The dentist comes calling #ProjectWhy #India
The dentist comes calling It was dental checkup time for children from the special section, the creche and the primary section. This was the first dental check up at Project Why and was made possible thanks to our friend Neena Gulabani from the Anubhav Learning...
From Germany with Love #ThrowbackThursday # India
Project Why's relationship with Germany began way back in 2007 when Hans Emde, a rather forbidding person with a heart of gold, visited Project Why and decided to set up Project Why Deutschland e v in Köln. From that moment the doors flew open and Project Why's...
He who opens a school door, closes a prison #GivingTuesday #India
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.Victor HugoThe little beds in this picture take us back to a childhood fairy tale where a little girl 'dared' to sleep on a bed only to be chased away by a family of bears. The Project Why fairy tale is a little...
Sadafulee so that Project Why children bloom
Her name is Kashmira. She lives in the US and though she has never visited Project Why in person, she had been one of its staunchest supporters. She has walked into Project Why's heart through a screen! Over the years she has supported our work financially, but more...
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much #ThrowbackThursday
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” Helen Keller How true these words are and Project Why is a proof of this. It was in very early days that Anou decided to source 100% of her team from within the community. The decision was instinctive....
BEIRUT CALLING #GivingTuesday #India
It has been International Month at Project Why. First we had visitors from France, then from Japan and now hold your breath… from Lebanon! A group of twenty young girls from the American Community School: Beirut came to visit Project Why shepherded by our...
One year of the Yamuna centre #ThrowbackThursday
The Project Why Yamuna Centre is one year old! A simple look at the smiling faces in the picture is ample proof of the fact that we got it right. Only a little over a year ago Project Why came to know about the existence of the "Yamuna Kids,” a bunch of happy...
有難う 御座います Yoshiki San #GivingTuesday
Yoshiki San and DoraemonProject Why has a Japanese connection. It goes back to 2003 when Naoko San visited the Project why with the Japanese Volunteer Group. A connection was made, one that lasts till date.Thus began a relationship with ladies from the...
Things never get back to the day they were #ThrowbackThursday
There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were wrote Dwight D. Eisenhower.One of the most difficult moments we have had to face at Project Why was the death of a child. But sadly children die. Over the years we have...
Project Why’s French Connection #GivingTuesday
It was French Week at Project Why. A group of members of Enfances Indiennes, visited Project Why and gave its children a French Break!Project Why's French Connection is strong and steadfast. Not surprising as its founder had deep links with France! But the real...
Into the twilight
Six years ago, I gathered the courage to write a requiem for a dream. The dream was Planet Why the guest house with a difference that would have allowed Project Why to be sustainable. In a nutshell, Planet Why was a guest house indeed, but would have also been home to...
Damyanti (w)rites for Project Why #
Project Why has taught me two values often forgotten: compassion and gratitude. If one is the art of giving, the other is that of receiving. When we talk of giving, our minds tend to veer towards money; often charity is equated to funds and undoubtedly it is a huge...
Gypsy Souls #ThrowbackThursday
If we exist then He exists; if we do not then how can He!(on the existence God)Tau Head of the Rana Pratap Lohar Camp“Have you ever met someone for the first time, but in your heart you feel as if you’ve met them before?” wrote JoAnne Kendrick. This is exactly...
Mercury Rising #GivingTuesday
waiting for waterThis picture was taken near the Project Why Okhla Centre at the time when the tanker delivers water for an entire community. This is when children dash out of class to reach the tanker in time, having already placed their buckets or cans well in...
Project Why’s Women centre # Throwback Thursday
The Project Why Women and Children Centre saw the light of day to answer yet another deafening why. It was 2006 and we had two women in a desperate state who needed help. One woman was ready to get out of rehab and needed a safe place to stay, a kind of midway...
India’s shadow education cont #GivingTuesday #India # Education
Recently some of our secondary Govindpuri children informed us that they may have to stop coming. Why?These were some of the brightest of the lot who attend government school. The reason they gave was shocking. Their school teacher had told them that unless they...
Project Why’s Neverland #ThrowbackThursday
A toddler tied up to a charpoy with a scarf: a sign of love and also one of desperation. This image was one of the first resounding WHYs Project Why encountered and we responded by creating the creche.We realised this was a daily routine: the mother would pull the...
India’s Shadow Education Centre #GivingTuesday
Why is Project Why even necessary?Sadly, this is a question we often get. There are many reasons, but the main reason is to provide shadow education to underprivileged children, an education that has become sine-qua-non to success in India.Shadow education is a...
Project Why’s very special class #ThrowbackThursday
This is Project Why's special class as it is today. And here is how it looked in earlier times.To be disabled in India is a misfortune but to be disabled and poor in India is a tragedy. If you are a girl it is further compounded. So, when a lady came with four special...
Project Why’s water warriors #GivingTuesday
(All pictures in this post were taken by project why children during a workshop on Respect under the section Respect for Water!)Did you know that 5,000 children die everyday from water related diseases?There is an odd phenomenon at Project Why where children, often...
A picture is worth a thousand words, but a memory is priceless #ThrowbackThursday
Someone said: "a picture is worth a thousand words, but a memory is priceless.You don’t just take a picture with a camera, you take it with your heart".The story of the Project Why Okhla Centre is the story of two women: Sophiya and Pushpa. Sophiya and Pushpa must...
Spair Grace soup and Lemon Grace Tea #GivingTuesday
Spare Grace, Lemongrace, Red Cabies and Badycon were the words proudly displayed by the local vegetable shop now catering to the growing expat clientele. To the uninitiated this translates as asparagus, lemongrass, red cabbage and baby corn!India is a land with...
Celebrating Project Why What have you celebrated this week #socialgood
Sometimes you do not have to look far to find things to celebrate. You simply have to look with your heart. I sometimes kick myself for not taking time to simply stop and savour things around me, more so because I'm blessed to have Project Why which is a constant...
Do Indian Children have the right to dream? #GivingTuesday #India
Child labour is cheap. A child is submissive, and can be made to work under poorly lit and poorly ventilated spaces.A child can be used for stitching, embroidering, weaving rugs and carpets, making matchsticks and firecrackers, and rolling beedis in backbreaking...
Have You Heard about This Extraordinary Boy Named Utpal? #socialgood
There is so much to celebrate at Project Why each and every day, but this week was a very special celebration: Utpal's 14th! To the uninitiated it would have looked like any birthday with cakes and candles and singing and cheering. However, Utpal is a very special...
The women of Project Why #PledgeforParity #GivingTuesday
The project Why WomenProject Why is primarily a children's organization yet right from the beginning, we instinctively reached out to women, the true game changers. No wonder then that it was a woman who helped me seed Project Why.Mataji, the formidable local healer...
What have you been grateful for this week? #socialgood
I am thankful to Damyanti for having introduced me to Lexa's blog Celebrate the Small Things. For the past sixteen years I have been 'celebrating' the small and big joys of life. I run Project Why, an organization based in New Delhi, India, that reaches out...
Will You Help these Children Go to School? #GivingTuesday #Nonprofit
I came across this bunch of happy kids right in front of our Okhla centre at Project Why. They were shy at first, but then it took no time for them to smile and perform for the camera. They made faces and giggled, just being kids!Street children break my heart: the...
Should Street-kids go to Boarding School? #GivingTuesday #India
Is it possible for a child from the slums to shine at an exclusive boarding school?It sounds like a rude question, but wait till you’ve heard about the Project Why Power Girls.Meet Meher, Manisha and Babli.MeherMeher, who topped her class is a third degree burn...
What is the secret to happiness #GivingTuesday #India
We all want to be happy; the question is whether or not we achieve this goal. In a recent post Damyanti Biswas, an Indian writer based in Singapore and friend of Project Why, shares how a bunch of very special souls gave her an insight into how to find happiness. She...
Legislating Change #GivingTuesday #India
Anna Ma'am and her boarding school stars: from left to rightManisha, Aditya, Vicky, Utpal and Yashstanding: Babli and Nikhil The quota debate is back. A statutory government panel has advised enacting legislation that would make it mandatory for private companies...
How do we raise our Children to have Compassion and Empathy? #GivingTuesday #India
Recently, Project Why received a donation from a school in broken cartons and torn plastic bags.We received books with pages missing, copybooks with not a single blank page, and unwearable clothes. The clothes were not washed let alone ironed and some were...
Does #India want its children to be branded by birth ? #GivingTuesday
The past days have seen many Indian dreams smothered before time.Three young girls ended their lives by jumping in a well. A young Dalit scholar ended his life in the hope of rekindling his battle. These lives were sacrificed at the altar of our...
Homeless in Delhi’s Winter #GivingTuesday #India
In the biting cold of the city is is funeral pyres that have come to the rescue of the homeless in the city. A heart wrenching news item aired today showed how many homeless persons huddled around the funeral pyres burning at different cremation sites. I wonder at the...
Learning to ….. #GivingTuesday#India#Education
The new education policy(NEP) is on the anvil. A fancy website invites citizens to participate in its formulation. Consultations and meetings are being held from village to State level. Every one and anyone is invited to the show i.e the drafting of the...
Light up a Child’s Smile
Light up a Child's Smile is a new campaign launched by the Mamagoto restaurants across India. This wonderful venture is the result of serendipitous synchronicity. Yesterday when I received the long anticipated call tell me that WE WERE LIVE, my thoughts...
Hunt for empathy
I recently read the review of a children's book titled The Avrah Stories by Abu Abraham. What caught my eye and I guess my heart was the closing line of the review: and he teaches his little readers a lesson that you are never too young to learn: the importance...
The extraordinary will take care of itself
“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness.Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life.Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and...