Save the Children India is a non-profit organization working towards empowerment of Children, Adolescent Girls and Women through its various education, health and vocational training programs since 1981. We started our Delhi, North India Regional Project center in April 2004, with the humongous project of reaching out to over a Lac of primarily migrant population, of the largest and oldest village of capital city of India, New Delhi – Sarai Kale Khan Village. We started our work with local community support and slowly and steadily gained the confidence of the local allied systems, Government and non Government bodies and managed to establish our trust in the community with the work that we were doing for them. But it was not enough and change was slow till we were introduced to the AWA.

It all started 3 years ago, when we got a call from Beverly Solomon, from Paharpur Business Center (PBC) to give us the cheques received from an Art Auction, organized by PBC under their CSR activity. PBC had decided to give the proceeds collected from sale of paintings to Save the Children India. Ms. Beverly Solomon a then employee at PBC and a member of the AWA visited our Delhi Project center and was impressed enough with the enthusiasm and zest for learning of our adolescent girls. She committed to a weekly weekend visit and sharing session with our adolescent girls. Beverly could speak and understand Hindi and it was amazing to see her interacting with the girls. Girls learnt a lot in the whole process and got really interested in the sessions with her. Beverly introduced us to Ms. Cindy Murdock, an AWA member again who took over the charge of working with and supporting STCI from Beverly, when Beverly had to leave India in an emergency to take care of her ailing mother.

Cindy was all for helping the organization in the development tasks that we had undertaken. We really salute her commitment to the cause. She would come to the center, ask for our requirements and the rationale behind the same and manage to find out by who and how it can be taken care of. To start with she offered her services for any finance, accounts or reporting related project required to be undertaken at the center. She shared with us that the AWA outreach committee can help in sponsoring any genuine and immediate needs that the organization had. An introductory presentation of STCI was then organized at the outreach meeting of AWA. And then slowly all the change happened.

In no time the outreach committee approved and sponsored the then requirements of the organization- Music System, amplifiers, mikes and electric heaters. Outreach members volunteered to visit our center, donate money, give beauty parlor training products, cloth material, old and new Clothes to be used and distributed for the students and people in need.

We were given opportunities to put up stall at the prestigious AWA Holiday Mela and it gave a nice exposure to our girls who make beautiful hand and machine embroidered products. More than raising funds it gave a boost to the morals of our girls and they were motivated to try and make better products. The fee for the stall has always been sponsored till date by Cindy or other AWA members. Just before our participation at the first Mela, Ms. Ujala Hamid and Merium came to our center and helped the balwadi children paint and make cards which were personally sold by them at the mela, also they introduced our organization and the work of the girls to many of their friends and hence increasing the products sale at the mela. Ujala and Merium also collected funds and got made one time uniforms for 60 of our Balwadi Kids. American School kids and the boys scouts got involved and helped us in sale of Hand Gloves and mittens made by our women and girls . The AWA members not only helped in sales they also suggested products that the girls can make and gave expert comments on the products already produced by them to enhance the quality and salability of the same.

Our center had temporary roof of cemented sheets supported only by wooden planks (dangerous for kids to be sitting under them and also making the rooms boil in summers, leak in rainy season and freeze in winters). The walls were not painted, making it look pretty shabby and non exciting for kids. Cindy coordinated with her brother Mr. Tom Gaffey, who presented and convinced his company, Computer Associates in Chicago, USA to sponsor construction of permanent roof for our center. It was a great makeover for our learning center. Cindy and her husband Mr. Rustin Murdock personally sponsored the electrical fittings for our newly renovated center.

The American School Boys Scout lead by Mr. Corner High under the guidance of his father Mr. Thomas High took over the project of painting our learning center. Boys raised funds for the painting of our center and not only that, members of the boys scout personally came and painted the center along with the professional painters and the girls from our community. It was a truly overwhelming project.

AWA outreach committee sponsored 11 sewing machines making our vocational training center a perfect one with each student having a machine to practice on separately.

All through our association with AWA, we were introduced to various members and non members, who helped directly or indirectly and transformed the center and the Educational learning at the center for the better. Ms. Jill Parekh donated educational aids and Cupboards. Ms. Bonnie has been donating cloth material, Ms. Paullette Sides organized the Gifting Tree at the American Embassy and fulfilled the wishes of all kids and adults on Christmas. Julie, Vallerie, Nancy took several sessions with our girls on morality, spirituality, values and such topics. They also helped our girls learn Christmas carols and themselves came with the carol singers for our celebrations giving our kids a different experience all together. Outreach members, Nurses from the American Embassy came over many times to give talk on health and hygiene, H1N1, other diseases to our girls and women and so on.

We were given orders to make jute bags for the American Embassy thrift shop, sweaters for another non profit organization, Christmas stockings and caps etc which has been not just an income generating project but a great learning opportunity too for all of us at STCI. It has given the girls, women and STCI a confidence that their talent is commendable and appreciated by many.

Cindy introduced us to Ms. Jennifer Gillian, another enthusiastic and committed AWA member. She became a regular visitor at the center with Cindy and other members and introduced us to her husband Mr. Dan Gillian, who is working with Boeing. And then all our organizations financial problems were taken care of. Mr. .John Williams, Boeing India head, recognized our efforts and forwarded our proposal for sponsorship of our Education projects for approval to his head office. It was a turning point for STCI’s development programs in the village. Boeing not only sponsored the education, vocational training and health projects already being organized by the STCI, it also supported us to start a brand new anti trafficking project which was a major need in the Sarai Kale Khan Village. Boeing not only gave monitory support, it also made sure that the employees at Boeing got involved personally with the work that they support and hence it was really overwhelming to see all Boeing India Employees, some along with their families attending several of our celebrations and participating with our kids in various programs. Boeing also invited us to put up our products stall during Diwali in their office. Boeing became our life line… thanks to AWA

We had 150 children, adolescent girls and women coming to our center for various projects when we got in touch with AWA 3 years back and now we have 400. We had 4 rooms in our learning center for conducting our programs and now we have an additional awareness hall, a fully operational professional beauty parlor and a state of the art computer center.

We have been able to reach out to many more people than we had targeted earlier.

We know we have a strong support of AWA which we can count on always for any expert suggestion, referral, and assistance in kind or material. AWA has been the driving force for our organization, which made us reach where we are today and reach out to many more community people who need our assistance which wouldn’t have been possible if we were not under the blessing hands of your organization.

AWA you mean a lot to us… and we genuinely value our association…

On March 2nd, I joined a group of AWA members on a site visit to an NGO called Project Aid - Welfare Society. This NGO, started in the 1980’s, works on improving the health and education of children and women living in slums, as well as alleviating poverty by developing income-generating programs for women.

Project Aid works with the slum communities in Sectors 3 and 7 in R.K. Puram. Their facilities include a well–used, converted cargotainer filled with low desks, equipped with lights and a fan (which work when power is available) and a small, adjacent building with several rooms in Sector 3. Project Aid also has a more substantial building housing a class room, computer training room and a library in Sector 7.

During our site visit, Mrs. Rekha Vir (Secretary General of Project Aid) outlined many of Project Aid’s programs including: pre-nursery school classes, tutorial classes for children, talent development classes (card painting and embroidery), computer literacy classes, women’s self-employment projects, including weaving duster cloths for sale and primary health care clinics run weekly in the communities. During our visit, we were able to see the pre-nursery school class. Mrs. Vir explained the goal of this program is to ensure these very young children master the basic skills required to gain admittance into nursery programs and enter the educational system, as well as providing the added benefit of giving each child a meal and childcare for a few hours a day. I first visited Project Aid with a friend, several years ago. She worked with a large group of school-aged children from the community twice a week for two years. Her objective was to improve the children’s English reading comprehension and English-speaking skills. Although these children were already in school, many were trying to improve their English and some were preparing to take tests to attend English medium schools. Using her experience as a teacher, my friend planned lessons and brought supplies and managed a group of volunteers to work one-on-one with students most Saturdays for few hours. During my first visit as a volunteer, I was surprised that some of these students, could “read” an English book out loud, sounding out most of the words, but did not understand what they were reading or were not able to summarize or discuss what they had read. Over time, all the children’s English improved significantly, as well as their confidence.

A number of individuals and organizations (including Ericsson and Rotary Club) have helped Project Aid over the years. Our group from AWA was privileged to witness one of the high school students, Sunil, receiving recognition from Rotary Club for his recent high test marks. Rotary Club gives money to successful students, to spend as they wish, so they will stay in school instead of giving in to pressure to get a job. Three college-aged women also received awards from Rotary Club, to encourage them to stay in school.

Project Aid is always looking for volunteers to meet regularly with students to work on literacy and computer skills. In addition, Mrs. Vir also has a long list of projects she would like to undertake to help the women and children living in the communities. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact the Outreach Committee.

In response to feedback from the recent Outreach Survey, a group of AWA Outreach Committee members traveled to Very Special Arts India, on Friday, March 5th. The VSA India center is located in Sector C of Vasant Kunj, in southern New Delhi. We were hosted by members of the Board of Directors and welcomed by the delightful children who use the center. We were guided through the multi-purpose building which has rooms for computers, stitching, weaving, candle-making, and block printing. We were treated to tea and cookies made by the children and we enjoyed dancing with the children before we left for the day.

Very Special Arts India has been ongoing in Delhi since 1986, founded by a group of terrific people took their passion for creativity to local schools to teach music, dance and visual arts, in an effort to make learning enjoyable. They focused primarily on the guiding of underprivileged and special needs children. Today, VSA India has a center which conducts programs for over one hundred children all-day, Monday thru Friday.

It was a privilege to visit the students and staff at Very Special Arts India, to see the handicrafts that the students produce, and to discover that AWA members can volunteer their time and talents to support this great cause. For more information please see their website at: www.vsaindia.org or contact the Outreach Committee.

Tihar Jail is best described as "Amazing Grace", one of the carols we sang with convicted murderesses and drug traffickers on a recent visit. Only the most hardened convicts are sent to Tihar, Asia’s largest prison complex. AWA’s December 15th trip was truly an eye-opening and uplifting day.

Tihar was once a venal and dangerous place. In 1993, an incredible woman (Kiran Bedi) took over as warden and transformed the prison by promoting art, music, yoga, vocational and university classes. Today, Tihar continues to be an innovative place of reform and rehabilitation for its inmates.

About half the inmates were Indian. I was surprised that the rest were from all over the world: Mozambique, the Philippines, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand etc. The Indians were largely convicted for murder; whereas the foreigners primarily for drug trafficking.

After being thoroughly frisked, stamped and registered at the high security entrance, we found the prison itself entirely unexpected: a pink-walled complex, immaculately clean, with inner courtyards filled with flowers in luxuriant bloom. There were even flowers painted on the cement floors. We met with Kiran Bedi, the visionary behind the prison reform movement in India and visited the women's wing. No prison uniforms are required for the inmates; only for the guards who were everywhere, but remarkably unobtrusive. The warden was affectionately referred to as "Mummy." The inmates, similarly, are referred to as “workers” – a term that lends immediate DIGNITY.

Here's some of what we saw:

• The creche: Female prisoners can keep their kids until age 6. IThe crèche is bright and colorful, filled with animal-shaped furniture and confident children reciting poetry cheerfully and fluently in English. I was so moved when several kids tried to share Santa's candy with me. Santa, by the way, was a Assamese woman with dreadlocks and a mask. While her appearance scared some of the two year olds and made them cry, they were instantly scooped up and comforted in many willing arms. Several lawns were scattered with swings and merry go- rounds.
• The beauty parlor, where the inmates learn a vocation in a fun and nurturing environment while practicing on each other. Most of the inmates looked great: stylish hair cuts, highlights, arched eyebrows.
• The pottery room: where clay is shaped into forms either functional or whimsical. Another vocation to learn.
• The pickle room: where vegetables are pickled for the jail canteen and for sale to the public.
• The sewing room: where clothes are fashioned and repairs are made. Tailoring can be a profitable trade once outside the prison walls.
• The weaving room: where they make beautiful things - we shopped up a storm. My family’s favorite Christmas stockings are the ones I picked up at Tihar. It was in this room where we sang carols, shared cake and cookies and gifts with the workers. The woolens AWA members handed out to the workers were hugely appreciated – Delhi winters are bone chilling. But what, warmed our hearts the most, was the excitement with which our Christmas carol songsheets were received. The lyrics to the songs of the season became instantly prized possessions to be shared, learned and sung inside the prison walls.

All workers have bank accounts and all are paid a stipend for their work. Many earn enough to send money back home to help their families. Most live better inside the prison walls than they would have outside of it. And yet, the rehabilitation rates are so high that once released, very few come back.

Activities are optional - women can choose what trade they would like to learn. There is complete freedom of worship - a secular space that celebrates Diwali, Id, Christmas, etc. My favorite quote from the warden: "At Karva Chaut (a Hindu festival where wives fast all day for the well being of their husbands), even women who have murdered their husbands join the festivities."

Inmates referred to each other as friends and sisters and the prison as an "oasis", a "refuge", an "ashram." Tihar is a remarkable example of how an approach of reform vs. punishment can transform lives. Kudos to Kiran Bedi, and to those who have followed in her footsteps. The "Tihar" brand of products helps finance many of the activities. NGOs pitch in as well. The AWA has supported Tihar Jail for over 10 years.