by anouradha bakshi | Sep 3, 2019 | Anou's Blog
We are the World Blogfest (WATWB) is about positive stories no matter where they come from. It is about remembering that there is good around you, all you need to do is look with your heart. Today I would like to invite you to a little beauty parlour located in the hustle and bustle and dusty lanes of Madanpur Khadar, where for a few hours a day a bunch of women from deprived homes come together in the hope of changing their lives.
For the past 10 years now in a tiny corner of the Project Why Khadar is a small room that houses a minuscule beauty parlour where scores of women come everyday to learn the art of becoming a beautician. Most of them come from very traditional homes in the hope that learning this skill will help them break barriers and gain financial independence. Every year over 120 women get their diplomas and go on to take their first step in a new world. Most become small entrepreneurs and work from their homes or from their client’s homes, some take a bolder step and open a small parlour of their own.
The tiny parlour is beautifully decorated in bright colours with pictures on the wall and in spite of the paucity of space it has its beautician chair, its massage table and even its hair spa steamer. Every day 4 batches of ladies come to this haven of beauty and learn the intricacies of beauty therapy. They are taught by Shanta, a feisty and brave woman who did not let a terrible tragedy alter the course of her life. Last year Shanta lost her husband in tragic circumstances but came back to teaching as soon as she could. She knew that her job was the only way to secure the future of her children. A befitting example for her students!
The ladies are taught all the skills required to become a full fledged beautician: from simple manicure and pedicures, to threading and waxing; from hair cutting to complex hair styling; from facials to bridal make up, from henna application to hair colouring, from head massage to hair spa, everything you can imagine is taught in that tiny space. What makes this unique parlour so special is the joyful atmosphere that prevails at all times. You can always hear laughter and giggles from behind the closed door as this is a women-only space.
For these women who often live lonely lives in their patriarchal homes, coming to class is also a social event as they can share their problems and stories with other women and be heard and even helped. It is undoubtedly the highlight of their day.
I feel so grateful and blessed when I see these women as they take charge of their lives. I feel immense pride in having been able to help them do so.
If you are in Delhi, please come and visit the ladies of the Project Why beauty parlour. It will warm the cockles of your heart.
by anouradha bakshi | May 31, 2019 | Anou's Blog
“I fell in love with Project Why and India and I want to help as much as I can even from 7000 km away. Project Why is like a family for me and I want to share how wonderful Project Why is with people here in Europe” Claire De Felice Volunteer from Luxembourg.
For We are the World Blogfest I want to share a simple love story. The story of a young woman of substance who came to Project Why and fell in love with India and Project Why, as we fell in love with her.
The genesis of this unique love story goes back half a century to a friendship cemented in college, a friendship that withstood the test of time! Prajna my old friend wrote to me last year about the daughter of dear friends of hers, Claire, wanting to come to India and spend some time in an NGO. Prajna suggested Project Why.
Claire wrote to me saying she was interested in women’s empowerment, and wanted to visit Project Why. I must admit I was a little worried as our primary work is with children but told her she was welcome as we did have a women’s empowerment programme.
I first met Claire a few days after her arrival and was immediately taken in by her quiet yet incredibly warm persona. We talked for a long time and as I shared the Project Why journey with her I realised that we had done quite a lot for women be it the women who we had employed and skilled to take on many roles, or the girls that were getting an education thanks to our work. Project Why was undoubtedly a very women-oriented organisation. We decided that this could be the direction of her work with us: document the role of the women of project Why! At that moment none of us knew what was awaiting us.
It was the time we had launched an online fundraiser that needed a lot of social media support and we at project why were quite social media challenged. Our mentor was Damyanti who guided us over numerous phone calls and Whatsapp messages and we did our best. Claire gently suggested that she could help us as she was not only a mean lenswoman but also quite savvy on social media. I connected her to Damyanti and both of them took over. The rest is history as the fundraiser was a great success.
What endeared Claire to me as I slowly got to know her was her willingness to help wherever she was needed and her ability to get along with each and every one, be it a student or a teacher. She was all heart and could establish a link with anyone in a jiffy. Everyone just loved her. And being all heart she instinctively knew that we needed help and decided that she would do all she could to help us.
Many of her friends generously donated to our fundraiser and knowing our difficulties with social media she decided to take over our Instagram and still does it today from 7000 km away. Upon her return, Claire wrote an article on how Project Why empowers women.
A few weeks ago she told me she was planning a fundraiser and on May 21st organised one in Brussels where she invited some eminent personalities from the European Parliament!
Claire’s relationship with Project Why did not end with the seven weeks she spent with us. It has gone beyond as the bonds established transcend space and time. She has left an indelible mark in our hearts and we think of her as family! We now look forward to her coming back.
People like Claire restore faith in humanity as they exemplify all that is good. For me personally, they give me the strength to carry on, particularly in times when things look bleak and even scary.
Today we stand on very fragile ground. We need to find long-term support to be able to carry on our work of twenty years. The fear of not being able to keeps me awake at night but then just remembering the smile and quiet confidence of a young woman like Claire gives me hope and the courage to soldier on.
Thank you Claire for being who you are.
This post was the 24th installment of the monthly We Are the World Blogfest: I’d like to invite you to join, if you haven’t as yet, to post the last Friday o
f each month a snippet of positive news that shows our essential, beautiful humanity.
The co-hosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk, Mary Giese, Dan Antion and Damyanti Biswas.
Here’s a sampler of this blogfest. Click here to know more. Sign up here and add your bit of cheer to the world on the next installment of June 28, 2019!
You can find Project WHY on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Please help us change the future, one life at a time.
by anouradha bakshi | Mar 29, 2019 | Anou's Blog
A few weeks back we launched a fundraiser to help four teachers of Project Why save their school from closing.
This school has an incredible story. It was set up more than 15 years ago by two incredible women Pushpa and Sophiya to help children who were being abused by predators, looking for hands to steal and push drugs.
These children were from an industrial area bereft of any school and were left to their own devices by parents too busy surviving. The catch was, that in this area, there was no place to start a centre as barring factories and tiny settlements in empty spaces there was no space that could be used. This did not deter our formidable duo and they found a space that was a garbage dump. Where others saw squalor and filth, they could see a school and hope. It took their determination and a few trucks of mud to reclaim a space large enough to start a school under a plastic sheet held by four bamboo poles. There was no looking back.
Today over 350 children come to our Okhla Centre where classes from I to XII are held and many have graduated and gone on to take their place in the sun. Along the way a computer centre run by incredible Mithu was set up to ensure that the children have IT skills. The secondary section is spearheaded by Naresh who has the ability to turn failures into toppers! It is a win-win situation.
Today this school has lost its main funder and is at risk of closing down. To keep it open and give us time to find a long term solution, it is critical that we are able to pay the salaries of our staff for the next few months and that is why we launched this fundraising campaign.
We are nearing the end of the campaign and have managed to raise the funds. This was made possible by the wonderful way in which old and new friends came together and reached out with their support. The magic of the Internet allowed us to reconnect with many old friends and supporters and I am so touched by how each and everyone responded with so much love and generosity.
What was also overwhelming was the number of new friends we made during this campaign.
With help from our dear friend Damyanti Biswas, we were able to organise a Blogathon that helped us reach out to more people and I was touched beyond words by those who blogged for our cause, and shared the campaign on their networks allowing us to reach out to a wider audience. Many of them contributed generously to our cause and thanks to each one of them our Okhla school may get the breather it so needs.
With the help of old and new friends we have been able to do what may have seemed impossible: Save our Okhla School.
I have no words to express my gratitude. The fundraiser closes in 2 days, but anything extra raised will go to Our Okhla Centre.
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.
