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
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:
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.
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!
For We are the World Blogfest I want to share the story of how Project Why came to be. I came to know of this Blogfest through my dearest friend Damyanti and warmed up to the idea immediately as we need stories to renew our faith in humanity. Project Why I think is such a story.
For the past weeks Project Why has been in the social media news courtesy the Mithu fundraiser and the Show the Love Save a School Valentine’s Blogathon.
Many teachers like Pushpa, Naresh, Sophiya and of course Mithu have shared their stories and their pleas to the save the Okhla Centre.
This seems to be the opportune time to share with you why Project Why came into being.
Manu: one of the WHYs of Project WHY
Project Why is almost 20 years old.
But its genesis lies way before that in the almost irrational love for India nurtured in a child born in a faraway land by her profoundly Indian parents.
Yes, I fell in love with India when I was but a child listening to stories tenderly recounted by a freedom fighter’s daughter and an indentured labour’s grandchild! They were my parents.
True by the time I was born my father was a senior diplomat but somehow the stories they told me seared my heart never to leave me. The feeling of owing a debt for all that I had received was ingrained in me way before I set out to create Project Why.
It is difficult to write about one’s self but my dear friend and mentor D.V Sridharan caught the essence of WHY Project Why beautifully in a write up on his site GoodNewsIndia.
Yes, there were many whys to Project Why.
The disturbing sight of children begging, the anger of seeing children work and not be in school, the plight of Manu an abandoned beggar left to roam the street, a child crying for having been beaten in school, a child dropped in a boiling pan by an alcoholic mother, another barely breathing because of a hole in her heart and yet sharing her dream of wanting to be a ‘police’.
Each of these, a deafening why that needed to be answered and was in what is known today as Project Why. Yes, Project Why came into existence to answer all the disturbing whys that I encountered, and serendipitously gave me the way of paying back the burden of the debt I felt I owed.
But along the way things changed as I felt the tables turning. Project Why was not about giving but about receiving, and receiving in ample measure. The idea of paying back the debt was replaced by an abundance of love given to me unabashedly, the kind of love I never knew existed and could not imagine how I would pay back. I simply feel overwhelmed and humbled and the fear of seeing Project Why come to an abrupt end for want of funds keeps me awake night after night.
I know that once again a miracle will have to be conjured to save Project Why and make it live beyond me. That would be the only honourable thing to do, the only way to honour my debt and be able to sing my swan song.
In order to give us some some breathing space to be able to come up with a long-lasting solution we have launched an online fundraiser campaign to save it and hope you will join it too.
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!
I get by with a little help from my friends sang the Beatles. I have got by for the past two decades with more than a little help from my friends. If Project Why exists today and has made a huge difference in the lives of so many children it is because of that little help from my friends. And what is extraordinary is the number of friends from across the globe that have reached out and lent their hand.
There is another side to the Project Why story that is often left untold and that is the story of the network of wonderful souls who have come together to help fulfil my dream to change lives of children many do not even see. Every time we have been in trouble friends have appeared and pulled us out. Project Why has proved over and over again that there is good in the world, you just have to look for it with your heart.
Once again as we face closure Damyanti has redefined the meaning of love for us by launching a Blogathon to honour the ones you love by helping save a school built on love and compassion. I am humbled and overwhelmed by the number of people who have reached out, many I have never met, many who do not know us but were touched by the story of the incredible teachers who steer our Okhla Centre.
A huge thank you to Vidya Sury, Sunita Rodrigues Saldhana, Shilpa Garg, Holly Jahangiri, Mahati Ramya, Sunita Rajwade, Stuart Nager, Abhijit Ray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Aesha Shah, Sahana Ahmed Corinne Rodrigues, and so many other who have pledged to blog about us through February.
How can I even begin to thank every single one who has reached out to us. I do not have the words. I can only hope that they read between the lines at what is left unsaid.
The only thing I can do is tell what would happen if the school closed down.
Some incredible people would lose their only source of income and also the job of their dreams, for be it Mithu, Sophiya, Pushpa or even Naresh they would never have become teachers if not for Project Why.
At Project Why we do give wings to the most impossible dreams. If Okhla was to shut many vulnerable children would fall prey to lurking predators and be abused and hurt. Many children would drop out of school as their parents are unable to afford the crucial extra tuition needed to succeed. Their dreams of becoming an engineer, a computer geek, a teacher, of joining the army or opening a dance school would come crashing down. This is no doomsday picture. This is the stark reality of the children of Okhla.
So you can understand how grateful I am to all those who have reached out and donated and to those who will help us make this campaign a success.
My gratitude is paltry compared to the joy in the eyes of every child that passes an examination or gets selected in a job interview. That is the true measure of the little help my friends are giving me.
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Find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We need your help to share the story of Project WHY 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 Sophiya keep her wonderful school alive!
I have written many times about Naresh our one of a kind Math teacher! And yet each time I set about writing another post I do it with immense joy and pride. I met Naresh even before the idea of Project Why seeded in my mind. He was the son of Mataji, the healer who helped give a direction to my life. He was in his early twenties, recently married, had completed his BA and was looking for a job. His mother asked me to help try find him one and I feel a tad ashamed to say that I did, in a fancy shoe store. Needless to say he lasted a day!
In the meantime Project Why came to be in its first avatar, spoken English classes, and my interaction with Naresh was minimal. Our English classes had students of all ages and amidst them a group of class X students. One day I saw deep welts on the arms of one of them and was told that he had been beaten in school. I was furious and decided to go to the school to protest but was met by a posse of grim looking school teachers who instead of being apologetic for beating a child, decided to deride the boys in front of us telling us that there was no hope for them and that they would all fail. Without thinking I retorted that I would ensure they all pass!
Math teacher Naresh with some of his students
We had no space, no teacher, no funds, no resources but knew something had to be done as the examination was two months away. That is when I was told that Naresh use to take tuition classes and loved teaching. I asked his help telling him that I had no money to pay him yet but would try and get some as soon as possible. Naresh immediately agreed and it was at that moment that I saw how much he loved teaching and taking on a challenge. The only time the students had was 7.30 in the morning and the only space we had was on the roadside. But classes stared in earnest and needless to say ALL students passed their examinations. The year was 2002.
Our secondary section was set up and till date Naresh has ensured that all students clear their Boards.
I soon realised that Naresh was not your ordinary teacher who looked at teaching as a job or even a career. He was passionate about his teaching and for him every child that came to him had to shine. He would give more than his 100% taking classes late in the evening and even willing to give up his morning lie-in to take classes at the crack of dawn during exam time. Every student of his was special.
Needless to say the students too love their Naresh Bhaiya who is also a mentor and a friend. Today his students stand tall, as many of them say Naresh Sir has given them the confidence they never had and the motivation to reach for the stars. Many of his students have reached unimaginable heights: from working at offices to joining the army.
Naresh never shied fromm learning, and took extra classes to be able to teach class XII and accountancy so that he could give his beloved students his very best.
When the Okhla Centre began its senior secondary classes and there was no Math teacher available, Naresh agreed to take on the task and divide his time so that these children could be taught in the best way possible. Naresh never lets a child down.
Naresh is endearing and infuriating at the same time. He is a maverick and does not like rules and regulations. But should you decide to chide him, all he has to do is smile and you are disarmed. And his talent does not stopped at Math. He is a very skilled artist, a born entertainer, a great cook and the life of any celebration. He is simply the best.
Today Naresh may lose his Okhla children as the centre may close for want of funds. Please join our Valentine’s Blogathon to support Naresh and save his school.
It is Valentine Week, a week when one celebrates love and honours it. This year would you consider honouring the one you love by helping us save our Okhla school?
If you’re a fellow blogger, please consider joining the Valentine’s Day Blogathon. Write one or more posts to talk about love, any kind of love at all, and about honouring the ones you love.
All we ask is at the end of your post, you mention the fundraiser, link to it, and add the graphic above. We will start off a linky list where you can add all your posts.
You can support the #HelpMithuSaveSchool fundraiser to save the Okhla school HERE.
If you’re not a blogger, send in a small amount to support the fundraiser, and share it on social media so others can do the same. Every bit adds up. Let us celebrate this Valentine’s day with an unconditional love for education.
I learnt about the importance of education at my mother’s knee as she shared with me her passion for learning. That small town girl born in times where women were not educated and married in their teens had such an incredible and almost illogical love for education that she left no stone unturned to fulfil her desire to learn. From hunger strikes to mellow her Gandhian father to accepting every condition thrown her way, she never faltered and went on to acquire every degree in sight. It is education that allowed Kamala to break all barriers and and the freedom fighter’s daughter would go on to become a- Ambassador’s lifelong partner .
I realise today that with every story she shared she was imbuing me with her love for learning and crafting the person I would become as well as paving the road I would walk on. I often tend to forget how much I owe her and how much she has influenced the way Project Why has gone. It is her never-say-die attitude in the face of adversity that propelled me to never give up even if the challenges were daunting. I knew there was always a way, you just had to find it or simply create it.
That is how over the past two decades now, Project Why has overcome every challenge no matter how insurmountable it may have seemed. When Sophiya told us about the plight of the Okhla children I knew that a way had to be found and education had to be brought to these kids even if the only space was a garbage dump. Today I am reminded of St Exupery’s word when he said: “A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.” That is how one felt when one first saw the Okhla garbage dump. We all saw a school teeming with happy children learning and laughing and that is what the Okhla centre is today!
I now see the spirit of Kamala in all the incredible women who impart their love for education to the Project Why children. I see her in Pushpa, in Sophiya, in every one who has been part of this journey. I see her spirit in all the young girls who come and learn at Project Why. I see the same hunger in their eyes and I know that they are on their way to fulfilling their dreams.
Today, when our Okhla Centre is in danger of being closed, it is her spirit that once again propels me to do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen and I know that she is watching us and conjuring the miracle we need.
Kamala’s love for education was unconditional. My fight for saving Okhla has to be unconditional too!
It is Valentine Week, a week when one celebrates love and honours it. This year would you consider honouring the one you love by helping us save our Okhla school?
If you’re a fellow blogger, please consider joining the Valentine’s Day Blogathon. Write one or more posts to talk about love, any kind of love at all, and about honouring the ones you love.
All we ask is at the end of your post, you mention the fundraiser, link to it, and add the graphic above. We will start off a linky list where you can add all your posts.
You can support the #HelpMithuSaveSchool fundraiser to save the Okhla school HERE.
If you’re not a blogger, send in a small amount to support the fundraiser, and share it on social media so others can do the same. Every bit adds up. Let us celebrate this Valentine’s day with an unconditional love for education.
Sophiya is one of our oldest staff members. She came to us way back in 2001 or 2002 when we were still finding our feet and trying to answer the many whys that came our way and looking for people who would give wings to our dreams. Sophiya had been involved in community work and seemed the ideal person to help us understand the needs of our beneficiaries. Moreover I was impressed by her gentle demeanour, her kind smile and the inner strength that seemed to emanate from her and was keen to have her join our team. She did and there was no looking back.
Sophiya joined as a primary teacher and was loved by all our students. She has also stepped up whenever needed and was always eager to help. Sophiya never considered her role in Project Why as a ‘job’ but was an integral part of our vision and mission. In 2004 she told us about the plight of the children in the Okhla neighbourhood she lived in. This was an industrial area with small cramped tenements tucked away between factories that spewed all kinds of venom. There were no schools in the vicinity, no parks for the children to play in and absentee parents that led to children being on their own and ready targets for lurking predators. Sophiya wanted us to start a school in that area and was willing to leave no stone unturned to achieve that.
She offered her home to begin our school as she felt that beginning work would help us gain the support of the community and even authorities. With the help of Pushpa she set out to find a suitable space and also seek permission form the local administrative and political authorities. She did both! You cannot underestimate the power of this quiet, resilient lady!
After much searching a garbage dump was located and Sophiya was confident that it could be transformed into a happy place for children. I must confess that when I first saw it I was far from convinced. How wrong I was.
In no time we opened our ‘centre’ with a couple of bamboo poles and a bright blue plastic sheet. The rest is history. Sophiya and Pushpa weathered every storm, bore every slander but never gave up. Today the Okhla Centre is a vibrant school where over 350 children are busy crafting their morrows. Sophiya is back to teaching her primary kids.
We have known each other for almost two decades Sophiya and I! Over the years I have learnt to admire her quiet but firm ways, even her occasional stubbornness which is so much part of who she is. I realise how much she has given to Project Why and am deeply grateful to her. Sophiya is undoubtedly an unsung hero.
Today the very centre and school Sophiya created with so much love and pain is in danger of being closed. We have launched an online fundraiser campaign to save it and hope you will join it too.
Find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We need your help to share Sophiya’s 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 Sophiya keep her wonderful school alive!
Help Sophiya save her Okhla Centre. #HelpMithuSaveSchoolFundraiser
At Project WHY Okhla centre, a very special reunion of past students, and their teachers who continue to hold the torch for education for children today. Some of these kids have gone on to graduate, found jobs, and broken out of the vicious cycle of poverty in their underprivileged community.
It was heartwarming to hear their stories and proved once again how education can transform lives.
Today their school may losing its funding. Please help us keep it open by contribution to the #HelpMithuSaveSchool fundraiser: https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/helpmithu
MEET MITHU MANDAL, COMPUTER TEACHER: OKHLA CENTRE, PROJECT WHY, NEW DELHI
Mithu Mandal lost his legs to polio at the age of 3, and was never interested in a formal education.
At Project WHY, he not only learned about computers, but became good enough to teach children how to use them.The Project Why Okhla centre where he teaches, supports the education of 350 children, quite a few of whom also learn computers from Mithu. Without this centre, Mithu would not have a job.
In the coming year, this centre is about to lose its funding and faces a very real possibility of shutdown, which is why we’ve now launched the #HelpMithuSaveSchool fundraiser.
PROJECT WHY ACTIVITIES
Project WHY is a flagship programme of Sri Ram Goburdhun Charitable Trust, which provides educational support to underprivileged children. This non-profit, after-school support programme goes beyond academics, to include life skills and all-around development.
Project WHY reaches out to 1200 children and 160 women.
Since 2005, Project WHY runs a computer education programme. Mithu started as a student, worked his way up to being a teacher’s aide, and then took over as the computer teacher.
WHY THE PROJECT WHY OKHLA CENTRE SHOULD REMAIN OPEN
The Okhla education centre began its activities in 2004 to address the problems of an extremely vulnerable group of children who were targeted by drug and other mafias.
Space was not easy to find and the only option was a space near a garbage dump. It was ‘reclaimed’ and classes began under a plastic sheet held by bamboo poles. The centre is the result of hard work from its staff and founders, who have faced everything from littering, to assault from criminal elements in order to keep it running for all these years.
Today, the Okhla Centre has a stable structure, and Mithu runs its computer programme. It helps retain children in school, offering primary and secondary education along with the computer classes.
The centre is an important component of the neighbourhood, keeping crime, drugs and negative elements at bay and replacing it with education and employment.
WHAT IS NEEDED
To give us time to find a sustainable source of funding, the Project WHY Okhla centre needs:
1. 4 Staff honorariums for 6 months: 379, 104 (5,330 USD)
2. Electricity for 6 months: 9, 000 (125 USD)
3. Learning aids and stationery 15, 000 (210 USD)
4. Laptop for Mithu 33, 700 (475 USD)
5. Internet 3, 000 (45 USD)
6. Bank fees for fundraiser 48, 379 (680 USD)————————————————————————————
Total 488,183 (6, 865 USD)
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WHY YOU SHOULD DONATE
▪ Computer education has changed Mithu’s life, and he’s passing on his expertise to others who are gaining the skills essential at a modern workplace.
▪ The teachers Mithu Mandal, Pushpa Kumar, Sophiya Tirkey, Naresh Bhardwaj belong to the underprivileged community, so when you donate towards their salaries, you’re directly donating to the community and not a non-profit overhead. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing their stories, each just as inspiring and full of spirit as Mithu’s.
▪ Children gaining secondary education at the centre will be going in for higher education, and staying away from life on the streets.
▪ The laptop will be given to Mithu. This will enable him to take courses, which he will use to improve his teaching curriculum.
Donate online to the Fundraiser
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DONATION PROCESS
▪ If you’re donating from India, your donation is 50% tax deductible under section 80G.
▪ If you’re donating form the USA, France, or Germany, you can make tax-deductible donations via these avenues.
DONOR FEEDBACK AND COMMUNICATION
▪ The entire expense account would be put up on the Project Why website once the amount is raised. You can check out an account of our previous fundraiser.
▪ Join the Project Why family by supporting Mithu, so he can help others in his community. No amount is too small, and every little bit would help keep Mithu’s workplace, the Project WHY Okhla Centre, safe from a shutdown.
▪ Read the Project WHY story at www.projectwhy.org.
Find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and please help share the story to 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 Mithu keep his wonderful school alive!
Donate to #HelpMithuSaveSchoolFundraiser
There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. – Walt Streightiff
For We are the World Blogfest I want to share the story of the education of a bunch of children who took it upon themselves to change their futures.
I came to know of this Blogfest through my dearest friend Damyanti and warmed up to the idea immediately as we need stories to renew our faith in humanity.
At times, we lose the ability to revel in the joy of happy occurrences around us. We’re simply too busy living our daily life. I would like to share the story of a bunch of children who motivated us to set up the most dynamic and endearing centre of Project Why: the Okhla Centre.
It was way back in 2004 that we were told about the plight of a children living in the Okhla Industrial area, in tiny tenements tucked in between factories, close to the railway tracks. Most did not go to school as there were no schools in the vicinity and their parents were too busy eking out a living. They roamed around the area and were often targeted by mafias who would use them to steal from the goods trains or push drugs.
Our best effort to find a suitable place to begin a centre met with scant success. But we were determined to reach out and provide education to these children who were eager to have us come to them. Finally we found a garbage dump that we reclaimed and set up our centre with 4 bamboo sticks and one bright blue plastic sheet. Two extraordinary women: Sophia and Pushpa took on the challenge of ensuring the centre ran no matter what. It was the eagerness of the children that propelled us not to give in.
Slowly more and more children would appear from nowhere and want to join the centre. We knew that there was no going back as Project Why became one of the wonders in the eyes of many children. The centre continued to thrive day by day and grow in leaps and bounds. From a flimsy structure that was pulled down ever week by our detractors and set up every time by our brave ladies, the centre acquired brick walls and we had over 100 children studying from class I to V. New teachers joined the initial duo and it was soon a well settled centre providing primary education. We thought it would remain so but when the year came to an end, the class V children insisted we open a class VI. We had no option but to do so. It was their school as they had taken ownership and we had to follow.
Today the Okhla centre has a class XII!
But kids dream, and they dream big. They wanted a computer centre as no centre existed in the area. God listens to children. Thanks to the kindness of Kabir Suri of Azure Hospitality, we were able to build a proper roof, shift secondary classed on the terrace and open a computer centre for the children.
Today the centre welcomes over 300 children who are taught by a dedicated band of 12 teachers.
True, the school is in a garbage dump and the surroundings are far from pretty, but walk into the door and you reach the happiest place you can imagine. A visit to the Okhla centre always lifts my spirits up. A sure feel-good shot! If not for these incredible children, this centre for education would not have happened.
At every step the God of lesser beings ensured that someone came by and helped us fulfill the wishes and dream of these children. Our gratitude to all of the donors.
Today we are praying for another miracle. The Okhla centre funding is coming to an end in march 2019.
If we are not able to come up with a solution, the centre is in danger of closing. We are looking at various initiatives to bridge the gap but above all at long term sustainability to ensure that these wonderful children continue to have their happy place. It is they who wanted it and they who deserve it. We will simply follow.
Do you believe all children have a right to education and see their dreams come true? Can education liberate children from the vicious cycle of poverty? If you ever stop by in Delhi, or if you live here, would you like to visit the Project WHY Okhla centre? Will you support our funding efforts for this centre?
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Please consider collaborating with us! We welcome visitors, volunteers and anyone who can give us advice on how to improve our practices and processes. Check out our Facebook page for information on the events that are held at Project Why.
You can also support Project Why through a small donation. Even a small amount helps us support a child’s education.
We were honoured to welcome Mrs Hiramatsu, wife of the Ambassador of Japan, and the Japanese Volunteer Group to our Yamuna Centre on January 15th 2019. Mrs Hiramatsu graciously donated school books to all the children. We are deeply grateful for this donation.
The ladies organised an origami activity with the children that was enjoyed by all.
Our association with the Japanese Volunteer group began in 2006 and is still going strong.
ありがとうございます Arigatou gozaimasu.
The Annual Status of Education Report 2018 has been published and there is little cause to rejoice. True there are more children in school and less drop outs but most of the children who ‘pass’ out are unable to read or do basic calculations. There has been little improvement in learning outcomes. The report states that: the story today is far worse than what it was a decade ago. In 2008, 37% of Class V students could do basic maths; now less than 28% can. Children are not learning what they should.
The full report is available here.
In spite of gaining the Right to Education, it looks like not much has changed on the ground and this is extremely disturbing as education is undoubtedly the only path to meaningful social transformation. At Project Why we have innumerable examples of how education has changed lives for the better.
When Project Why began almost two decades ago, it was my hope that the day would come when the education scenario would improve and we would be able to redefine ourselves and bring new perspectives to our children. But that did not happen. We are still engaged in helping our children cope with their school curriculum and enhance their learning outcomes. We strive to give them an all rounded education that goes beyond textbooks and that can make them lifelong learners.
In the wake of the present education scenario, the work we do at Project Why is still very relevant as children have to pass their examinations with good marks in order to get access to higher education and we need to work within a system that judges a child by the marks s/he gets in a school examination. Our effort is to try and weave in as many ‘other’ skills as we can in order make them ready for the world that awaits them.
Many countries have reformed their school education to attune it to the demands of the future. Finland is an excellent example of how an education system should be run. There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. This would be an ideal situation for India as it ticks all the right boxes.
Educationists have defined the skills every child should master to succeed in what is know as the Information Age. Some of them are: Critical thinking; Creativity; Collaboration; Communication; Information literacy; Flexibility; Leadership; Initiative and Social skills. Thinking out of the box seems to be the key to success in the future.
It is obvious that our present school system teaches none of the above. In India we have chosen to commercialise education instead of strengthening the state-run schools and make them the first choice for parents. The curriculum is dated and the emphasis on marks does not reward the creative or innovative child. Thinking out of the box is almost anathema.
At Project Why we strive to teach children to be creative, take initiative and also hone their social skills. We hope that our efforts will bear fruit and pave the way for the future of every Project Why child.
Do you think the education system in India needs to be reformed? What is the education system like where you live?
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You can also support Project Why through a small donation. Even a small amount helps us support a child’s education.
He is an extraordinary man. Humane, kind, gentle, unassuming, generous, compassionate. A successful corporate honcho who makes the impossible seem commonplace. But that’s just half the story. I will tell you the rest.
When I think of Kabir, I get reminded of the words of the Turkish playwright and thinker Mehmet Muran Ildan who wrote: “The first step to be a good man is this: You must deeply feel the burden of the stones someone else is carrying” or of the wise lesson of the Fox in St Exupery’s Little Prince : It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Kabir Suri, Co Founder and Managing Director of Azure Hospitality, is a man who sees with his heart.
I met Kabir for the first time at a dinner party where we happened to be seated next to each other. No one could have imagined that this would be the beginning of a beautiful story with all the makings of a miracle. It was a chilly autumn night in 2014 and a time when Project Why had hit rock bottom. We did not have money to pay salaries for the next month and I was at my wit’s end. Needless to say it took me no time to start pouring out my heart to this gentle dinner companion who seemed willing to listen. Unlike many others in the past he did not look for a quick exit and kept on listening with interest, asking pertinent questions time and again. The dinner came to an end, and before leaving Kabir gave me his number and asked me to call him and come and meet him. The rest is history.
In spite of his busy schedule and numerous travels, we met and the first thing Kabir did was to dip in his pocket and ensure that the next month’s salaries were paid. That would have been enough to win my heart forever but there was more to come. Kabir had become Project Why’s friend forever. He made it his mission to ensure that we become sustainable and left no stone unturned to do that. He introduced us to the Savitri Waney Trust and they helped us bridge the gap for the year. They also reached out and funded two of our larger centres, Okhla and Khader, for the next two years allowing us to set our house in order and become eligible to other funding avenues.
Kabir also agreed to join our Board of Directors and is one of the most engaged members of the Board. He is actively involved in ensuring our long term sustainability.
In 2015, when I told him about the plight of the Yamuna centre children, Kabir immediately decided to provide them a hot daily lunch and has been doing so for the past three years. The children look forward to this delicious daily treat. Watching them enjoy their food is a humbling experience.
When I shared with him the wish of our Okhla children for a computer centre he immediately agreed to build a concrete roof to replace the temporary one we had and thus allowed us to set up a computer centre in the middle of the community. Today many students have been able to get good jobs thanks to this initiative and thus broken the cycle of poverty in which they were born.
I could go on speaking about Kabir and how he has changed my life and the future of Project Why. Today he is helping us ensure that thousands of children see their dreams secured.
Kabir is one the the messengers of the Universe who renew our faith in humanity and tell us that no matter what, good will always prevail. I am privileged and honoured to have him as part of the Project Why family
Have you ever been helped when you most needed it? Has a chance encounter ever changed your life?
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Please consider collaborating with us! We welcome visitors, volunteers and anyone who can give us advice on how to improve our practices and processes. Check out our Facebook page for information on the events that are held at Project Why.
You can also support Project Why through a small donation.
Dharmender better known as Dharmender Bhaiya, is someone I have grown to admire by the day. His story is one that needs to be told as it epitomises the spirit of Project Why. Over the years I have realised that we share a common vision and dream for the children and ladies we reach out.
Dharmendra came to Project Why way back in 2004 as a humanities teacher for the secondary classes. He left a well paid job in a multinational to follow his calling. His stint as a teacher was short lived as I soon realised that he passionately wanted to change things and was willing to walk the road less travelled. We use to spend a lot of time sharing our thoughts and in him I found a soul mate.
He soon became involved in a wide range of activities: solving problems with the community, dealing with the many detractors we had and lending his hand with every crises of problems we faced. I could see that he was born to lead. I had to find a way and it would happen earlier than expected in the most unlikely yet amazing way.
Two ladies in distress landed our way. They were both abused and from dysfunctional homes and we had to find a way to care for them. This could only be done if we ‘created’ a residential facility and it was Dharmendra who took on the challenge. The rest is history. A place was found for them and this became the springing board for what is known as the Project Why women centre. It was Dhamendra’s idea to juxtapose a children centre to our residential outreach and to also begin a vocational centre to empower women from underprivileged homes. In the span of a year, he had the women centre up and running. It had been an uphill task with our two ladies being demanding and difficult. Dharmendra would not shun from driving in the middle of cold winter nights to go and solve fights and arguments. The residential programme came to a close once the ladies were healed and ready to move on and we felt that a residential outreach did not make financial sense unless we had a larger number of women something we did not want to do. In its place emerged the women centre, an outreach for 300 children and 120 women.
Dharmendra always has his heart open and he was the one to spot Meher when she was rummaging in a dustbin looking for food. He took on the challenge of giving her a better morrow and patiently accompanied her in her healing journey through several reconstructive surgeries. Meher never looked back. Today she is in boarding school, an impish creature you simply fall in love with.
Dharmendra runs the centre with a velvet gloved iron hand. His gentle demeanour can be extremely firm; He does not tolerate nonsense. His never say die attitude ensures that every problem that comes our way is dealt with in the best manner possible. He has earned the respect of the community he works with and ensured that they stand with us at all times. The women centre is one of the jewels of Project Why.
Dharmendra is also the one who found out the plight of the children of agricultural labour who live along the Yamuna river and conjured a way to start a centre for them. The Yamuna centre is definitely one of our most vibrant centres.
Dharmendra has always taken ownership of what he set up and is open to ideas and ready to implement them. He also comes up with his own ideas that often adds value to the work we are doing. I often find myself seeking his advise and am impressed by his innovative ideas. I have learnt a lot from him and am deeply grateful for this. It is a privilege and honour to have in my team.
He never ceases to amaze me and his latest feat was to get a community workshop organised by IGNOU (Open University) where people were told about the possibilities of learning from home at all ages. Actually this was a double whammy as it solved our problem of getting our Yamuna Centre class X kids to appear in their Board examinations. We were truly worried as these children did not attend school or have any civic papers. With one master stroke Dharmendra ensured that they would be admitted in an open program and able to sit for their exams.
It is a privilege and a blessing to have someone like Dharmendra in my team.
Have you also come across someone you have grown to admire?
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You can also support Project Why through a small donation.
When I look back at 2018, I am filled with a deep sense of gratitude. Strange as had anyone asked me during the year how things were going, gratitude was not the word that would have come to mind. You’re so bogged down by day-today chores, that you lose the ability to truly comprehend things in a larger perspective.
My life has two distinct parts: my work at Project Why and my home and family and for both, 2018 was a watershed year.
It was the year where I had to come to terms with accepting to give up the house I had built with my parents almost half a century ago. After their demise, it had become almost my only anchor. It was the house I came to as a dreamy teenager, the one I was married in, where I became a mother and even a grandmother. Over the years the house had aged and become a liability and it made sense to bring it down. 2018 was that year. It was heart wrenching and left me rudderless for a while till I found my moorings again and realised that memories are not cast in brick and stone but live safely in your heart.Today I feel deeply grateful for having understood this as it freed me of invisible chains I carried for far too long. I made peace with my past and was ready to move on.
On the work front, the year augured well as we were financially stable and engaged in a host of activities aimed at enhancing the quality of our work. But the sense of security was short-lived as somewhere in the middle of the year we were informed that one of our main funders would stop their commitment in March 2019. They looked after 50% of our needs.
It was a huge shock an
d for a while I was at a complete loss. We set out to find new avenues but things looked bleak or so they seemed.
It is only now that I realise how the universe was at work and how many people came into our lives creating a new network that would weave its magic and bring us out of the woods. We are nowhere near the end of the tunnel but I can see the light and for that I am again deeply grateful.
I realise how many miracles came my way in 2018 and feel immensely blessed.
There is one such miracle I would like to share with you.
2018 was the year that saw my darling Utpal come full circle.The little scalded child that I had brought home way back in 2005 and nursed back to health was now a confident and happy teenager, who was now back at Project Why as a volunteer teacher. Again I felt deeply grateful and realised that no matter what happened in life, it was always for the better.
So my word for 2019 is SURRENDER.
I have been blessed with so many miracles in my life that I feel that the Universe is always on my side and works in my favour. I simply need to surrender and watch more miracles unfold.
What is your word of the year? Why did you choose it?
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I am almost 2000 posts old!
I’ve been blogging for more than a decade and yes I like to know how many people drop by and read what I write. I know many of you read my blogs but only some take the time to comment.
The days there are comments are truly special as I somehow feel I have connected with someone and added one more soul to my journey, one more voice to the cause I espouse. It also gives me the chance to say thank you.
It would be lovely to know where you are from, how you made it to my blog, anything to get to know you better.
You cannot imagine what a heartwarming feeling it is to read that someone has enjoyed your story and even been inspired by it.
Recently I had blogged about Sanjay who went from street to ramp, the gypsy lad who became an international model, and having so many bloggers respond and comment was a very special feeling that I cannot describe in words. I am sharing some of the comments here:
I too like commenting on your blogs. It is my way of saying hello, well met and I look forward to the ‘like’ as it means we have connected.
So today I ask you to leave a comment on this blog. It will bring a huge smile on my face. I promise to leave no blog I read without a comment.
Don’t leave without at least saying hello.
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Do you believe in miracles? Do you think each life has a purpose? Have you met anyone who changed your life? Please share your experiences.
Please consider collaborating with us! We welcome visitors, volunteers and anyone who can give us advice on how to improve our practices and processes. Check out our Facebook page for information on the events that are held at Project Why.
You can also support Project Why through a small donation.
For the past 8 years, come January and my thoughts turn to Manu who left us all lost and bewildered on a cold morning in January 2011. On that day I must admit, I was close to giving up, as Manu, I had come to realise, was the one who had given me the strength to pick myself up when I lay broken and bereaved and given meaning to my life once again.
Who was Manu you may wonder?
To the uninitiated a mentally and physically challenged bedraggled, half-clad beggar, the kind you pass by without a second glance. So your next question would undoubtedly be what does such a being and a middle-aged apparently well-to-do lady have in common? Nothing and everything. I could either write volumes to explain our relationship or simply use one word: love. Manu simply redefined the world love and gave it a whole new meaning.
I came to know that he had lived on this street un-cared-for and unloved and it felt like he had circled the same path over the years to ensure that the day I walked it, he would be there. When we met, we both knew we had come home. There was no looking back.
It was for Manu that Project WHY was set up in the quaint street where he had been born and where he ‘lived’. To care for him, I had to find a way of being accepted by the very people who had riled and abused him, and Project Why was the answer.
For a decade our lives were entwined. Manu trusted me implicitly and knew I would be by his side till the end. But he gave me more than I ever could give him. He gave me a reason to live and showed me that no life is useless, however wretched it may seem. Was he not the best example! Had there been no Manu, there might have been no Project Why. Today, thanks to him, thousands of children are seeing their lives change for the better.
The other lesson Manu taught me was to never say die, no matter how hopeless things may seem.
And today when one of our main donors ends their commitment in a few months, and I face the prospect of seeing two of my biggest centres, Okhla and Khader shut down, it is Manu’s gentle smile that comes to my mind. I somehow know that the clouds will lift and the sun shine again.
He was a gentle soul with a quirky sense of humour. We shared many precious moments, dancing and laughing and many meals too! Spending time with him was a blessing, an intense feeling that all was well and one was safe.
I do not know what saints look like; I think Manu was one, a true child of God.
And Project WHY has to continue to honour is memory.
Manu remains safe in my heart.
Please consider collaborating with us! We welcome visitors, volunteers and anyone who can give us advice on how to improve our practices and processes. Check out our Facebook page for information on the events that are held at Project Why.
You can also support Project Why through a small donation.