In November 2009 we were in New Delhi on a business trip when we were introduced by a colleague to “Project Why” in the slums of New Delhi. The project is the idea of Anouradha Bakshi who started nine years ago to try to make a long term difference to the lives of the children who are born and raised here by asking a very simple question, Why?
As tourists these slums and the children they contain would certainly not have been on our Itinery and in the year before India’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games precious little extra attention appears to have been paid to the children whose only playgrounds are the construction sites of the new elevated flyovers or city metro extensions that are being built to serve the needs of the affluent visitors to the games.
In India the state school system does not accept children until they are six years old. By this time the child may have been begging on the street for three years, because their family cannot otherwise afford to feed them.
Their parents cannot read or count so at the age of six when they arrive at school, their development is so restricted that the teachers, with the best will in the world cannot spare them the time that they need to get onto the first rung of the ladder of their education.
The primary children spend their school years barely read or write with little help from home because their poor and illiterate parents cannot give them help or afford the extra tuition they need to enable them to pass their examinations.
Project Why started in 2000 with 40 children attending a spoken English class then as the variety and scale of the children’s problems became more apparent the scope of Project Why’s response also grew.
A crèche was set up, then after school tuition for primary and secondary kids.
There was a bunch of handicapped children whose school had shut down and who were left on the street. Project Why gave them a much needed day care centre and made it available to all children with disabilities.
Slowly the project why family grew from 40 to 800. Today it also runs a womens centre where women are taught vocational skills, and along the way the project has managed to raise funds for 15 open-heart surgeries for children from the poorest homes.
Project why runs with a staff of about 40. The staff are all drawn from within the same community that the project serves, thus Project Why has also created employment for people previously thought unemployable.
One story, not untypical of the assistance the project provides is Munna’s.
Munna is 13, he has learning difficulties and attends the “Project Why” day centre.
He lives in a single room, with his three siblings and his mother. The family first came to the attention of the project five years ago after floods washed away what little land they had and forced them into the city. Munna’s father found work, beating iron, for £12.50 per day and with that was attempting to provide for his family. Munna and his younger brother Vicky became regulars at “Project Why”, his sister Sapna went to school and the youngest, Sakuntala, stayed at home.
The family can’t afford electricity so have a single oil lamp and when the children are hungry, their mother breast feeds them.
Their lives were never easy but they managed the daily struggle with quiet dignity.
Munna’s father eventually found a better job, as a bus conductor, and the family seemed stable, but tragedy stalked them. It struck when their bus was involved in an accident and a man died.
The driver managed to get away but Munna’s father was caught and was put in jail.
Munna’s mother is a simple lady who can barely communicate in Hindi.. When asked how she would manage to feed her family till her husband came back she answered: “We brought bag a bag of rice from the village.”
“Project Why” cared for the family until Munna’s father was released and was once again able to work.
Today Munna regularly attends the day centre, his sister Sapna attends state school near her home, Vicky, along with four other “Project Why” children, is at boarding school where last term he was top of his year 2 class, and his younger sister, Sakuntala, attends the “Project Why” pre school crèche.
The story of Munna’s family may not be typical but it shouts of the commitment that the “Project Why” team have for anyone who needs them.
Anouradha and her small team of volunteers have achieved more than any of them could have dreamed nine years ago, but the job is not finished.
When the children of the slums of Delhi, having been given a pre school start and the help they need to graduate, being able to read and write and count, they still have a huge barrier to overcome before they can use that education to earn money.
It is simply that the children from the slums are not expected to be able to read and write and therefore the jobs where a degree of literacy is required are still not open to them.
This brings us to the final piece of the long term “Project Why” puzzle that aims to give the most disadvantaged children of the slums the same chance as any other to achieve an education and to use that education to earn money to support their families. A Job.
The “Project Why” plan is already laid and involves the building of a Guest House, or Hotel, under the project name “Planet Why” http://planetwhy.blogspot.com/.
The Guest House will employ children educated through “Project Why” and will give them the practical training that they require in the hospitality industry that will enable them to find permanent jobs outside the project, within the same industry.
The plans for the Guest House have already been drawn, the land required has been bought and permission to build granted. The final piece of the “Planet Why” puzzle is ready. The only thing left is to put the first spade in the ground.
Every Rupee of “Project Why” cash is committed to their current projects and the team is very aware that the guest house has to be built with new donations to avoid compromising any of the existing projects.
For this reason we are committed to raising the Five Hundred pounds per month income they require through single donations or through donors making monthly commitments to the project bank account.
This money will guarantee a future for the current projects and therefore allow funds to be raised for the construction of the “Planet Why” Guest House.
We are looking for donations of any size that will take us towards that total.
Donations can be made direct to the project account in the UK.
Lloyds TSB sort code 30-98-79 Account name Project Why, Acc Number 00257905
For Tax purposes this account does not yet qualify for charitable status
More information is available at the “Project Why” website and blogs at www.projectwhy.org and on the Breaking the Mould website at www.breakingthemould.co.uk/Projectwhy
Peter A Hunter
Author – Breaking the Mould
www.breakingthemould.co.uk