cut off or half a face displayed, but they’ll still remind me of the great afternoon.

Once they were satisfied that I was appropriately dressed, they set to singing.

Here women and children all got involved, with one of the women beating time on a little drum. Each of the women got up to dance and there was a lot of laughter. Finally we settled the children and they were given food and drinks.

As I mention it was an afternoon of laughter, singing and dancing, but every so often someone would stop and ask why I had to go and why I wouldn’t stay and that next time I should come for three months, with a few suggestions about staying a year.

This does worry me and I did not want the afternoon to end on a sad note, as some seemed to be heading that way. My only response to this is that we have a choice – either we don’t venture out and meet new people and have new experiences, for fear that we will ultimately have to say

goodbye, or we go out and meet new people and make new friends and may be someday, some place, we could meet again and if we don’t, our lives have been the better for the meeting. Certainly this is true for me, I only hope and pray that it is true for them.

Saying Goodbye to Zakhira

2008-04-05T16:28:00.002Z

My last day in the slums and in Delhi was a little crazy. I bumped into Rani at the Asha offices in the morning. Rani is one of the Asha administrators, overseeing the work in a number of slums, including Zakhira, where we painted the clinic last year. I had really wanted to see the women I’d met last year and had talked about visiting that week. However, through a misunderstanding I thought they were too busy to see me on the Thursday and they thought I’d agreed to visit. On Friday morning Rani told me the women waited all day with garlands and I never arrived. Horrified I asked Rani to call the slum and let them know I was on my way. This was Friday morning, just before 12 and I was due to be in Jeevan Nagar by 2 for our farewell party. A quick glance at the map of Delhi showed me that they were at opposite side of Delhi, but I knew I had to go. Besides, I had wanted to say hello to the wonderful women we’d met last year. So an auto driver was briefed on directions and we set off. I did not realise that the journey was some 30 kilometres away and that it would take the better part of an hour to get to the slum. Also, when we got lost, I had no idea of where we were or what to do. The auto driver was no help, so we managed to get a third party involved, and using my mobile, tracked down one of the folk at the Asha offices who was able to give directions. With much hand waving, Hindi and gesticulations at me, there was finally enough information provided and we made out way to the slum. The women were waiting, having been warned of my pending arrival, ready with their garlands and a warm welcome. It was great to see the old faces and see how well the clinic we’d painted is being used. It did not look like it had only been painted a year before. The children’s resource rooms are grubby from many fingers and feet and the constant traffic, but I'm happy with that, as it means they have a space they love and can use.

It was also great to see computers in the rooms and the children using them. I only saw 2 in each room, though the young teacher there said they have 6 at Zakhira. I asked see what they're doing and the new young teacher there showed me their materials. The kids do computer literacy in English and start from the very beginning... “this is keyboard, mouse, hard drive…” Some are making great progress and are creating word documents and working with the drawing programs. Asha’s next venture is getting Internet access into the slums where they have computers and Zakhira now has this access. I’m really pleased about this, as they can now learn more about the world beyond their walls.

I settled down to chat to the women and have a quiet cup of tea, trying to still the loud ticking of the clock in my head, reminding me that I should be heading for my own slum and the farewell we’d planned there. Still I was really pleased that I’d stopped by and shared tea and caught up on a few stories. One of which reminded me of the really slow pace at which all these remarkable changes take place. Zakhira is divided into 2 sections. Both lie along the railway line, but the second of these is a little rougher than the one where we worked in the clinic. This second slum did not have any toilet facilities and they were building a new toilet block while we were there. When I asked how it was going with the toilet block, I was told that the inauguration ceremony was due to take place the next week. A year on and only now are they ready for use!

Apologising for my flying visit, I got back into my auto and headed for Jeevan Nagar, not realising my journey would take another hour and a half. When I arrived at 3pm, the kids had been waiting patiently for me for some time.

The Wonder of a Dupatta

2008-04-05T15:16:00.006Z

It’s much easier to wear traditional dress while working in the slums than to decide which western outfit would be appropriate. I wear the SalwaarKameez. This is a long tunic over very baggy trousers. The ensemble is finished by a long wide scarf or wrap called a Dupatta. Not only is the outfit very comfortable, it feels wonderfully feminine, graceful and helps me blend in a little. Being 5’9” and fair skinned, I tower over most of the women in the slum, who average around 5’ and don’t really blend in, but the dress certainly helps. As I taught sitting cross-legged on the floor, the outfit was practical and ideal.

I have always loved scarves and have a collection of traditional African wraps, like my vibrant cotton kikois, which serve a multitude of purposes; sometimes a throw over a couch, sometimes a table cloth, always in a back pack when hiking (who knows when you’ll need a towel for the unexpected swim), and of course as a scarf or a wrap near a pool. You’ll have realised I'm not talking about a skimpy scarf, but a piece of cloth that is a metre wide and a couple of metres long.

As I moved through my experiences in Delhi, I realised that the Dupatta is an equally hard working piece of fabric. I first observed its usefulness when we’d been in a meeting for a while and a young child started getting fractious. He’d been pottering around quietly not disturbing anyone, but the meeting had continued too long and he was starting to bore. His mum called him over and pulled him into her lap. She pulled her dupatta over the length of his body, covering his head and he seemed to snuggle into the dark space created and promptly went to sleep. It goes without saying that it provides a wonderful space of privacy for a breast-feeding mother too.

I was not adept at wearing this length of fabric as the Indian women are, but as the weeks passed I did enjoy it more and more. I have included a few snaps taken showing it worn draped back over my shoulders, which is how many wear it, or just slung about my neck. The one I'm wearing in these snaps is very light, but I have others that are more robust.

The first week that I was in Delhi, it was cooler in the evenings and the journeys home in the open auto rickshaws meant that my dupatta served to provide warmth as I pulled it tightly about my shoulders. Later when it got hotter, and I was using the autos to get to the slum at midday it was very useful. At the height of the heat you get a wide range of smells - mostly not good, so the cloth was handy to subtly cover the mouth and nose to help mask the unpleasant wafts and just the dust that is kicked up all the time. In the evening when I was tired after the day, I pulled the dupatta over my head, using it as a head shawl, so that it fell and covered my face slightly and shielded me from the unwelcome advances of the evening sellers sticking their heads into the open auto as we waited at traffic lights in the busy traffic on the way home.

Of course, it served as light blanket to help me sleep at the Delhi airport, when my flight home was delayed by 7 hours. Draped as I was over a few chairs, I pulled it over the length of my body and shut the world out.

Lunch in the Slum: Sunita’s Story

2008-03-27T04:16:00.001Z

Because I am spending most of my time in the slums with the children, I have not spent much time with the women. Although they are around each day to greet me on arrival, sometimes lingering at the door to watch a class and always there to say good-bye at the end of the day, we have only had brief conversations but nothing much more than that.

Today I had lunch with Anita and Sunita. Anita works for Asha in Jeevan Nager and has looked after me each day. Sunita heads up the Mahila Mandel (women’s group) in Jeevan Nager. I had been instructed to arrive early, so we headed for Sunita’s home soon after midday.

We had a great time, chatting and exchanging stories, with Anita translating as we chatted. As with other slum dwellings, Sunita’s home is small, with 2 rooms. Perhaps it is easier to describe it as a small rectangular building divided width ways in two. The first section is the entrance and kitchen, with a 2-ring gas stove and fridge. Water is stored in buckets on the floor; one clean for drinking and cooking the other for washing. The second room has a small double bed, cupboard and carpet on the floor. This is where she and her husband and 2 teenage sons sleep. The house is beautifully neat, cool and comfortable. The cool bit was because of a large fan “air conditioner” in the bedroom/living room. Our chats were held sitting cross-legged on the bed, three women, from different walks of life, talking about stuff. As we chatted Sunita started to prepare the vegetables for lunch and a few more women drifted in.

When I first met Sunita she told me of the difference Asha had made in their lives and how she barely spoke to the women in the area. Now she has prayer meetings at her home every Sunday and through the course of the day 50 – 60 people will stop by. She has applied for a bigger home, as she can’t host this many all at once. Her visitors are not only slum dwellers, but from homes in the area and beyond. People travel to pray with her and she travels to them if they have prayer requests. Not only is her home open to all who need her, she provides drinks and a light meal. I asked if she worked to pay for the food for the constant stream of visitors and she said that her work is for Jesus and that God provides. She says she has all she needs and is happy. We talked of her husband who is both supportive and generous. He gives her complete freedom to come and go as she pleases. While this may seem the norm to most of us, this is not the case in many homes here, where some women are forbidden to speak with others and have no freedom of movement separate from their husbands. Sunita’s husband supports her activities financially and by helping with house work and cooking.

It was great sitting chatting and I even had my nails filed and painted! Maybe strange to you chaps reading, but it’s fun to have a “girlie” afternoon sometimes. I have a few friends who get hold of my hands and ‘sort my nails out’ with some colour - not something I fuss with much. I now have sparkly pink nails, fingers and toes, (as we’re barefoot in the buildings) which were immediately noticed by my kids when I went to teach later!

Lunch was delicious, a large bowl of rice with a chili vegetable sauce. (Should I admit that I looked on with concern as they chopped the chilies – I should not have worried, as they prepared two versions of the same vegetable dish, the second with a fraction of the chilies.) I was interested to note that they used a pressure cooker. I think my mother is the only other person I have seen using one. Such a sensible vessel, only needing heat for a relatively short time, as they said, “lunch will be ready in no time” and it was!

Medics, CHVs and a Frame of Reference (Part 2)

2008-03-25T15:15:00.002Z

Last night I joined Kiran, some of the staff and the Tearfund team for dinner. The Tearfund team have had a rough time of it as almost the whole crew have been ill and some in bed for 3 - 4 days. In a short trip, that's a chunk of time. Anyway I was talking about teaching children who have so little exposure to the world beyond the slums and one of the directors, who has been involved with Asha for 15 years explained how this also impacted them in those early days. Aditya is a journalist and helped translate the medical terms and terminology into understandable Hindi.

The initial Asha team was primarily made up of medics. This was their primary role, pediatric and pre- and post-natal care. The medics are assisted today by the Community Health Visitors (CHVs) , slum dwellers who show the aptitude and inclination to get involved. Once the CHVs are selected, they are then trained. Once their training is complete, they have a small medical kit and can help on visits in the slums for minor ailments. They help with monitoring pregnant women and observation of all children under 5. That all seems fine, until you get back to this frame of reference concept.

I have said the women initially stay in their homes, they cover their heads, don't speak to strangers, and definitely not to men who are not their husbands. Now change their circumstances. They are encouraged to venture out of their homes and to get involved in the women's group and in community affairs.

To be trained as CHVs they get a little medical training. The medics use everyday terms (to them) like "blood pressure". All this needed to be translated into basic Hindi. How do you begin to explain to someone who has hardly left her home, let alone the village, who has little or no experience of medicine or doctors what blood pressure is and why it is important. Aditya said they'd translate the messages into basic Hindi and be faced with blank faces. Even though everyone involved was Indian, and native Hindi speakers, still it was so hard to find a starting point. Even here the gap between how many live and these slum dwellers is so significant. The task is not insurmountable, it just requires patience and understanding. It is evident by the success Asha has and repeats in the slums where they work.

A Frame of Reference

2008-03-24T18:08:00.002Z

Whenever I have taught, presented or demonstrated, it has been key for me to try to establish a frame of reference for my audience. It's not always easy, specially if an audience is big and the audience at different experience levels. But I feel without it, the listener has nothing to build onto and I might as well be talking a foreign language. No matter what the level, if the listener has a base to build new information onto, then I feel the learning is more solid. The learner or listener is filling in gaps into an already known base. I call them hooks. Without hooks, the information goes into free fall...

Suppose for example you are learning English, as a first language French speaker, I'd probably be able to ask you to describe your home using English terms and we could work on a vocabulary and fill in the gaps. In the same way we could talk about holidays, customs, school outings and eating out, trips to the movies, shopping, hobbies... Now consider a child who lives with 7 other people in a 10' square room. Where the sleepers take turns to sleep on the bed, and then it is width ways, not length ways. Where there is a TV set, fridge and small cooker, in the same room and the room next door, is the next house. There is no experience of a kitchen, and bedroom being 2 separate rooms. When a street address is a house number and block number, i.e R/21 - 29. That is Block R21, #29. Where the other side of the city is an unknown quantity and shopping and restaurants are vague distant things that people do, but have not been experienced in any way. Now let's work on a vocabulary! I need to be a sketch artist, mime, actor and gymnast! I do have a few pictures at the start of a lesson, but inevitably there is a word or something happens and I need a little impromptu action to try to explain the meaning. Not too difficult for concrete words, when they grow more abstract it becomes more interesting! This is more difficult for the little ones who have such a limited range of experiences, compared to many children in other parts of India and the world. Still a wonderful challenge and a suggestion for those who come in the future to bring loads of big bright pictures of buildings and lakes and mountains and snow... bring on the Internet for these kids. Let's show them more of the world.

A Visit From Ireland

2008-03-24T05:00:00.005Z

Two weeks into the trip and there was no teaching. There were two sets of visitors on Monday , 17th. Kiran likes to have a few faces to greet those “fresh off the boat” so to speak. So I spent the morning in the office working on a few Asha bits and then went out to meet the new team from Tearfund.

For those of you interested in getting involved in something like the trip I am doing or a shorter, taster trip, organisations like Tearfund help you do just that. This team are from all over the UK, all ages and from all manner of jobs and had each taken 2-week’s leave to do voluntary work. Apart from a weekend orientation, run by Tearfund, they did not know each other at all. Having landed the previous morning, they still did not have their Delhi feet and were a little jet lagged and perhaps a little bewildered.

After a brief welcome and a run through of do’s and don’t, mostly heavy reminders of be careful about food and being vigilant about hand washing, I joined them on a brief trip to a Kanek Durga, a slum only recently completed by the St. Stephen’s team this year. So newly done, in fact that the smell of fresh paint lingered. Kiran has not done this before, but as the St.Stephen’s team had done such a fabulous job, Kiran wanted to show the new team the type of mural’s that worked. I think it’s a great idea. It gives a new team an idea of the type of murals that get done and may help them plan their own. I remember our team last year and how we spent quite a bit of time trying to get arty. These murals were big and bold, a little fanciful and perfect for a children’s resource centre. What were also striking about Kanak Durga were the contrasts. I had I seen the before photos at St. Stephen’s, but it seems that Asha only has access to half the building, so the other half was not done and the contrast between the two sections is huge. I hung back and chatted to one of the children in the centre, where they now have 3 or 4 computers. The young chap was proficient enough in English to tell us about the products on the machine and show off a few skills. On this occasion, the Tearfund group did not go into the slum, but saw the clinic and went back to the main clinic, to await the arrival of the second set of visitors.

Perhaps carrying a slightly different profile, the second group of visitors, included the Irish Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Eamon O Cuiv TD and was accompanied by Pat Byrne, Deputy Ambassador. Kiran introduced the activities at Asha in a brief presentation. Then everyone, the Tearfund team, and Irish entourage and a few of us “old timers” moved into Ekta Vihar, the slum just alongside the Asha Clinic, to meet the Women’s and Children’s Groups.

I have experienced this a few times; where we are taken to the slum clinic and visitors or guests sit on chairs surrounded brightly dressed women on mats on the floor. A translator, this time Kiran, introduces the women and has them explain their role in the women’s group. The Irish contingent were on a deadline and so the talks were shortened to having one woman give us a break down of life and the changes over the years.

You’d think they’d never told the story before. In theory there is one spokesman and she sets the scene, but any omissions might have others adding bits to the story. So it can be a little bit of a happy babble. They still seem to love the story and laugh and explain in earnest how conditions have changed over the years.

Before you go dewy eyed, the conditions are still appalling. The walkways are now concrete, the little homes are brick dwellings and many are 2 stories. The people have land rights and there are toilet blocks, running water and drinking water. But there is still filth, there are flies and the water in the little gullies is pretty indescribable. I still think, though conditions have improved beyond recognition, this is still no way for people to live.

My walk to the Ekta Vihar clinic the week before had been passed a small, temporary “butchery”. Blood and flies everywhere, this was the day or time of day for converting chickens to food. Crates of birds, followed by a slaughter section, followed by a cleaning section and final the completed, end product ready for the pot. The flies and blood were gruesome and unpleasant. In years gone by, this slum was all hardboard and plastic dwellings. Washed away by the monsoons and held together with whatever materials they could find.

The transformation for me is the women and people themselves. The extent to which these people have grown is so significant that I wish more people in the world could experience that growth in their own lives.

During the talk, the women grew very excited and all burst in on the telling of the tale. Kiran stopped translating and listened. Just the previous week, one of the drinking water pumps had stopped working and they’d requested the water department to come out and repair it. This was met with casual disregard and so the women staged a sit-in. Not only did they refuse to budge, they threatened the water department that they’d bring their husbands and children to join them until the pump was fixed. Needless to say the pump was repaired within the day. The wonder of this is that in the past, these women would not even leave their homes much less stand up to a government authority to demand their rights. Asha is helping take control of their lives and their community and that’s was so encouraging. Get dewy eyed about that!

Mr O Cuiv then spoke to the women, first thanking them for sharing and telling them about his visit. The women were full of question for him, asking about levels of poverty in Ireland. He told them that there had once been extreme poverty in Ireland and that it was not that long ago and that today there is nothing like the poverty he was seeing in India. Actually he was very encouraging, saying that it is possible to change things and that they’d taken the first steps to change and that the hardest step is the first one.

He went on to meet the children’s group, telling them how education is the key to development and related the story of his grandfather who walked 7 miles each day to get to school. It turns out his grandfather was the first Prime Minister of Ireland!

How lurgy's are treated at Asha!

2008-03-24T04:41:00.002Z

So my last post was Tuesday last week. Frustratingly, I had a really bad night on Monday, last and on reporting it to the clinic on Tuesday morning, they ran some tests and had me on killer antibiotics within the hour. (Frustrating because I thought I was stronger and had been careful)
I have said for years that if you want to be helicoptered to a trauma hospital and have surgery, then South Africa, and preferably Johannesburg, is the place for that. (I speak from experience) and it seems that if you are going to catch a water borne bacterial infection, the Delhi is the place to be to have it treated! While the infection and drugs knocked me for the day, I was back teaching by Wednesday.

I'll update the events and activities in the next few days as I am back near an Internet connection.

The dreaded lurgy has bitten

2008-03-18T03:54:00.001Z

One man down. Be back in touch with more news later.

The Old People's Project and the Interview

2008-03-14T12:45:00.004Z

I might have mentioned that I am working for Asha in the office in the mornings and then teaching in the afternoons. The work is varied and has involved drafting letters and sending emails. The team in the office is small and everyone lends a hand where needed. While I am here, I am an extra pair of hands. As you know the work Asha does cannot be sustained if it weren't for the money coming in through donations and grants. It's important then, to get news out about what's happening in the slums and the progress being made. Shamefully I am guilty of not reading all the news and so was unaware, even though it's in the newsletter, of a new program Asha has started.

The Old People's Program
In the slums, typically families only look out for themselves. Before Asha gets involved, some women, don't even leave their homes, much less consider communicating with their neighbours. Where there is a family, at least they have a small opportunity of talking. For the elderly, with no family, they can be on their own in their home and completely isolated. It's so much worse for the women, who have spent their lives in their homes, who lose husbands and may not have children. Asha has a new program that focuses on these elderly widows. Apart from regular visits from the health volunteers, the elderly women now attend weekly meetings in the clinic. They come for tea, a little meal and conversation. In most cases, this is the only conversation they'll have all week. As Asha helps the community develop, so the interaction grows stronger and the community starts to look out for the others more.

An Interview and The Finance Project
On Thursday I was asked to interview a couple living in Ekta Vihar, the slum just near the main Asha clinic. The interview was for a brief article for the newsletter to support an update about another of Asha's new projects. The couple I interviewed have been married and living in Ekta Vihar for 18 years. The conditions in the slum were appalling in those early days. Asha has been involved with Ekta Vihar all that time and the changes in the slum have been significant. As with other slums, walkways are now paved, there are water channels, they have access to drinking and running water (not the same thing!) and toilet blocks. In addition, Asha helped to start a housing project, so most slum dwellers now have brick homes, instead of the shacks they’d previously had. This couple said that life was good now as their brick home is comfortable, their children immunized and attending school.
We all want to continue to improve our lives and it's no different with them. With a greater income, they'd be able to provide their family with more. As with many of the slum dwellers, the husbands work and earn a small income. So too with this couple, where Shahid earns an income driving a commercial vehicle. The problem is that this is rented, leaving very little real income after he has paid the rental fees.

A loan from a bank would enable him to buy a vehicle outright and have money over to start buying things they need; a fridge, gas stove and provide more for the children. You can imagine that it would be difficult for a slum dweller to contemplate approaching a bank for a loan. In Ekta Vihar, they now have fixed addresses, so it should be possible, but most are afraid to even consider approaching the bank. Even if they did, the thought of the paper work and a possibly complicated process has left most reluctant to even contemplate this.

Asha has met with various banks in the area, who are happy to get involved. The Finance Minister, Mr. Chidanbaran, recently came to speak to the residents of Ekta Vihar. He listened to their needs and explained the process to them. Even very small loans (Rs 5000 ~ £60) will mean that these families can start their own small businesses. The types 0f business they start vary; some sell basic supplies in the slums like milk and bread, some have fruit stalls and others have cycle- or auto-rickshaws. Owning these means they are not tied down to perpetual rental charges and should be able to pay back the loan and build up small incomes. After the meetings it's looking very positive and the process to provide loans seems to be underway. As these projects prove successful, Asha will start rolling them out in other slums.

Small steps, but huge progress.

A Goat's in the News

2008-03-14T07:05:00.002Z

I have not taken my camera out much, I think I'm still a shy photographer! Not wanting to be intrusive or conspicuous, have erred on the side of no pictures at all. The loss is a not well photographically documented trip! Anyway, I have started to take some and will intersperse a few here with my updates, and put the bulk onto my photo blog (Fun with Images).

This first image is a small shelter just near the main clinic on a very busy dual carriage way.

I like the goat. I spotted him and then struggled to get my camera out before he finished eating the news and before I was mobbed by the slum dwellers just nearby, who love having their photos taken. The children dash out and before you know it there is a crowd and lots of pushing to get into a picture.

Little Achievements and Big Steps

2008-03-12T12:27:00.002Z

I'm getting to know the kids a little better now, so the different groups and individuals don't blur and merge into each other. I wasn't quite sure how the classes with the older group was working. That is, I wasn't quite sure who'd arrive for each class. As I mentioned, this is mainly due to their exam timetable. Now I have notebooks for each of them and have a much better feel, also I'm getting a better feel for their characters and abilities, which is great.
We're having a lot more fun in the classes this week and it feels like they are learning a little. For those of you used to high tech, high powered jobs, drawing stick figures on the board and going through " These are my eyes" etc may not seem all that exciting, but when there are 2 teams and each member in the team is required to add arms, legs, feet to the figure, it can all get really exciting, specially when hands are joined to shoulders. So this is my young group and for some of them this is their first exposure to any of this, an English class, a non-native speaker working with them and all the new sounds and structures. A rerun of the game had our figures looking more like people and less like aliens. The problem with the board game is that the dominant and stronger ones control most of the activity, so yesterday we sat in a large circle, each child with a book and coloured pen and played "The Chain Drawing" game. I'd call out the instruction "Draw a head", once they had drawn the head, they had to pass the book on to the left, and wait for the next instruction. By the end of the exercise, the books had brightly coloured stick figures, dressed with trousers, shirts and hats. (Some also had an approximation of labels) They still looked a little like aliens, but what a wonderful time had by all. Each one "correcting" an aspect of the drawing being passed on to them , before adding the new bit.
Finally a breakthrough today when our youngest arrived and spoke his first complete sentence, clearly, without assistance and in response to my greeting and question.
This is a breakthrough because he has been mumbling an approximation of the words and all the childre, younger and older, offer single word responses. Sentence structure is an issue for them, as Hindi has no articles and the word order is quite different to English. So while I was really pleased with his response, there was a cheer from the women gathered at the door of the classroom, where they sit and watch.

I think she's got it...

2008-03-10T18:26:00.002Z

"i think she's got it..." Well not quite yet, but the classes were much better today than last week. Thanks for the suggestions, links and thoughts sent. I have also found a website with some learning games for children. Today I gave each of the children a book to write in and a pen. So the lessons included some writing, which they seem to love, some games and a board race. All covering the bits we did last week.
Just to remind you of the scene. There are 2 groups, a mixture of ages 8 to 10 and then a mix of 11 - 15, with varying levels of little or no English. I found a few nice local children's books with nice short stories (just a paragraph long) in them, along with a few pictures. I plan to read one to them at the end of the lesson. I only did one with the little ones today and even this short story needed mime and drawing and pictures to help it along. Anyway, there was a lot more laughing and I think we all enjoyed it more. I certainly did, as they were much more involved. Now I just need to plan 8 more of those (for this week!)

I have always admired the patience and endurance teachers have and this only serves to underline that once more.

High Tea at the Ritz..

2008-03-10T17:40:00.002Z

Well it wasn’t high tea and it wasn’t the Ritz, but it felt just grand and a little escape into a small piece of calm. The plan was to join Freddy and some of the women from a few of the Mahila Mandel (Women’s Groups) at their fortnightly bible study and prayer meeting on Sat morning and then to head on down to Old Delhi to explore.

I’ll do a separate piece on the meeting later. This part of the story starts after lunch. Freddy suggested I catch the Metro from Connaught Place at the hub of New Delhi to Old Delhi. That way avoiding the heavy traffic and bustle to get there. So that became part of the plan. What’s more it meant I could suss out Connaught Place and the Tibetan market on Janpath Road. All spots I wanted to visit.

The trip to the start of the Tibetan markets on Janpath is through this rough jostling area we are working and living in. This is where the really hairy driving is and the roads are chaotic with diversions and not –completed road-works, but the road seems to suddenly pop out onto broad open dual carriage way and there was a certain feeling of calm. Here we pass official residences and stately government buildings. The peace didn’t last that long as we head around and onto Janpath. Dropped just at the start of the markets I couldn’t quite face the onslaught and so turned abruptly into the Imperial Hotel. Very grand, with a majestic drive lined with very tall, stately palms leading up to the entrance and all surrounded by green lawns and beautiful flower beds. Inside is a haven of tranquility. I took a little tour of the place and settled for ‘tea and scones’ in an inside atrium. Very civilized - and good to have a little time to read and be quiet.

Out and About in Vasant Kunj

2008-03-07T04:22:00.003Z

(Two posts today, I'm posting my back log as there was no life in the service provider...)
Life in Delhi is very different from back home. I know lots of people only ever drink bottled water in the US and UK, but I have always been happy with a jug from the tap. Not so in Delhi. We order a large bottle of water for the flat ever few days and use this for all drinking water. Other water, for tea or cooking is boiled, as is the milk. So it’s quickly becoming routine to boil a small jug of milk for our use for the day. When out and about we always carry our own bottle of water. The temperature is creeping steadily upwards and so having water to hand is very important. The sneaky thing that we “weak bellied westerners” need to watch out for is when foods might have been freshly washed and served. There is no guarantee that a nice fresh salad might not have been washed in dodgy water, so the maxim is “If it hasn’t been boiled, cooked or peeled, bin it.”

While it is safe to eat in the flat, I really wanted to try the food further afield. The flat is in an area called Vasant Kunj and there is a small shopping complex and market not too far off. (I think I mentioned that) On Wednesday I headed out early for a meal, straight after I'd finished teaching, because I wanted to join a yoga class with one of the Asha workers later. The small shopping centre near us is about 15-20 minutes walk away. The route takes us past an open manhole (not uncommon) right at the start. What is apparently also not uncommon is that it’s open to raw sewage. In this heat (and it’s not that hot yet, relatively speaking), it brings a whole new meaning to “bad smell”.
I suspect the restaurant on the street might become my "local". It's all on the street with a few plastic tables and chairs near an open grill and "kitchen". The food is very good and reasonably priced.
After that I needed transport. The best form of getting about is the auto rickshaw, a small green and yellow (flimsy) 3 wheeler. We used them last year and I have shared one with Alex this year, but had not yet needed to do this on my own. So Wednesday night I was "flying solo". It was vaguely disconcerting giving directions to a place I could barely pronounce and negotiating prices, without a clue as to what was reasonable, and hoping that I’d be taken to or at least dropped in the vague direction of the place I wanted to reach. As it happened I was dropped on the street I’d asked for, but had to walk some distance, as I’d not given quite enough detail to my directions. I’ll learn! As with the kids in the class, there is a lot of jostling and I’ve seen a few bumper bashings. These do not result in the whole road seizing up, instead there is some hand waving or a few hot looks and then everyone moves off again. – Although I believe there was a fatality on the route I was on Wednesday, which closed the road ‘til 4pm. I only learned this when commenting on how bad the traffic had been. My journey took an hour and I was very late for my first class – which doesn't help when the kids are already beside themselves with excitement.
Did I mention they say it's going to start getting hot? I can't imagine that, it's 33 degrees Celsius today. It shouldn't climb too far above 35 while I'm here though, but that's just the feeling.

Teaching in the Slums – An update

2008-03-07T04:12:00.002Z

I started teaching on Tuesday. As mentioned I have 2 levels and we have settled on 12 children in each group.

To establish the level of language and to get to know the children, I started with greetings and introductions. The younger group is very busy. You might say hyper-excited. They shout all responses and are repeating what I say before I have finished the first word. I will be gray by the time I leave! (There was me thinking I’d have no discipline problems, with my fearsome voice and look. ;-) ) Once we’d done a lot of introductions I tried to get them to greet each other which dissolved into chaos, as they mostly want to greet me. The older group was better. These are the 12 – 15 year olds and they have started English lessons at school. (English taught in Hindi) They too do a lot of jostling and pushing during the course of the lesson, so I’m going to need to keep switching activities to maintain any level of interest.

Let me set the scene of the classroom. The clinic is positioned at the edge of the slum, in a small sandy play area or courtyard, accessed directly from the (noisy) street. It has 4 rooms, a toilet and a little kitchen, all off a main entrance. 3 of the rooms are allocated to health care. There is a doctor’s room, a dispensary and a “well-baby” room. This latter is used for general mother/baby check-ups. The 4th room is the resource center and is where I am teaching. The room is about 8’ by 10’; has a table, 2 chairs, 2 grass mats and a cabinet. The clinics are brightly painted by small teams of volunteers and kept in general good repair by local artisans and teams who come out specifically for the heavier duty projects. These teams get involved in some bricklaying, rewiring and general roof repair.

I digress. So we’re in a small room and we’re all on the floor. Jez lent me a few A4 sized whiteboards. These are GREAT! It means that I can write sentences, words or draw pictures and show them easily, without having to stand looming over them and writing on the white board. This works on so many levels. I’m quite tall and they’re really quite little, even the older ones, so seated on the floor means the white board is high and a neck straining distance from them. Hence the jostling - on the floor, they are within pushing and prodding distance from each other and they do!

On Wednesday I thought I’d go back to basics with the little ones. I had a few activities planned. I have a large pile of cue cards with a variety of animals and so we looked at the animals and categorized them, whether they’d be found in a forest or the sea or a farmyard. They were quite good at this exercise and quick to name the creatures displayed. But it seems they have a 5-minute attention span, so I switched to the farmyard animals and tried “Old MacDonald” Which may or may not have been a resounding success. Depends whether you can handle twelve 8 year olds belting out a song. I think there was something of a tune in there. We ended of the session with “Meeting and Greeting” each other and this time it was much more successful.
For all those teachers out there working with young children starting out with language, all or any very short activity suggestions that you have used successfully will be gratefully received.

Getting Started

2008-03-04T15:13:00.006Z

Monday morning saw a flurry of focused activity - and that was just us getting ready in the flat. Outside the world is a disorganized and very functional chaos. That's the traffic. We were fetched and taken to the main Asha Poly Clinic, where the students set off for their respective slums. The plans for me were slightly different. I have been allocated to one of the newer slums Jeevan Nager, some half an hour from the Asha centre, where I will be working with 3 different groups. The gap year students are teaching mornings and afternoons, as the children seem to do "hot schooling". (Something like us when we "hot" desk at work, when sharing desks. Here some kids go to school in the mornings and others go in the afternoons. So they can have extra tuition in the either mornings or afternoons.
I'll be teaching in the afternoons only, so will be working with those schooled in the mornings. Added to this, the kids are in the midst of exams, some of which are written in the mornings and some in the afternoons. So I have been given 3 groups, each with about 12 - 15 children and split up as follows: One ranging in age from about 8 to 12, and school level 2, 3 and 4, and two others with ages ranging from 10 - 15 and with school levels of 5 - 8. I'll spend 2 hours teaching each afternoon and will work with whichever group arrives, depending on exams and availability. Aah, the other thing I should mention is that they have not started a teaching program in this slum yet, so this is new to us all!

This is how it all started: On Monday afternoon I was accompanied by 2 of the Asha workers, one, Sweeta, is one of the senior administrators and has been with Asha for 18 years. She oversees many of the slums and it is her role to ensure things are running smoothly, and she moves from slum to slum doing just that. Sweeta will pop in form time-to-time, but after Monday's introductions, she'll be leaving me to it. She looked after me yesterday and introduced me to the Women's and the Children's Groups. (If you want to know more about those, take a look at a write-up I did when I was here last year, on Health Care and Empowerment). Once we'd had lunch and tea (very sweet, milky and all boiled together and always unexpectedly good) I went to meet the children. The whole group was there, from youngest to oldest, all shouting to get their knowledge heard. Overall impression: The older children read well, but have no understanding of the words. The younger ones read words, can say the 'abc' and have a limited vocabulary, but can't string words together to make sentences. Oh boy. I'm really not sure what made me think I'd be able to help in a month!

Just in case you think I'll be sleeping in mornings, that's not the case. I spent a little while with Dr Kirin Martin, who has a list of ideas and plans she wants to see implemented and has her office staff on a few of them already, but was hoping I'd be an able set of hands to help. So my time is scheduled for office work in the morning and teaching in the afternoon.

After a great day, I persuaded one of the students to join me at roadside restaurant for dinner. For all the curry junkies back in England, this is where it is best. Very hot (as in just off the fire) and delicious.

I wanted to tell you about today, but think that's all I can manage for now. Suffice to say - it was a great day. The children are phenomenal. If I can get them to speak, not shout, I might manage the month. They are so keen and so involved I have the group practically all in my lap, yelling responses. But I heard from Anita, who works in the resource centre at Jeevan Nager, that she'd already heard them wandering around the slum saying sentences, which is great. They are very keen on single word responses.

Planes, High Winds and Dust

2008-03-02T11:23:00.003Z

I'm in Delhi, although there were certainly a few moments yesterday when I wasn't sure it was all going to go as smoothly as planned. To-date everything has fallen into place, from deciding I'd like to go back, to discussions with my company about being away, to help with my visa and booking flights and accommodation. I'm sure true for all of you, is a fretful night sleep before a trip and mine was, but mostly because I thought the roof was going to blow off, or at the very least I'd have my chimney crashing in over my head. While I did wake to rain at 3.30 am, the wind seemed to have abated. Not so in Amsterdam. So my 6.30 flight only left at 9.00. This meant a mad dash across the maze that is Schipol, in the hope they'd let me on the plane. (The note said "Gate Closed" and takeoff was in 5 mins. ) Fortunately the high winds that had delayed us, delayed many planes and so once again the flight was delayed while stragglers come from all over. A relief to me, and the many others they waited for, not to have to worry about new flights and hanging round a large airport.

Arrival is Delhi is a controlled chaos as we sort of queue for passport control and baggage. If you are the shy retiring type, you can be subtly elbowed to the back of the line. It being after 1am, most of us just shuffled along in the milieu.

I am sharing an apartment with 4 gap year students, 2 of whom come out to meet me at the airport and ended up waiting a good 2 and a half hours. It was really nice to be met and not have to negotiate with taxis at the stage.

Now we could do with some of that wind we had, here in Delhi. The trees are almost green but not quite, because they are all covered with a fine layer of dust and the streets and pavements are all massively dusty. Some folk have pottered off to one of the craft markets. I've visited it before and it's lovely, but think I'll save that visit for later. Instead I walked up to the local market near here with one of the guys. I was happy to find that there are good supplies of some of the bits I thought I'd like to use while teaching - flash cards and general games and books. My case was already quite a weight as it was, so I left most of my grammar books behind.
It seems the 2 girls here are teaching quite advanced students, who are also about their age - between 17 and 20 years, while the boys are in a slum where there has been no teaching before, so their kids are much less experienced. They also have a wide age range, from 8 - 16, which in itself is a challenge. (Takes me back to teaching in the homelands in South Africa and that's going back some years).

That's me done - I have no idea what tomorrow holds in store. No doubt I'll tell you about it soon enough.

Back to Delhi

2008-03-02T11:09:00.004Z

I am back in Delhi!

If you are a past reader of this blog, you'll know that I went to Delhi last year with a small group from St.Stephen's. (My church in Twickenham, England.) If not, we went to do manual labor, for Asha, on the community clinic at the center of the Zakhira slum colonies in West Delhi. We painted and refurbished a small building, which they now use as a medical clinic and resource center for the children. The charity, Asha, runs these clinics in many of the Delhi slums. Asha is not only working towards helping the people in the slums with medical needs, but also helping these communities improve their general living conditions.
The trip had an enormous impact on me, not the least of which was the warmth, love and generosity from a group of people who have so little. It was while still on the trip that I became determined to go back to do some teaching.

Asha is always looking for volunteers to help out. Currently they are looking for people who can spare 2 months to teach English and computer literacy. Although I am not able to be away for 2 months, Asha are happy for me to do one.

So I am back (!) and plan to document my trip here using this site, which I started on our trip last year.

A New Mission Heads for Delhi

2008-02-08T10:52:00.000Z

They're off! The first of this year's St.Stephen's mission team have landed in Delhi and started their journey through a whole new life experience. Read about their trip here: http://dehlimission08.blogspot.com/

I met the teams in January when they did their fund raising event. The challenge was to have a team photograph outside as many of London's curry houses as possible. As there were 2 teams it was turned into a little bit of a competition. The "Big Curry Race" started at 9am and finished at 5pm or as soon as any form of public transport was used. I joined team one as a few of their members were not able to make the day and one requirement was to have 8 folk in each photograph. We lost the Challenge as we only hit around 114 (!) curry houses in the time, while the other team reached a 120 odd. Both teams won though, as it was a superb opportunity for the teams to get to know each other. Nothing like walking the streets of London chatting to start to get to know someone.

It was great fun. Specially as the evenign was concluded with a fine meal.. What else than a curry!

I will not be joining either of the teams this year as I am retuning on my own in March to do a month with Asha. More on that later, but briefly, I hope to be able to work with and teach the children in one of the slum settlements a little English.

Articles in the Cross Section

2007-04-05T16:44:00.000Z

I'd hoped to have a few words from different members of the group who went to Delhi. In the past few monthly church newsletters, The Cross Section, we've had little pieces about the lead up to the trip. The April edition, has a few articles and feedback from various team members. To see this newsletter, select the link: Cross Section April 2007. (You will need to have the reader required to see this - for more information - see here)

I'm still hoping to get the link to the mini video that was out together using our photos. We'll get there!

Sue

Feedback from the Trip: Something to Listen to!

2007-03-22T17:49:00.000Z

On Sunday, we all got together again to do feedback for the St.Stephen's congregation. We had decided to dress up. You've seen the ladies outfits so here is an idea of what the men wore. (It did take them longer to warm to the idea, but by the end of the week, they all looked very fine too.)

What we hadn't bargained on, was the very fine weather we'd had the previous week was replaced by chillier temperatures. I woke to hear driving sleet against my windows. (I'm in an attic room, so the sound was particularly clear!) My first thoughts were about the light cotton Salwaar Kameez, really meant only for an Indian climate, and the near zero UK temperatures! Anyway, we all wore our wonderful wraps and so were warm. Nervous energy about standing up to talk also heats the body!

We each had something to do in the service. The feedback section was recorded. It starts with a Bible reading by Val and then follows with Libby introducing the trip and then the rest of us have a few moments each to give you a flavour of various aspects of the trip. This mp3 recording is just over 30 mins long. This second recording is shorter. Introduced by Chris, it is followed by the "Arky Arky" song we sang with the children on the Friday and in the final prayer meeting we had.

Enjoy!
Sue

On the Road to Agra

2007-03-08T23:32:00.000Z

Isn't it the way of things? There I was in New Delhi, with time on my hands after a day's work and being in the slum, just before dinner and filled to overflowing with words to write and no Internet access... Now I am home and I have access in the lounge and in the kitchen and sitting on my bed...but no time. Well, that's a not exactly correct. I have time, but having spent the day typing and editing and reading and writing, I'm not always up for another few hours of writing at the end of the day!

I'm starting to pick through my photos and can tell you a little more about day 2 and our visit to the Taj Mahal...

On the road to Agra
This was as much a part of the adventure as the work in the slums! Along the way we saw elephant, cows, monkeys on chains and a camel train.
I found the smog incredible. It was one of the things that I would keep commenting about, the air pollution. For pretty much most of the day, you can see the air. We left Delhi for Agra at 7am and it was closer to 11am before the air was clear and by then we were some miles away from Delhi.

As we approached Agra, we picked up our guide for the Taj Mahal and Red Fort. We had to leave our vehicle a mile away from the Taj and catch an electric bus, to prevent exhaust fumes from getting close to the buildings. This struck me as pointless with the levels of particles in the air as it is.

I have a number of snaps of the Taj, and you know the scenes, but this is one of the first views you see as you approach.

I won't bore you with loads of Taj Mahal pictures, but it was a fascinating building to see and learn about and is really, very impressive. Keep an eye on the photo blog, I'll add a few more there.
After the Taj, we headed for a nearby fort, the Red Fort, if I recall correctly. Again an impressive structure, this time built in a red sandstone. If I can persuade other members of the team to add to this blog, maybe one of them will give you some of the history! I kept taking photos of the Taj, now seen from across some fields.

A Little Bit of Cricket...

2007-02-28T08:41:00.000Z

I have asked the team to send me thoughts from our week away. Here is one from Richard. (I have taken the liberty of adding a few snaps.)

From the moment we arrived, the beautiful children of Zakhira made us so welcome, their happy faces and excited voices being in stark contrast to the physical surroundings. With communication generally limited to non-verbal means, it soon became apparent that a number of our young male hosts were keen to teach us a thing or two about cricket. On a makeshift dirt wicket, the youngsters systematically destroyed our rather limited bowling attack with them appearing to take particular pleasure in dealing with Barry’s deliveries off his rather intimidating 40-yard run-up. Indeed, the biggest hazard they faced was avoiding losing balls down the open sewers which provided a unique boundary to the playing area. It was humbling to engage with these children, who despite their daily hardships, possessed smiles that appear to belie our logic. With more time, we may also have been able to engage some of the older men who appeared pretty disinterested at first but were beginning to show some interest towards the end of the week.

Thank God for these children and I pray that, with Asha’s assistance, they are blessed with opportunities to fulfill their future ambitions.

(Click image for larger view)

The Weekend Before

2007-02-27T21:37:00.000Z

Perhaps it's time to start at the beginning...

We landed in Delhi at 2am and were met by our driver and another escort. Naively as men offered to help with bags, some of our group handed them over and so there was a bit of a maelstrom as we made our way to our vehicles. Our escorts trying to look after a bunch of innocents, shielding us from the wily taxi drivers hoping for fares! No harm came to us and our bags safely stored in one car, while we were bundled in to the next.

First impressions of Delhi - poor air and crazy driving - even at 3am. First stop, YWCA, Ashoka Road near Connaught Place.

After a leisurely start to the day, we set off to a local market. The girls needed Salwaar Kameezes. We needed to have these to visit the homes in the slums. Here the ladies model them. Left to right: Val, Caroline, Sue and Libby.

The shop was filled floor to ceiling and the counter was a fabric chaos when we left. (Click on images to see larger view)

It was fun finding and trying these on. Libby, having been through this before, was our guide, while the men hung around patiently. The market was not touristy, but was a good introduction to beggars and children following us around.

The food markets reminded me of South Africa, as the produce is that of a warmer climate and so were abundant with fruits and vegetables that are familiar to me. Not quite so familiar were the cooking stalls . The ground was littered with bowls made from dried leaves, which were dropped once the meal was consumed.

Tomorrow , the road to Agra.

I have started adding ad hoc photos to my photo blog here: Fun with Images

Bye for now
Sue

About a Queue: Delhi Aiport Departures

2007-02-26T12:01:00.000Z

We're back safely. In the course of the next few weeks, I'll be updating this site with more news about our trip and am hoping to collect views from the rest of the team on the trip, in the hope of providing you with different perspectives of the brief and very full trip.

There are a few things to do before getting back to work - I took just short of 600 pictures which need to be whittled down to a sensible number. I'm going to aim at cutting to 200, which I think is still a fairly reasonable number and still probably too many for anyone to be interested. Fear not, I'll only put a few up here. My home is bit of a jumble; washing done and drying, shoes ready to be scrubbed and put out to dry and a pile of post to tackle. It was only a week! How did that all happen?

Delhi Airport
Now there's an experience! As I mentioned in my last entry, we had to leave for the airport at 3am, so we were up at 2am. My room mate, Sue Jackman, and I were ready quickly, so with time to spare, slept again 'til we needed to be downstairs. Then vehicles were packed and off to the airport for around 3.35am. (The reason for all this time keeping will become evident soon). Delhi airport only permits passengers in the through the doors, so we had to find our way through the crowd outside to the entrance, where we were permitted to enter once Libby had shown them our ticket. Then we joined the first queue, to get our bags scanned and labeled. From that queue we joined the next queue for checking in. This one snaked alarmingly, but we had buckets of time and so chatted as we moved. Once checked in we turned to go through security. It was now 4.35, an hour since arriving at the airport. As we were flying at 6.55am, Richard wondered (aloud) what we'd do to kill time...
We joined a few of the many queues for passport control. Half the group in one and the rest in another. Our queue did not budge. Not that the other queues were making much progress. It was no competition, but we came second, getting through that exercise in an over an hour. Time, it appeared was marching on and it was now closer to 5.45am and we still had a queue to go! The final hand baggage check which took us an hour and a half and meant that we not only missed boarding time, but the gate closing time and the scheduled take-off time. During all this, there was a shift change and so a brief period of time when no-one was being screened at all! There was very little panic though, as we were aware of the many people behind us in the queue also waiting to get onto our plane.
By the time I got to my seat it was 7.30am and apparently still between 150 and 180 people to clear the security checks! Certainly the plane was quite empty. We left at 8.30am. There was more calmness than I have known at any of the many airports I have flown from.

Tomorrow, the first of the photos...
Sue

A Little Bit of Singing

2007-02-24T14:47:00.000Z

It's all over. We're off to bed for a few hours sleep and then to the airport at 3am to catch our flight home. Sad and emotional farewells were the order of the day, following the grand opening ceremony for the clinc, complete with the cutting of a red ribbon, this afternoon.

As I have mentioned in previous entries, there is so much to tell you and I'll continue to update the site with entries for the next week or so and of course share a few photos.

Before I head off tonight, I wanted to tell you a little about yesterday morning. We finished off the rooms and murals, which Sam told you about. Collectively we are quite proud of our murals! and it was fun doing them too. A finishing touch to the entrance was a giraffe, which Sam drew and painted, for measuring the heights of the children and in particular, adding marks for the at-risk pregnant women. (Pregnant women below the height of 4'10" are considered high-risk)

The clinic has a small courtyard and there is a largish entrance area, with 4 rooms off this, 2 to each side; a doctor's room, a well-baby clinic, two children's' resource rooms, and a toilet and store room. Once we'd finished off the doors and skirting boards, we started hanging round, different members of the team involved in different things in and around the area.

As the children started gathering, asking me to take pictures, I tried to engage them in conversation and get them singing. They were very shy to and so we shared names and ages and basic details about themselves. (Lots of "sign" language and gestures!) Mostly girls around 11, there was a scattering of ages ranging from 5 to 12. Wanting to sing with them, I pulled Andrew in to help. Those who know Andrew, our vicar, will know his great musical talent and so will not be surprised that he came equipped with a song, actions and great energy! We kept repeating his first 'Noah' song until Andrew was exhausted and the children had finally joined in, giggling and following along as they did. Then he and Caroline racked their brains for more songs with actions. It was great fun and the crowd grew quickly. When Andrew retired breathless, they shyly suggested they wanted to sing for us and so finally they sang a few for us. We finished with more songs and Val, Andrew Caroline and I playing hand clapping games and singing until lunch. It was a very special time and there was much laughter.

Bye for now. Will talk again when there is a reliable Internet and no queue!
Sue

Sam's Blog Entry no. 1

2007-02-22T15:59:00.000Z

Hi, I'm Sam. I'm 14 years old and the youngest of our group. Today we went back to Zakhira. This trip was focused around the painting project, renovating the Asha medical centre. We had pretty much done the walls with the bare colours, which were the frames for our murals.
During the first half of the day, half of the team went prayer walking in the slum. The team prayed for a very sick woman who was recovering from an operation. Unfortunately she wasn't getting better and could barely eat, so she was painfully thin.

Today me, Sue, Libby and Andrew (my dad) carried on with the murals, which are being painted onto the rooms in which the children play and go to school in. On the first room we are completing a jungle scene, the concept designed by a member of St Stephen's School. On the walls of the other room we are painting Noah's Ark. Val did some very artistic animals, she had the talent of creating figures freehand and her turtles were particularly impressive. I mainly did the sketches, and Sue was very good at outlines and precised paintings, something that I am not so good at. Dad faithfully did the leaves.

The first thing I noticed when I first entered Zakhira was how cute and playful the children were. The thing they love more than anything is having their picture taken! If you have a camera on you it wont take long before 30 odd slum children are assembled in front of you, posing with their brothers and sisters. These children don't often have good healthy fun, because they mainly have jobs such as rag picking, or scrap metal collecting, or bending aluminium strips into industrial shapes. For a whole days work they receive about seven rupees - the equivalent of about 10p.

I am looking forward to tomorrow as we will be finishing the murals and showing the children who I'm sure will love it. All for now, Namaste! Sam

Health Care and Empowerment

2007-02-22T13:26:00.000Z

At last I've got a moment and an Internet connection at the same time! (and hopefully time to tell you some more)

Our heads are full, are hearts are full and our emotions are all over the place. Every day is a yo yo of emotions. We move from laughter to despair, from joy to sheer disbelief that there are people living in these conditions today. The joy is from the hope and from the sheer fun and happiness when the children warm to almost any interaction. They are delightful.

We have been painting and have made great progress in the clinic in Zakhira. Our days have consisted of the team starting the morning in Zakhira, painting. Once we've done a chunk, half the group then changes, the women into their Salwaar Kameeze and the men scrubbing up a little, and does a prayer walk. Then lunch is followed by a reversal of this, with the morning painters doing the prayer walk and the rest painting again. There is such need in these homes and they are so varied, so these prayer walks are very draining, each of us affected by the needs at different times and in different ways.

How Asha Works
Yesterday we went to another slum, Maya Puri. This is the slum that Libby worked in last year, on her last visit to the slums. There were many happy reunions as we arrived at the Maya Puri clinic. We spent the morning hearing from the team leaders, as we had on Monday at Zakhira, but if I relate this to you, you'll get an idea of how Asha moves into and works in a slum. (I have been taking notes in the evenings, so hope I get this accurate!)

Maya Puri is a slum that runs the length of a railway track, as so many of them do, and is the biggest scrap yard in Delhi. At one point we stood on the railway tracks and the slum stretching between 2 bridges is 2 kilometers long. There is a another huge stretch beyond the bridge, which we did not visit. When Asha arrived at Maya Puri, 9 years ago, in 1998, the people in the slums, particularly the children, were dying of diarrhoea, TB, malnutrition, pneumonia and mother and infant deaths at birth. Asha starts with a mobile clinic and there are 2 areas they focus on: Health care and Empowerment.

Empowerment
Alongside the medical team, the Asha team immediately starts trying to talk to the women and telling them about how they can be trained as Community Health Visitors and Lane Volunteers. A Lane Volunteers looks after 25 - 30 families in her lane. She is responsible for visiting all the families in her lane and knowing all their needs. She must visit her lane families daily. These women, when Asha first arrived, wore long scarves or veils covering their faces and never left their homes during the day, only being permitted by their husbands to do any washing or ablutions at night. Maya Puri had no water, no toilet facilities and mud or sand lanes running between the dwellings. The toilet was the railway line.
It took Asha workers eight (8!) months to get a gathering of 6 or 7 women who were willing to be Lane Volunteers... and so the first beginnings of a Mahila Mandel ("Women's Group") was formed.
The Mahila Mandels in the Asha slums are the power houses of the community. Slum barons, the police... everyone take advantage of the slum dwellers before these groups are formed. To get any thing done they had to pay bribes. In Maya Puri we met some of the women from 2 of the Mahila Mandels. The groups have 28 - 30 women in them and the women now have great respect in the community. They have weekly meetings, with the lane volunteers bringing lane issues to the fore and the women discussing and voting on how they should be managed. There is someone taking minutes (most are illiterate) and a treasurer. Yup, they all pay a nominal amount into a kitty monthly and the group decides how it is spent. The women in Maya Puri raised and sent funds to the Tsunami Disaster Fund.

One of the major issues was to get the 2 toilet blocks, which are now used by the 10 000 dwellers, installed. This feat took no less than 3 years, with the local authorities quibbling about why there was a need! There are now concrete walk ways and gutters between the homes, drinking water and ground water pumps. All these from the efforts of the Mahila Mandel, the women groups in the slum.

In 2002 Asha helped all these women's group to become registered charities. This means they each have a legal identity in their own right and they visit the police and their local counselors and fight for the changes in their communities. Just astounding.

I have run out of time and still there is more to say. I do want to mention, that while all this may start sounding magical, the shock at arriving in Maya Puri yesterday morning left us silent. The entrance is through the scrap heap and the filth is indescribable. I have never seen such dirty children and men working must have the dirt ingrained, never to be moved. The site is industrial; machine grease, water, mud, oil and metal parts all around. Goats, children, hens and welding and banging all a cacophony of sounds and smells. An enslaught to the senses and emotions.

After the morning meeting, we had a walk through Maya Puri, the staff were very supportive and walked touching and talking to us all the way. Their support and quiet talking as we walked through the homes was what we needed. We moved on to the other side of the slum, where the children were scrubbed and the women once again in beautiful colours and smiling. The contrast so stark and showing us the true impact of the lane volunteers and the women's groups.

I have not told you about the prayer meeting in the afternoon, the singing and the testimonies told and heard and the fabulous fun face painting with the children. (I have now taken a few hundred photos, predominantly children and women) I have not told you about the heath care programmes or Delhi. So much to tell, so many experiences.

That's enough for now.
Sue

Beginnings...

2007-02-19T16:30:00.000Z

Where to begin? No idea, but a single computer, a connection that drops in and out and a queue behind me means I'll just give you a very brief update for now. I'm also not able to bring you any photos while I'm away, so you'll need to wait for those for now.

I was going to say "in a few words" but I can't. The past three days have been quite an experience. Today was our first slum experience and I really want to tell you about that, so I'll leave our arrival, Saturday and Sunday's events to another entry. Suffice to say we have had a gentle introduction to Delhi and have loved it all. (Air pollution aside - the air quality is shocking)

Today, Monday, was scheduled as our first day in the slums. We met after breakfast to pray for the day and talk briefly about fears and concerns. Really in the end we were all just wanting get started, so while there were a few concerns the main feeling was of anticipation.
Our first stop was Asha Headquarters, where we met some of the Asha team and were walked through a presentation of the work Asha does and the progress they have made. It's unbelievable what Dr Kirin Martin and her team have done here. I will do more entries on that talk and our morning meeting, but I want to get right on to our first touch of the slum.

We will be working in the clinic in Zakhira. This slum is split into two stretches. Both are sandwiched between the railway line and industrial sites. Before Asha moved into the area 4 years ago, there were fatalities as the children and woman would cross the railway tracks to get water from the other side. In the past 2 years they have improved the site by leaps, and now have paved walkways and gutters for the waste water. One of the most significant improvements are water pumps in the slum. This now means they no longer cross the tracks.

We were met with garlands of flowers and a wonderful welcome by the women in the courtyard of the clinic where we will be working. Many of the key workers in the slum spoke about the work they do, which is all part of the empowerment program that Asha runs. (I so badly want to write and write and write, but have a people breathing down my neck for the machine, so I'm struggling for words! - unusual for me...)
This is primarily a Muslim slum and so in the past many of the women were not allowed to leave their homes or if they did, moved about with their heads and faces covered. For them to be walking heads held high and head scarves thrown back is huge thing. They are all beautiful with colourful dresses and quick, shy smiles. For them to stand up in front of a crowd and tell us about the work they are doing in the slum is also enormous. If you find that my words are mostly about the women and children, it's because this is who Asha is working with. It's the women who are making the difference here.

I have to go, I can't do this pressure, but before I do I want to tell you about the children. They were just delightful. As we listened to the stories, I started to take pictures of the women and the children. The wonderful thing abut the digital camera is that you can instantly show the picture to the group. After the talks, we were shown around both slum sectors and took loads of pictures. Mostly of the children. Hunkering down and taking a photo, and then showing them the results was wonderful. They giggled and laughed and rushed around us. As I turned to look at other members in the team, they were doing the same. Everyone talking to the women, listening and learning about the life they lead and the work they do in the area. Those of us with cameras, also having fun with the children. What an experience.

Our programme is to paint Tuesday to Friday, with a visit to one of the other slums on Wednesday. We'll also be walking with and talking to the people who live their lives in these places. We need to be done by Saturday lunch time, when there is an official opening. We also plan to do 2 afternoons of workshops with the children. I can't wait. The most powerful thing these children can receive, after the basic nutritional, medical and health needs, which is where Asha is helping, is English and computer literacy. With that, they have a chance to escape this life and move to something better. Now there's a thought...

Gotta go. More later.
Sue

A few thoughts before we go

2007-02-14T10:43:00.000Z

Last night we prayed for the trip. We'll be leaving comfortable homes for 10 days. It's a short trip. The people we'll be visiting live in these conditions year round, for their lives. Libby reminded us as we pack to go that Zakhira is one of the poorest slums in Delhi. There are about 6000 people living in Zakhira and it's one of the 1500 slums in Delhi. That's 1500 slums in one city. The people are referred to as "the untouchables" and are considered by many as less than animals and are treated as such. They have no running water, electricity or toilets. They share their homes with the animals they keep and many family members. Disease is rife. We have had a string of jabs, are taking antiseptic wipes and have to watch the water we touch, use and drink and the food we eat. For us just a week, for them a lifetime.
How is it that the world has places like this? How can we change this? Small steps is all we can try.

Sue

The Team and a Night out

2007-02-04T17:58:00.000Z

If you've read the initial entries to this blog, then you'll know we had a sponsored event planned to raise money to take to the project in Asha, where we'll be helping a few weeks. The event was to built a few shelters and spend 18 hours together.
That was last weekend and the team built shelters and spent the night outdoors. I say the team built, not all the team built, but those who were able to get away from work put together 2 small shelters in the front garden of the church. (I was certainly too late and just added to the cardboard floors.) Here you see Jez in the frame of one of the shelters.

We all started gathering together just before 6pm on Friday evening and built a wonderful fire between the shelters, settling down to spend the night. Having had strong winds, plenty of rain and even snow in the preceding week, we didn't quite know what to expect. Any of those elements would have seen out cardboard and plastic tarpaulin shelters pulled apart. In the end all we had to face was a clear, cold night.

It was a good evening, although once we'd eaten by 8pm there was a moment of "we'll that's 2 hours done, now what will we do?"

Here are Richard and Michael ... and Val on the left.

Chris spent most of the time playing with the fire.

I don't have any great shots of the shelters. (Something to do with me typically accustomed to taking snaps of misty watery scenes...) Because Chris was so enamoured with the fire, the only pictures I have of the shelters include the fire and of course, Chris!

(Click on any of the images to see a larger image). So this is him again on the right, with the other shelter in the right.

Actually in many of the slum dwellings in India, there is not space for all to sleep at once, so apparently there is a concept of "hot bedding". If you know about a hot desk, you'll know the concept. We thought we'd just squeeze into our shelters, but in the end, 4 or 5 of the group slept outside, as our 2 shelters were quite small for 13.

Soon we settled into an evening of chatting and getting to know each other. Although all members of St.Stephen's, I didn't know any of the team and so this was an important evening for us.
Here are Alan, Barry and Libby. Libby is leading our trip. (Apologies to Barry for not getting a nice smiling shot)

I know it's a very short trip, but this will be a new experience for each of us in a different way and each member has slightly different concerns or thoughts. Not least of which is our lack Hindi and Urdu.

Here's another example. Just before out "camp-out", we heard that British Airways would be on strike the week we'd be flying and I'd certainly received alerts, advising to say if I was travelling that week, to change my plans. As this was not possible, we felt we had to hand over any worries we have and this week have heard the strike has been called off. All throughout the planning for this trip, I have been struck about how I should let go those concerns I have no control over and each possible block has been moved.

Now we have Sue, Andrew and Sam (our youngest team member).

Back to the night in our shelters. All through the night, we'll at least until about 1.00am, we had various visitors stop by and say hi and share a quick coffee. Some said it was warmer near our fire than anywhere else in the area, so I think we were cosy. I snuggled down around 1.30am. It's amazing how sounds are amplified at night. I was convinced the London night buses were going to roll over just near us, as they hurtled around the bend near the shelters. I suspect their "hurtling" wasn't fast at all, but at 3.00am it certainly sounded that way.

Some were up early, around 5am. (I finally moved before 7.00, must be boarding school training). I love that early morning. No-one awake and the streets empty - even the night bus has given up. I went for an early stroll and I posted these photos later.
This is Caroline on the left and me on the right.

I want to take photos while I am in India, but as I am more landscape than portrait photographer, will see how I fare there.

Once breakfast was over, we settled down to more fireside chatting and then tidying up and removing all signs of our presence. The last thing to do was a team shot just after midday, mission accomplished.

Preparation

2007-01-26T00:23:00.001Z

Some Reading
I'm reading three books. The first is one my mum loved and sent to me years ago. I have started it, but it needs a few committed hours to get going. That's the City of Joy by by Dominique Lapierre. The next is on tape and so I can 'read' while pottering in the kitchen. This I am enjoying and getting something of an understanding of the history of Delhi. I'm about 1/3 the way into that and am enjoying it. This is the City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple. The last , Holy Cow! an Indian Adventure by Sara MacDonald, is irreverent, but again, I should not pass full judgement until I'm done. They're all giving me a sense of the crowds and noise we'll no doubt encounter. My world is very quiet and peaceful; morning walks along the Crane River.

Raising Funds...
On Friday, 26th January we'll be building our shelter for the night. More detail on that in the post below which is from our flyer. It might be a bit icy overnight, as we've had snow this week and the temperature has dropped to seasonal degrees around zero (Celcius) for the first time this season. I think it'll be fun and a good opportunity for getting to know the team, specially as we've only met briefly on a few occasions.
More later.

18 hours in the life of a slum dweller…

2007-01-26T00:10:00.000Z

On 26 January our team will undertake a sponsored event; to live as a slum dweller for 18 hours – in the front garden of the church!

We will attempt to build a slum hut using available rubbish and junk and then the 15 team members will continue to live, sleep and cook in two 6’ x 8’ huts for an 18 hour period. The weather will be pretty chilly, we will struggle for space and shelter during the day and night and our cooking facilities will be an open fire – these are just a few tasters of the challenges that the Delhi slum dwellers face daily. We will try to recreate the conditions and atmosphere as much as possible in order to understand a fraction of what it is like to live in such squalor.

The cost of the mission to each individual is approximately £1,500. This includes a contribution towards a team donation of £6,000 to cover the cost of the project we will undertake at Zakhira. This will provide for essential improvements to the infrastructure of the slum community clinic and for basic provisions for the slum children’s resource centre housed within it.

If you would like to sponsor a member of the team, please complete the form overleaf and return it, with a cheque payable to ‘St Stephen’s PCC’, to the person you wish to support (tax payers please tick the box near the top of the Gift Aid form).

Declaration

To: St Stephen’s Church, 30 Crown Road, Twickenham, TW1 2AL

Please treat all donations I make on or after the date of this declaration as Gift Aid donations.
OR
Please treat the enclosed donation as a Gift Aid donation.
If you are a tax payer, please tick

AMOUNT £…….....
(Please make cheques payable to ‘St Stephen’s PCC’)

Title and full name (please print)

……………………………………………………………………………………

Address

……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………..Postcode …………………….……

Signed ………………………………………………………………………….

Date …………………………………………………………………………….

You must pay the amount of income tax or capital gains tax equal to the tax we reclaim on your donation (28p for every £1 you give).
…………………………………………………………………………….…

I am supporting the following member of the Delhi Team:

(name of team member) ………………………………………………………

Asha's Mission

2007-01-17T22:31:00.001Z

TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF THE URBAN POOR

The Asha Community Health and Development Society was conceived in 1988 in response to the acute and distressing needs of the urban poor in New Delhi. Now 18 years later, with a vision to love and serve the poor in the name and spirit of Christ, the Asha family has grown to encompass over 300,000 people living in 46 slum colonies. With clear vision, focused goals, articulated objectives and well-implemented interventions, Asha reaches out to slum dwellers in Delhi to bring about a holistic and lasting improvement in their lives through the empowerment of individuals and communities and through raising their health standards and the conditions in which they live. Alongside tending to the physical needs of the slum dwellers, Asha also seeks to proclaim the good news of Christ through words and action and is seeing many people come to faith in Jesus Christ; small slum churches are being established within the slums as many testify to the love, faithfulness and goodness of God in their daily lives.

www.asha-india.org

What it's About

2007-01-17T22:19:00.000Z

My initial entry, "The Brief" is part of the flyer telling friends and family about our trip to India in February 2007. It is not my intention to maintain this blog for very long, instead I plan to track a few of the things leading up to the trip and then to do a write up after we return.

As I like to carry my camera around too, I'm hoping to be able to document as much of the trip, as is appropriate, with words and images.

Raising Money
Some of preparation is about raising money for our trip and to take to ASHA for our project there.

More on how we're raising funds for the project soon.

The Brief

2007-01-16T22:19:00.000Z

In February 2007, a mission team from St Stephen’s Church, Twickenham, will travel to New Delhi, India, to spend nine days serving the poor in the slums of this vast city. Working with the Indian NGO ‘Asha’, the aim of the mission is to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to just some of the three million people who struggle daily to live in one of the worst environments in the world.

As a group, we will undertake some manual work to help improve the community clinic at the centre of the Zakhira slum colonies in West Delhi. We will also spend time each day with individuals and groups of slum dwellers, listening to their stories, encouraging them in all they do, performing workshops with the children and generally working with the Asha team to bring hope into a seemingly hopeless situation.