Jan 24 Coming Home

I am really not sure what time it is or what day it is here. It's sunday I guess because I'm supposed to be home on sunday! I’m sitting at a Starbucks in the Chicago O’Hare airport enjoying a coffee. I only had coffee a few times in India and it was never very good. Normally I am an avid coffee drinker so seeing this was refreshing! I’ve got a pretty long layover; about 4 hours and I never sleep in airports when I am alone so I am occupying the time a number of ways. I love to take walks around airports and look in the shops, mostly because I know that once I am on the flight I can move around much. There doesn’t seem to be much around here though so I figured I’d write a blog. Between packing and leaving India and then of course the huge time difference I’ve missed a day or maybe two of blogging (sorry Dr. DeMars).

My last day of work was very sad! I’ve included some pictures below but the videos I have are the best to look at. I realized that over those 3 weeks which were frustrating at times, I had really grown to love them. Each of them was unique and precious. Some who were especially difficult to handle had the worst family situations. I almost cried as we left. I’d especially grown close to several children. I had 4 kids by the end who just loved me. My favorite little girl always made me smile because she was so cute. The way she talked was hilarious and she was so tiny and full of energy. She has the most beautiful eyes. Her parents put eyeliner on her eyes to keep the bad spirits away so they stood out. Another was a tiny boy who I described before in a blog as the smartest of the little kids. He also has a smile that will melt your heart instantly and loved to show me his artwork, to which I would exclaim “Shabash!” or “Bahut acha!” The girl before who I described as looking like Cindy Loo Who with the squeaky shoes would have tickle wars with me. And a little boy who at first I did not like so much warmed my heart by the end. He hits other kids a lot so I would get frustrated with him, but he decided he liked me and would always shove other kids over to sit beside me. We became buddies by the end. The saddest part is when we left the children said goodbye as usual, not understanding that we wouldn’t be coming back.

Mobile Creches

The end of my trip was good because by the last day I was prepared to leave. A part of me was definitely sad to go, but I was also very excited to get home. On the last day I had the last meeting for my project at 1:00. I was very impressed with the women I spoke with and with the organization. I had been working with Mobile Creches for three weeks and did not know much of the information that they shared with me. I think that CCS should provide more information to volunteers about the placements they work at to enhance their knowledge about what their work is really contributing to. I was also happy with the interview because these women took me seriously and seemed to enjoy the interview. Some of the other organizational leaders did not seem to do so. I spoke with Shruti Joshi, the director of field operations, and a manager of one of the urban settlements. Both were amazing women. There many many oppressed and uneducated women in India, yet Mobile Creches is mostly run by strong, educated women.

After introduction my first question was about the strength/unique factor of Mobile Creches. Mrs. Joshi had a very long answer to this question. She said that first, few organizations concern themselves with education of children from 0-6 years old, but studies show that the years before the age of 6 are important years in child development. Many children are not academically stimulated at all before this point, making it even more difficult to learn at age 6, which is legal schooling age in India. Mobile Creches also works with mostly the migrant population of India (migrant workers’ children) which is difficult because this group is highly unstable and mobile. This makes it very hard to MC to record its impact. They see 5 to 6 thousand children each year at their sites, but at any given day only 12 to 14 hundred show up. Many times a child will be there for only a limited time; sometimes only days. This is frustrating for them because it makes it difficult to record success, and makes budget management really tough. Still, MC believes that even if they help a child for only days it is well worth it because for those few days the child will get 3 meals and care. Additionally they both mentioned that the loyalty of employees was a huge strength. MC has existed for over 40 years (since 1969) and about 85% of the staff have been there for 25 to 30 years. Many begin as teachers and move up to work in the higher ranks. This has allowed for the consistency and long-jevity of the NGO.

I learned that MC has 18 centers at constructions sites, 8 centers in urban settlements, and they also work to facilitate programs run independently by builders and contractors at their own construction sites. At the construction sites, MC largely funds the centers but they will never go to a site where the contractor is not cooperating and where there is no infrastructure. Contractors must contribute financially, but this is usually minimal. At the urban centers MC train women in the community to run the centers on their own. Here children have to pay 100 rupees a month to attend because the women are paid directly by this. There is also a large advocacy sector but this mostly operates separately from the particular sites. They advocate for children to the builders and contractors then they also work at the ministry level. MC has been part of the 11th 5 year plan of INDIA??? To make contributions regarding child’s rights. They work at the national level with other NGOs and independently to advocate for children through legislation and other means.

I’ve asked almost every one that I have spoken to about the impact that NGOs have made in Delhi. I’ve gotten some similar answers, but Mrs. Joshi’s answer was different and insightful. She said that NGOs realized that the government is the largest agency to bring aid and change so NGOs work makes the government more responsible and responsive. The government tends to choose short-term concerns over long-term ones, often bringing problems such as the lack of planning for city beautification projects for the coming Commonwealth games which has led to an influx of migrant workers who have nowhere to live. NGOs, through advocacy and projects, challenge the government to see and react to problems it had ignored. She also added that when she worked in Africa she saw the lack of civil society under dictatorship and realized how strong self-help movements are in India and how they influence the government

A Summary of My Research

The organizations that I looked at in-depth were Cross Cultural Solutions, Mobile Creches and Vidya. I am happy with the amount of information that I was able to gather in those three weeks. All 3 were different so it was neat to see the ways that they were similar and different. I’ve also been looking at the impact of NGOs more generally India, which of course is somewhat limited by the contacts that I came across, yet pretty consistent. CCS was the organization I was volunteering through so I was able to get a grasp of what they do and how they do it. I worked at a site of Mobile Creches for 3 week and was able to speak with 2 women from the main office. VIdya was very interesting to me because I has several different contacts who provided different information. Daniel Lala, a former CCS volunteer, has independently taken over at a site of Vidya which has been mostly ignored by Vidya even though he is not paid to do so. He has worked there for 3 years and comes up with most of the funding for that site and has single-handedly set up several successful programs there. He provided a lot of insider information for my project. Anne, a volunteer at CCS who is finishing her 3rd month volunteering at Vidya, also provided a perspective. She mostly mirrored a lot of the things that Daniel suggested. Then I spoke with the vice-chairperson who had a very different outlook. As Daniel pointed out, she rarely visits the site so she actually does not know too much about what goes on there on a day-to-day basis. These 3 organizations have provided interesting case studies for me to look at.

Last Day

On my last day in Delhi I was a bit sad because both of my roommates (and 2 of my favorite volunteers)

Anne and Heather, were out of town on a trip to the Ganges. Most of the others left before me either Friday night or earlier on Saturday. After my meeting at MC I went to some markets with Jake. We ended the day at a sweet shop where we got some kind of mousse cake and ate it while we ate back, arriving right in time for dinner.

As Jake pointed out to me on Saturday night: I accomplished everything that I came to do! I got to speak with the people that I wanted (with one exception), I had a meaningful time working with children from the slums, I learned a lot about India, I got to do and see the things that I wanted to in Delhi, and I made some great friends. It was an amazing trip.