Normally,
I visit India with family and we go south to visit relatives in Bangalore. Last
summer, I volunteered at a school in Bangalore. This summer, however, I
traveled with eight members of Basking Ridge-Bridgewater Balavihar and seven
members of the Houston Balavihar center (ages 13-17) to the Sidhbari Chinmaya
Organization for Rural Development (CORD) center in Himachal Pradesh.
For
many years, our Balavihar in America has been raising money for CORD, but we
had never directly witnessed the cause to which our money was contributing. This
two-week trip gave us the unique opportunity to experience CORD’s field work
firsthand rather than just seeing it in a video. CORD fuels development in
villages by empowering and educating men, women, and children.
When we met with her, Dr. Kshama
Metre, the founder of CORD, explained that staying in India for two weeks would
not be enough time for us to have a huge impact on the organization. We would
not have time to “change the world” or achieve other such clichés. However, she
mentioned that our two weeks as CORD volunteers would broaden our perspective
of the world. My view of the world did
change dramatically as I participated in CORD’s different programs.
One
of CORD’s most successful programs is the Mahila Mandal and Self Helf Group
program, an inspiring example of female empowerment that I observed. Mahila Mandal
meetings occur in all the villages around Sidhbari, and in each one, the neighborhood
women meet for social and business purposes. They sing and dance, but also straighten
out their financial records. Many Mahila Mandal women are self-sufficient and
run their own businesses with CORD’s help; the bank lends money to many women
in order to help them start off. It moved me to see confident, intelligent women
from different backgrounds coming together and helping one another with micro-banking
and record management (not to mention, they were exceptionally hospitable and
made excellent chai). I even met a woman who ran her own website that provided
online education! The women spoke in
Hindi as well as a Pahadi dialect, so they were difficult to understand, but after
seeking the help of a translator, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
While I witnessed a lot in the
Mahila Mandal meetings, language barriers prevented me from communicating more easily with people we met. For
example, our group from the USA got a chance to visit Yuvati Samuh adolescent
girl groups and Balvadis (both are similar to Balavihars). When we visited
them, we presented the posters on hygiene and alcoholism that we had made in
the in the USA. Alas, the children did not know English, and my Hindi was awful.
A few people from our group knew Hindi and they served as translators; other
than that, I had to resort to acting and creative strategies to connect with
the children. Surprisingly, they were quite receptive, which made my short time
as a Balvadi teacher rewarding, although communication was somewhat difficult. But
after our presentations, we played games with the children, and we didn’t need
Hindi or English for that. Our laughter and smiles were enough.
Bonding with women and children are
the fondest memories I have of my trip. We visited other branches of CORD like
the farming sector (we got to plant rice!) and rehabilitation for people with
disabilities, but the Mahila Mandal and Balvadi experiences were more
eye-opening and interactive. We, a bunch of naïve American students, got a glimpse
of people whose futures look promising and bright thanks to CORD’s work. I’m
glad I can see that our fundraisers in the USA are helping to shape the success
of rural India. It’s absolutely remarkable.
No comments:
Post a Comment