by anouradha bakshi | Mar 12, 2019 | Anou's Blog
March 8th was International Women’s Day. It was also the day I was asked by my friend Damyanti to do a Live on Facebook and share the story of the women of Project Why, the women who had inspired it, helped set it up, run it and manage it. I must admit that I had never truly given a thought to the role of women in Project Why. It had always been an education programme for children!
I was very nervous about going live. Till date I had been interviewed on camera and even ‘talked’ about Project Why in front of an audience, but it had always been known ground. Going Live on a social media platform was nothing short of daunting. And that too on Women’s day which meant that the discourse had to be different. Simply talking about our skilling programmes for women was far from enough.
I sat with my thinking cap on and took a walk down memory lane trying to see what role women had played in enabling Project Why. It is then that it struck me that actually Project Why was inspired by the life of one woman, Kamala, my mother, whose life and spirit imbues every aspect of the work of the last two decades. That it is education that I chose to make its centrepiece, came from the importance Kamala gave to education and the way she fought to get an education for herself. That I decided to select a staff of women from the community, came from her fight for women’s rights and her belief that every woman had the right to make her own choices. That I am my mother’s daughter is validated by Project Why!
Project Why is steered primarily by women, women no one believed in, women no one would have given a second thought to. It is such women that run it today. Every single one has walked that extra mile and proved her worth in more ways than one. They have guided me and counselled me and stood by be at every step. Just like Kamala, I believed in them and felt that I had to help them find their voice and make their own choices.
Today almost 40 women run Project Why. Thousands have been skilled and become financially independent. Thousands of girls have entered its portal and left as determined young women who would live their dreams and become equal partners and super moms.
This is the story I would share on the famous Live, I decided.
Easier said than done. For the next days I tried to write a script but was unable to as I sounded flat. I wrote some points and walked around the house rehearsing what I would say but mumbled and fumbled. I slept fitfully and was up before dawn on that morning. When faced with the camera I almost froze and the first lines sounded terrible but then I do not know what happened. I think it was Kamala’s spirit that took over and I shared my story from deep within my heart and the words flowed with ease. It was soon over and I was told it had gone well. For me it had been an incredible experience: that of my sharing my life with the world. I felt humbled.
Today Project Why is at crossroads, its future in peril. If I am unable to find funding, part of it may shut down. I know I have to once again draw strength from the spirit of Kamala and do ev
erything I can to save it.
I owe it to her, I owe it everyone woman who has reposed their faith in me.
If you’ve read so far, please consider making a small donation to the Project WHY Okhla school established by Pushpa and Sophiya, whose quiet perseverance not just established the school, but help run it today.
by anouradha bakshi | Mar 11, 2019 | Whats new
Our special needs students Anurag and Munna are training to be shop assistants in a whole sale shop. This is a new initiative towards employment for our special needs students. At present they go for a few hours and are doing a great job! Well done boys!
by anouradha bakshi | Mar 6, 2019 | Whats new
Our founder, Anouradha Bakshi, was live on Facebook for Women’s Day. For anyone who missed it and would like to hear heartwarming success stories from our history of 18 years
You can watch us here
by anouradha bakshi | Mar 4, 2019 | Uncategorized, Whats new
From March 4 to 10th, Project Why will be participating in the Write Tribe Festival of Words by taking over Damyanti Biswas’s Daily (w)rite!
It is an honour to be part of this Festival and to talk to a new audience about Project Why. I hope all my readers will join me in this exciting journey.
The posts are based on word prompts and the schedule is as follows:
- 4 March – Forgive
- 5 March – Miracle
- 6 March – Serenity
- 7 March – Nurture
- 8 March – Influence
- 9 March – Trust
- 10 March – Grief
So look forward to this exciting venture at the Write Tribe Festival of Words, with trepidation and a little nervousness.
Please read, comment and share the posts–a little love would would go a long way with our outreach efforts! Tag us if you do: you can find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
by anouradha bakshi | Feb 26, 2019 | Anou's Blog
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye wrote Antoine de St Exupery in the Little Prince. These words were the ‘secret’ the Fox revealed to the Little Prince. Somehow they seemed to have been seared in my heart long before my I read this wonderful book and an eternity before Project Why came into being. I remember have been asked by a friend to write the 1000th post of his blog and I decided to write about childhood dreams and the courage to go back to them and see them fulfilled. What I shared was a memory of when I was just a toddler and had created a ruckus when my grandmother had refused to give a coat to the man with the dancing bear. I only stopped waling when the man was given a coat on that cold winter day. Randy Pausch in his Last Lecture defines life as being a platform to fulfil childhood dreams and we need to have the courage to go back to that child at least once in our lives and see whether we have been true to it. I may have worn many hats in my life but the one that truly reflected the child I was was that of the Founder of Project Why! The Fox is right, it is only with the heart that we see rightly and somehow this maxim defines Project Why in more way than one.
At first sight it may seem that I am limiting myself to what Project Why does on a day-to-day basis and yes there have been many ‘coats’ given along the way. But that is not where it ends. It is said that you attract who you are and over the past two decades I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who see with their hearts and who have reached out to help us in ways beyond imagination. Today I would like to salute them all and share some of their stories that sound almost like fairy tales.
Many years ago a man came into our lives. He visited Project Why and unlike most did not hand over a donation but left silently. We were a little perplexed but soon forgot the whole incident. A few weeks letter I received a mail informing me that he had been so touched by the Project that he had felt he needed to do something larger than hand out a cheque. He had set up an organisation in his country with the sole purpose of supporting Project Why long term. The man in question is Xavier Ray and his organisation Enfances Indiennes! There was no looking back. But that is not where it ends. Xavier has stood by us through thick and thin and been a rock each time we have faced a challenge. He has also invested himself in more ways than one even taking on the role of parent to our darling Utpal! Talk about seeing with your heart.
Another person who saw with his heart and even read between the lines was Kannan Iyer. I had applied for funds to Asha for Education but found that we did not tick all the boxes and fell short of many of the required stipulations. I followed my heart and simply wrote that we were at least worth a visit. The person who came was Kannan and he saw with his heart and became a very successful Ambassador for Project Why as he was able to convince his Board to help us. Again there has been no looking back.
Hans Emde came all the way from Germany and visited our Project. He too saw with his heart and decided to set up an organisation in Germany to help Project Why. Project Why Deutschland brought into our lives wonderful people like Julia Wuppermann and Claudia Huetwohl who have again stood like rocks with us at all times.
Age does not matter when you see with your heart. Harriet Page was a teen ager when she came to Project Why to spend a short week with her parents. She was so touched by the Project that she made it her mission to help us long time. From organising bake sales in her school to raising funds in incredible ways she has never stopped helping us. Now a young lawyer she is helping with setting up Project Why UK.
Carla Berke was an expat living in Delhi for a few years and helped us immensely in making us understand the need of organising ourselves. She gave us our first much needed makeover. She helped us in a multitude of ways and is the mom of one of your youngest and most ardent supporter Malte! When the family visited Delhi recently for a holiday one of the highlights of their trip was to share a biryani with the staff of our Okhla Centre.
When things look really bad God sends you an Angel. We have had many at Project Why and feel blessed. One of them is Kabir Suri of Azure Hospitality. He came into our lives when we were in dire straits and helped us weather the storm and has taken upon himself to help us stand on our own feet. We are deeply grateful.
Project Why has been a journey of discovery of people who see with their hearts. It is thanks to each one of them that we have been able to carry on our work for two decades now. I feel overwhelmed and humbled at the amount of love I have received over the years. To have so many people reach out and give wing to my dreams is extraordinary to say the least and restores faith in humanity. And it never ends. Recently Damyanti Biswas who has been a friend for over a decade and also my staunchest supporter and the mirror to my soul, took on the mission of saving Project Why at a time when we have lost one of our big donors and launched a Blogathon and once again I was amazed by the kindness and warmth of people I had never met but who reached out to help our fundraiser. My deepest gratitude to every one of them.
It will take volumes to write about every soul that has seen with her of his heart and helped Project Why. I just want to thank each and every one. Without you we could not have been.
Find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We need your help to share the Project Why story with your friends and family on the hashtag #HelpMithuSaveSchool.
Each share can bring us three times the donation.
Add in a little to the fundraiser–with small contributions from a big crowd, we can get together to help keep this wonderful dream alive!
