With Love, from Vatsalya

VATSALYA “ With Love, from Vatsalya” www.vatsalya.org Volume 3: May 2009

Summer is here. The temperatures are rising, making it very difficult to work outdoors. For children at Udayan, special provision of fresh lemon juice in the evening and Lassi in the morning has begun. School begins at 7 and closes at 11 and after lunch, no one is allowed outside till 5.30 in the evening. (If it wasn’t a ‘punishable offence’, some children would be playing Cricket even at 45-46 degree Celsius!). The birds and animals can be seen exhausted and panting and children have made special arrangements for them to have enough water, not only to drink but also to have an occasional bath. The family of geese the newly arrived rooster family, the white pigeons, the visiting kingfishers, crows, sparrows and parakeets - all can be seen taking a dip now and then to get some relief from the sweltering heat. A special thatched hut is constructed for the pet dogs - Yenni; the German Shepherd and Pepsi; the Pomeranian who all lie lazily all day on their wet mud beds. The dust storms are a constant nuisance and cover almost everything with dry sand. We don’t mind ‘biting the dust’ but sometimes they blow away the tin shades and fell the trees. However, there are some good things too, about summers: Sleeping under the vast open blue sky and feeling the stars almost within reach is the best part of the summers. Then, we have more night-sports in summer, which is great fun. And, we also have Mangoes in summer! The Event of the Year! Five children; who appeared in Grade VIII exams, had their results declared this month. Following are the details:

*Mukesh-84% *Giriraj-83% *Anmol-82% *Pooja-76% *Aryan-75% VATSALYA

The hard work of the staff was suitably rewarded by children scoring these marks. The children themselves worked hard - no TV watching for almost 3 months. And it was their own decision; no restrictions were imposed on them. Friends, I must mention two major aspects of the children’s performance here:

 Firstly, the Grade VIII exam is very important for the children here, as it is the first time in their schooling that they have an external board conducting their exams. Thus, this is a real test of their knowledge.  Secondly, most of these children are made to jump classes- from III Grade to V, from V to VII and so on. It is done here at Udayan to let the children bridge the gap between their chronological age and their academic progress. We do it carefully with children who can handle the pressure of studying more and enjoy the challenge.

Thus, this is a real achievement for our children as well as the staff. The last batch (Shahina, Manju, Chandani and Mohit) had scored 72-76% in their VIII Grade exams. The children of Vatsalya are definitely setting higher standards for themselves little by little! The next step! Besides the 5 children who passed VIII, 3 children appeared in the Xth Board exams this year and 7 children appeared in the Xth Board through the National Open School. All these 15 children are between 16 and 19 years of age and have entered a very crucial stage now. While they have a choice to continue studying further, the time has also come for them to decide and follow the career they wish to pursue. It will also be decided as to whether or not they will continue to stay under the care and protection of Vatsalya.

We are holding a 3- Day Workshop with all the 15 children this month. The main aim will be to discuss their preparedness for becoming independent. Their profile with reference to their progress in academic and vocational fields, their potential and other attributes including their conduct at Udayan, their ability to work hard and to commit to higher goals would be some of the major focal-points of the workshop. This is going to be an VATSALYA intense three-day effort with the children, at the end of which we should be able to decide what would be the next step for each of them.

Each of these children has a unique background and a distinct past. Some are orphaned and some have a parent or relative somewhere from whom they separated years ago. Having been at Vatsalya, they have been able to process and consolidate their feelings regarding their past and are ready to move on. For instance, Mohit (18), who we found working in a roadside restaurant at the age of 13, had told us that he was an orphan. Later he shared with us that he had run away from home after his mother committed suicide. He blamed his father for it. We began working on it and were able to establish that it was a tragedy for which the man had never forgiven himself. He was permitted to visit Mohit occasionally and was sent home to be with him a couple of times. The relationship between the father and son is very positive now. Mohit said to us last week “…My father needs me, he is alone”. We were expecting that he would work as a Computer Teacher at Udayan while pursuing higher studies but….of course, we have to let him go. We have begun to realise that it will be very difficult to part with the children. All these years we have invested in making them independent and find their own destiny but now, when the time has come for letting them go, honestly, we don’t like it. It will be really hard to let them go….! Other major events… Volunteers: Mr. Hugo; a 70 year ‘young man’; who was among the 12-member team from Belgium that visited last October, came back to Udayan in February. Mr. Hugo, or “Opa Ji” as he was fondly called by the children stayed 2 months and contributed in various ways through his wisdom and silent dedication. Back home, as he continues to hold our children close to his heart, he is compiling his thoughts and experience in a document. He sent us a page from his diary: January 21st, 2008:

It is so heart-warming to be here. I feel like being not so far from home; could it be that Udayan has become my second home?

I feel accepted completely by the children, accepted like I am with a lot of friendship, attachment, open minded, eager to learn, trustful – in one word, love. VATSALYA

I believe this place on earth, is a micro-wonder. This is a place to be loved and cherished- A place on earth where through internal energy of mankind, love becomes a verb and not just a word.

For sure love takes a start where people are prepared to share joy and sorrow, failing and progress, pain and kindness, fear for the present but hope for the future, and showing this all to each other and go the same way, like I did every day in Udayan on Mother Theresa Path together with the children!

Other volunteers are: Laura Jane from Holland; Sylvie Lombart from France and Signe Adler Nissen from Denmark. They are here for 2-3 months and one of the major responsibilities they are shouldering is that of developing our first GREEN LAWN at Udayan! It is quite a challenge in this arid zone. Louise from England visited for a second time and stayed for 3 weeks. A very special visit was made by two experts who volunteered to donate their time and skill in photography to Vatsalya. Neil Brander from the US and Jean Marie from Belgium stayed with Vatsalya for over two weeks and took over 3000 pictures covering a range of activities and interventions carried out by Vatsalya. We have a great collection now to represent our work effectively and without saying many words!

Udayan is now connected to the Internet… While it would be a great source of learning for our children, the volunteers staying at Udayan now can stay connected with their friends and families even in this remote piece of land…!

Udayan also has two new cows…. We had a considerable shortage of milk in Udayan since last 3-4 few months. The little ones did not get their extra glass of milk in the evening and some older children did not even get their regular morning milk. This was the result of loosing some animals in our dairy. Thanks to Mr. Hugo and Alexis Young who donated their collection to Udayan, we have now two new healthy cows in our diary! The heart warming sight of Aayush, Apoorv, Aakash, Chanda, Shivanshi and Rehaan lined up outside kitchen, saying “Karan Uncle, Doodh” is back!!

A publication about Udayan… VATSALYA

Patricia from Ireland stayed at Udayan and also in one another NGO in western India (Maharashtra State). She documented her experiences and reflections in her book titled “India, India. . . Diaries of a Volunteer”. It is a very interesting description of how a volunteer feels and copes with the intense diverse culture of India. To know more about it, please connect with Patricia at [email protected]

Sponsorships status… The Global recession is impacting us all in different ways. Some of our partners conveyed with a great sense of sadness that they would not be able to continue with their financial support this year. They made it clear that it had nothing to do with our changed approach on sponsorship and that they would come back as and when it was possible for them to do so. It is absolutely understandable. We deeply value their commitment to Vatsalya and appreciate their being with us in spirit…!

Vatsalya’s new website… It’s brand new now! We have reorganized some of the old things for easy reading and added a few new things. One of them is “Accolades” in the “About Us” section. It has messages from people who visited Vatsalya at some point of time. You might be able to read your own words there! We also have added a visual presentation of Vatsalya’s work with children, women and men: thanks to the dedicated and skilled work of Conrad Chavez, Neil Brander, Jean Marie and Nadia Wikborg…!

Thank you very much for your time- It is a pleasure to connect with you all through this newsletter… Warm regards, Jaimala