“I stopped at a signal and some kids knocked on my car window asking for money. There were some other kids with them and I saw that they were playing with discarded birthday party materials like an empty cake box, caps, plastic knife, etc. Someone must have thrown those things and these kids picked them up to celebrate a makeshift birthday...no cake, nothing,” remembers Avijit.After this, the signal turned green - the kids went back to the roadside, waiting for it to turn red again so they could resume begging, and everyone went on with their lives. But Avijit could not get the image of kids celebrating a fake birthday party with things collected from the garbage out of his head.
He thought about it all the way while driving, and by the time he reached his office, an idea was brewing in his head.
[caption id="attachment_36593" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Avijit Bajpai[/caption]
“It was simple. I wanted to spend some time with street children like the ones I saw, and spread smiles in the process,” he says.
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So he went ahead and posted a tweet saying he wanted to celebrate birthday parties with needy children from the slums of Delhi. The tweet evoked a big response – with many people tweeting back that they too would be interested in doing something similar. Avijit then formed a Facebook group of people who wanted to join him and named it Happy Birthday Bharat.
Their first event took place in the last week of July, 2015. The group had about 50 people by then, and around 15 of them, including Avijit, gathered in Connaught Place (CP) one Sunday.
[caption id="attachment_36588" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Birthday celebration[/caption]
“All of us just went to CP and we were very confused about what to do and how to do it.” The first big challenge was how to fund the birthday party that they were planning to throw. “We decided we would pitch in with equal contributions and go ahead with whatever amount gets collected. Each of us put in about Rs. 500-600, and the accumulated sum was enough for our first party with about 15-20 kids,” recalls Avijit.Like always, CP had a lot of street children. Some were begging and some were selling things like pens, toys, etc. The first thing the team did was to buy everything that a couple of kids were selling, so they would be free from the day's labour. Since most children had no idea about their birthdays, two of the youngest kids from the gathering of about 20 were selected, a boy and a girl, and it was decided that their birthdays would be celebrated.
In a park, the kids were welcomed with a cake, some colourful birthday caps, colouring books, jigsaw puzzles, and music.
[caption id="attachment_36590" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Painting competition in a birthday party[/caption]
And from here on, the party, so to speak, has continued.
[caption id="attachment_36592" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Every cake has Happy Birthday Bharat written on it[/caption]
According to Avijit, Happy Birthday Bharat is not an organization. It is a citizen initiative and does not have any formal structure of operation as of now.
Today, the group has more than 2,200 active members on Facebook and birthday parties for over 200 children have already been organized in 10 different cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune.
[caption id="attachment_36587" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
A real birthday[/caption]
Many people who are not even a part of the group, but like the idea, are also going ahead and organizing parties in their own way. In Delhi itself, parties have been organized about 10 times in different areas like CP, Gurgaon Sector 14 market, Noida Sector 18 market, Kamla Nagar, on the premises of an organization called 'Can Kids...Kids Can,' which is a hostel for underprivileged children fighting cancer, etc.
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These birthday parties are not just about a cake-cutting ceremony. They are real parties, the kind that the kids watch on TV or witness being celebrated in the homes where they go to work.
[caption id="attachment_36589" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
More than just cakes[/caption]
Every Wednesday, people from different cities coordinate on the Happy Birthday Bharat Facebook page to check who is in which area and how many people can come together for a party at a particular location.
They then chip in financially. The parties have activities like story telling, quizzes with chocolates as prizes, jigsaw puzzles for the kids to solve, lots of music, and dancing. The cake always has ‘Bharat’ written on it, and the venue is never fixed. They go to places like parks, restaurants, malls, or empty spaces on the roadside. When it comes to gifts, everyone attending the party gets one, and sometimes the gifts are selected by the kids themselves.
They get slippers/shoes, books, watches, clothes, toys, and more.
[caption id="attachment_36591" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Everyone gets a gift[/caption]
"During one celebration, the parents of a kid were also there. When we asked them what they wanted for a gift, they asked for a week’s rations. So we bought this for them," informs Avijit.
As for the funds, everyone chips in, and Avijit refuses to take help from different organizations or individuals who are willing to offer money.
"I refuse because all I actually want to do is spend time with these kids. Chipping in with Rs. 500-1,000 in a month is more like giving up on just a movie ticket for most of us."But for these street kids, who are not even sure where their next meal in the day is coming from, is a birthday party once in a while enough? What is the larger purpose of this initiative?
"My initial idea was very basic – of some people going to the market, meeting these kids, and spending time with them. But as I saw the traction, and heard stories of these kids, I am now thinking of expanding this into something bigger," says Avijit, who has heard many heart breaking accounts of the challenges these children face.
In their first birthday party in CP, when Avijit asked young Ashila's mother why she did not send her daughter to school, saying that they would be willing to take care of all the expenses involved, she just told them that begging was a family tradition. She did it, her father did it, and now her daughter would do it too.
He once met a kid who polishes shoes in Gurgaon and all that he wanted as a birthday gift was school admission for his sister.
Unfortunately, when the team tried to spot him during their next visit, they could not find the boy. Keeping such stories in mind, and the fact that they are all working professionals and will not be able to do follow-ups, Avijit is now looking at collaborating with different NGOs working in various fields, which can keep track of these children and work with them.
While Happy Birthday Bharat may have been his brainchild, Avijit believes all the people involved are owners in this initiative – Kunal Bauva and Hardik Joshi from Mumbai, Premlata Rai, Arun P Khot, Gulshan Perrera, and Nikhil from Delhi, and many others in the 2,000+ strong team.
“People are very motivated about this initiative. Some volunteers even take their families to meet the kids and have a good time with them,” concludes Avijit.You can know more about the group here.
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A child labourer at a brick kiln[/caption]
Bharat also gave his headmaster a postcard addressed to Aide et Action. It had been given to him by the NGO and the headmaster used it to inform the organisation that Bharat had indeed been reintegrated into school in Class 3. Not only Bharat, this year all 1515 children who migrated with their parents will be reintegrated in schools in their source areas by the end of July, hopes Saroj Ku Barik, Programme Officer, MiRC, Aide-et-Action in Bhubaneswar.
Every year, thousands of children from different districts migrate with their families to work at brick kilns in Odisha and other states. Since they stay out of school for 6-8 months, they are unable to cope with their studies once they return; they become dropouts. Unfortunately, some of them also work as child labourers.
Reintegration letter and postcard[/caption]
Kalpana Satish Pawar[/caption]
The study of street children in Mumbai found that 34.9% had an injury and 18.9% had a fever in the past three months. Only about one-third of the children received any help with the illness or injury.
Kalpana is one of these children too.
Her father, 
Thanks to this school, when Kalpana was down with a fever last month, she was taken to the hospital by volunteers working at Signal Shala. She was diagnosed with malaria and the school took care of all her medical requirements.
Kalpana loves to come to Signal Shala.[/caption]
She sells gajras (flower garlands) after school is over. But her little eyes are full of wonder and hope now. Since the day her teacher taught her about different modes of transport, her only dream is to fly an aeroplane. She wants to become a pilot when she grows up.
Spark volunteers with the students of the Government School in Kamand[/caption]
The program ‘Spark’, which was initiated in June 2015, focuses on providing academic as well as extra-curricular inputs to four government schools located in the villages of Neri, Kamand, Katindhi, and Kataula.
Spark focuses on fun learning for classes 6-9, for about 150 students from all the schools combined.
Speaking of the various activities taken up by the students, Rohit Verma, the coordinator of Spark, says, “There’s no set format. Sometimes we sit down and study from a textbook to clarify doubts, while sometimes we’re on the floor with our laptops showing the children videos or teaching them the basics of computers. Sometimes we are out of the classroom, doing different outdoor activities. It’s a free-flowing structure, nothing is rigid.”
Spark is the brainchild of two IIT students, Anuraj GP and Prateek Gauba, who initiated it last year; their work has been carried forward by their juniors ever since the duo graduated and left the campus. It has received an enthusiastic response from among the student community and now the team has over 50 members.
Students of the Government School, Neri learning computer with Spark volunteers[/caption]
The IIT students also teach the children how to use PCs. “We observed that many students were afraid to touch computers; they just admired them from a distance. So we started taking our laptops to the schools and taught the children the basics – how to use the internet, email, and so on.”
Although the Spark programme is still in its nascent stage, the IIT students have big plans for the future. They have recently started maintaining a database of the children, under which they have collected each student’s academic record. “We have collected personal information like the age, occupation and contact number of the parents, along with their previous academic records. We intend to keep updating this database, which will help us figure out the best strategies to train the students. It’ll reveal to us trends and patterns in their learning and we’ll also be able to learn if our methods are giving good results,” concludes Rohit.
Hampi from across the river[/caption]
As India’s bouldering capital, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a backpacker haven now part of the aptly named “Hummus Trail”, its reputation cannot help but precede it. Backpacking friends from as far as Poland, Switzerland and Bali had told me how much they loved ‘just hangin’ out’ here. Bouldering in the day, making music in the evenings, and taking in the views and the general air of insouciance. I wondered about the quaint old Hampi I knew, the way one might wonder about an old classmate who from all accounts seems an entirely different person now.
Once upon a time, a Hampi trip meant temples, temples, and more temples. History and heritage served hot on a platter of sun-baked boulders and quiet village life, with a side of coconuts from the palm trees nearby. While this still remains the main course on the tourism menu here, several other offerings of various kinds now embellish the temple town, catering particularly to low budgets and high spirits.
Some moment of every trip finds me dropping all pre-conceived notions of the place and letting it meet me as it is. After a short boat ride, this sunset marked that moment for me. Chasing away the labels I’d unwittingly piled onto the place, in exchange for a moment of stunning simplicity.[/caption]
Speaking of simplicity, this impromptu live music gig by Hampi’s kids and Gali, the local rockstar, made for a charming evening on the boulders.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0YtIlbUkMg[/embed]
These kids had clambered up the boulders to sell chai to the travellers. Circled by the little mob, Gali announced with all the flourish of a proud teacher, “And now the sweet children of Hampi will sing for us,” in the same breath switching to Kannada to scold the kids into behaving. Thanks to my linguistic advantage, it multiplied my entertainment the way he squeezed in low-volume Kannada admonishments between high-volume English praises for these kids, who somehow merited both simultaneously. Drums, didgeridoos, guitars, and an assortment of singing voices filled the air as did squabbles and laughter.
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A view made sweeter by the music[/caption]
A recycled cycle now serves as a creative earring-stand at one of the many street shops[/caption]
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Hampi and the art of motorcycle maintenance. A local washes his bike in the river.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_72049" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
A resourceful traveller finds a cool meditation spot under an upturned coracle (a round boat) drying in the midday heat.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_72050" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
A tucked-away tree dressed in rags between piles of stones. I was told they represented the locals’ prayers to heal their loved ones.[/caption]
Someone wise once said, “It’s not an adventure unless you’re miserable at some point.” This little truism loves making itself known on almost every trip. Case in point: an afternoon spent looking for a much-hyped waterfall among the boulders. The seemingly innocent trip turned memorable when we couldn’t find our way back to civilization. With no food/water under the scorching sun, we precariously tackled one boulder after another in slippery flip-flops. The growing thirst and hunger weren’t fun either. A lot of unforeseen bouldering and some wicked bruises later, we chanced upon a local. The good samaritan offered to guide us out – for the grand sum of Rs. 100.
Hampi rocks![/caption]
To get our mojo back after that scorching adventure, some foot reflexology and back massages seemed just the ticket. Ganga at the 
Namita (leftmost)[/caption]
Namita was born in Delhi. Her parents had moved to the city from Assam, compelled by hopes of rising above the abject poverty and property disputes with family back home. They didn’t quite get what they came for.
With no qualifications or urban skills to ply, they found work rag-picking and managed, barely, to make ends meet. With the birth of Namita and her siblings, moving back to Assam stopped being an option. A family of 11, Delhi was their best and possibly only chance at survival.
As far as she can remember, Namita has been surrounded by waste. Living in a resettlement colony comprised entirely of rag pickers, there was little else in sight. Vast, veritable mountains of waste that she and her friends jumped about and played in. When they weren’t sorting through them, that is.
Rag pickers start young. Namita was one among many girls in her neighbourhood who began sorting and recycling waste as soon as she could differentiate colours and materials. She worked all hours of the day to supplement her family’s meagre income.
Around the time Namita turned six, 
“We never realised we were holding our children back. Until we met the team, we thought it made sense to have our kids work with us. But now they go to school and learn everything from numbers to the science behind recycling. They’ll have far more success in life than they ever could rag-picking,” says Mala, Namita’s mother.
Namita and Mala are some of the fiercest advocates for programmes run by Plan India and CASP. When a fire broke out in their neighbourhood consuming their homes and all their life’s belongings, the team provided them with food, provisions, and shelter until they got back on their feet.
“My mother ran screaming into our hut while it was engulfed in flames because my baby sister was inside. They’re safe and healthy now because the team helped when nobody else did”, Namita recalls.
An ambitious young girl, Namita wants to help her community by working with and teaching children.
“I want to learn so I can teach the kids in my community and all other underprivileged children everything I know,” Namita proclaims confidently. She, Mala, and the rest of their family have turned their lives around. They have many plans for their future and even more determination to see them through.
Says Namita with a flourish, “I see a whole other part of the world with every visit from a different country office. Australia, Thailand, China, Japan… Someday, I’ll go in person. But first, I’m off to finish school and to be the teacher my community needs. There’s so much more to life than scraps!”
Give the gift of an education to a child by donating to 
“Material support is necessary to secure student participation & community involvement,” shares Harish Chandra Bera, Head Teacher of this government Primary School. He should know, since he has played a critical role in the gradual process of behavioural change in this school with material as motivation under Goonj’s School to School (S2S) initiative.
School to school (S2S) is about addressing the educational needs of thousands of schools and Anganwadis in remote and resource-starved village/slums by channelizing under-utilized school material from affluent city schools in a dignified and impactful way.
The scheme uses school material from urban schools in village schools, as a tool, as motivation, for behavior change on key parameters like hygiene, attendance, learning, etc. This philosophy was implemented at Andharisole primary school as well. The process started by establishing a proper library in the school, with the responsibility to maintain it given to the school. When this met with success, a computer was provided to the school. It was the first computer not only in the school, but in the entire area. The initiative’s workers arranged an exposure visit for the School Head Teacher to some of the best Kolkata schools.
As a result, some important changes started in this school around inculcating basic habits among the students. The students were slowly involved in the day-to-day activities of school maintenance and cleanliness.
Today, the school has a student council of its own, consisting of a Prime Minister and other ministers who look after food, health & sanitation, sports, cultural activities, and other aspects. On the school’s 36th anniversary, it opened a community resource centre where students from outside the village come and learn. This change affected the local community as well, motivating and involving people in clearing up the path to the village. The villagers used the cut down bushes to build a boundary fence for the school.
People also made the school kitchen garden (providing nutrition for 36 students) in return for family kits. As a result, the community’s interest and involvement in the children’s studies and parent-teaching meetings increased. The Gram Pradhan promised to include the school’s bamboo fencing in MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme). Recently (April 2015), they fulfilled the promise by completing a brick boundary wall from the Panchayat funds. That’s the result of mobilizing the community!
Child development specialists say that the environment a child gets in their early years leaves a lasting impact. The primary school in Andharisole is giving its students something we all want our children to learn in their schools. Dedicated teachers like Harish Chandra Vehra make a big difference in the quality of learning for their students. Material facilitated the behavioral change in the students while the students took the initiative to change their own learning experience.
While gaps in village schools are obvious, highlighting this makes urban children more responsible, sensitized, and aware citizens.
In the last many years the S2S initiative has engaged children from over 200 city schools across India. They learned some important life lessons about compassion, the joy of giving, saving our environment, and taking action for change.
It’s this ongoing participation which makes the impact in many schools like Andharisole possible. The idea is simple – when children in cities become more sensitive, they too can play a positive role. With simple ideas they will grow to realize the value of things that they take for granted.
To know more, visit Goonj’s 
With her strong will, the skill and ability to tap resources, and through her wide network, Dr. Manga Devi could facilitate rehabilitation of unfortunate women and children in her rehabilitation centre Raksha.
Jeevana Rekha, the family counseling centre headed by Dr. Manga Devi, is known for its remarkable services in solving problems tactfully and successfully to sustain family ties. Thousands of families have benefited, and needy women and children are provided with shelter and opportunities to develop different life skills for decent living.
In 1993, Children’s village was set up in Guntur by a charitable organization HEAL (Health and Education for All), United Kingdom with Dr. Manga Devi as the Secretary. It shelters homeless and orphan children under the supervision and care of foster mothers. The children under the personal care and love by Dr. Manga Devi, are supported with shelter, food, education, health care, and training in life skills.
The seed for Riyaaz was planted here, among the students of a low-income school in Sangam Vihar, Delhi, during Riddhi’s second year as a Teach For India Fellow. Ragini, another Fellow, came on board and played a key role, “Ragini and I have a shared love for music and poetry, and both made the leap from science to teaching in our careers. Where she brings a formal education in classical music and strong Hindustani influences, I bring informal training steeped in rock n’ roll and folk. However, our shared vision for Riyaaz make these differences work.”
Riyaaz means practice in Urdu, and represents consistency, discipline, and humility. A typical session happens in a circle with 25 students and Fellow mentors. It involves a range of activities, including meditation, understanding rhythm by singing, and discussing how important empathy is to a singer. Kids do group activities and get homework to help them take lessons to their own communities.
Today, Riyaaz works with 200+ children, both within and outside Teach For India’s classrooms, and is run by seven Fellow mentors. “I believe in depth over breadth – I want to establish a detailed structure before educating 10,000 kids,” Riddhi says.
The InnovatED cohort – an initiative encouraging entrepreneurship among Teach For India Fellows and Alumni – accepted Riyaaz, marking its first triumph. Fellows across the country submitted their enterprise ideas, and the panel accepted Riyaaz after a pitch and grant proposal. This gave the group more structure, and Riddhi and Ragini received mentorship from institutions like Central Square Foundation and incubators like Villgro Innovations Foundation.
In their first year, it was a challenge to get students to even show up. Riddhi also faced the challenge of convincing parents to let their kids dabble in the arts, mitigating concerns like, “Will this be useful for him to get a job someday?”
“I think we can address these concerns through structured sessions for parents. If they have a chance to come in and see what the sessions are like, they will understand that there’s a direct correlation between what they learn here and their overall motivation, discipline, and dedication to academics.”
“In such situations, it’s tempting to think we know better, especially with our city education and international exposure. When this idea creeps in, ‘savior mentality’ is born, and nothing that comes from there will make a difference,” Riddhi said. At a conference for social changemakers, she met stalwarts like Deep Joshi, Co-Founder, PRADHAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action). “He has really partnered with the communities he uplifted, rather than talking down to them. It set the tone for what I wanted to do.”
Riyaaz is already making an impact. Take Riddhi’s session on Across The Universe’s 
In a recent workshop, Riddhi used much-loved song
Surabhi and Hemant with their little guests at their wedding reception.[/caption]
Underprivileged kids enjoying themselves at Surabhi and Hemant's 'Wedding with a Difference'[/caption]
Hemant (left) dancing with the invited kids at their wedding reception[/caption]
Meanwhile, Sahil set up structured quiz “competitions” in class. Each competition involved different rounds every week – usually four – of various question formats, including jeopardy and multiple choice. The kids work in groups to select and answer questions. “An example of a question we had recently is: Who was the CM of Uttar Pradesh from 2004-2009 who led the delegation for the party that went to Kashmir for bilateral talks? They had to identify the person—it was Arnav Singh,” says Sahil.
Designing quizzes is a collaborative process that begins while speaking to the kids. “They might say, ‘Bhaiyya, you have a phone, how does it work?’ or ‘How does the fan work?’,” says Sahil. “I sense a theme and decide on one topic – for example, technology. We then study it and how it impacts our daily life, before I build questions.”
His young student Nikhil effectively catalyzed the formation of inQUIZitive, the organization Sahil formed with three other Teach For India Fellows in Delhi to manage a quizzing league for underprivileged students. On April 9th, 2016, four months after their first meeting, the organization held its inaugural competition at Vasant Valley School. The event drew participation from 2,800 kids from 57 classrooms across the city. The inQUIZitive team created “booklets” of information on the quiz topics and distributed them at schools across the city so students could study before the quiz. On the day of the event, 30 teams competed to mark the end of inQUIZitive’s first official quizzing season. They also recruited renowned quiz-master Kedar Sastry to ask the questions, and he kept the kids enthralled!
For inQUIZitive, the event was a huge success, and they’re gearing up for this year’s competition. The group also recently partnered with Quizcraft Global Knowledge Solutions, a national company that manages live competitions and online contests, creates books, runs walkabout quizzes at exhibitions, and much more. It’s one of the strongest brands in the Indian knowledge industry through the 2000s.
While Sahil is excited by the success, he’s aware there is so much room for his students to improve.
One key barrier is technology and its ability to give children access to knowledge. As inQUIZitive looks ahead, it’s working to build a robust research culture among its students, aided by net-based tools. Students are learning to design research queries to expand on the knowledge they’re provided in class, or through the booklets created and shared by their Fellows.
“We prepare booklets on specific topics. For example, on film and television, we provided information on genres of movies and history. Initially they couldn’t answer anything beyond what was in those books. Over time they’ve learned to research topics they’re curious about. Now we also have newspaper-reading time, where a volunteer helps the class read at least once a week. We also prepare questions based on what’s going on,” says Sahil.
In a few months, Sahil’s Fellowship will draw to a close. When his two years in the classroom come to an end, he’s hoping to land a job in corporate social responsibility before pursuing his Masters. He insists that he’s grown so much more than he imagined by taking the opportunity to become a Fellow and by driving inQUIZitive. “When I was an undergrad, I worked with an organization to teach underprivileged kids. One of my seniors was working for Teach For India and I found it appealing. I really wanted to understand this sector and what it means to work for a cause. I’ve since learned the kinds of things that someone who started a startup would probably know. I have learned to raise money, increase participation, build a team, find venues, create materials, and most importantly, managerial skills,” he reflects. “I’ve experienced so many fields!”
For inQUIZitive, the next few years are about reaching more children and expanding the network beyond Teach For India schools. Their goal is to instill a lifelong curiosity about the world in every student, one trivia question at a time!
(The author is an Associate with Teach For India Communications.)
Applications to the Teach For India 2017-19 Fellowship program are now open. Click 
Jayavel (Right) with his brother and mother[/caption]
Jayavel was born here, on the streets of Chennai. His parents, farmers from Nellur village in Andhra Pradesh, moved here after severe financial losses buried them in debt that would take them a lifetime to repay. They sold their land and left for the city in hopes that they would find work. However,after months of looking for employment with no success, they started begging on the streets to survive.
Jayavel too started begging, along with his 3 elder sisters and one younger brother. Despite this, his parents were unable to repay their loans.
The family’s misfortune didn’t stop there. Jayavel’s father died when Jayavel was just three. His mother became an alcoholic, making her unable to look after her kids.
Life had been hard, to say the least, for Jayavel, until a chance encounter in 1999.
The founders of Suyam Charitable Trust, Uma and Muthuram, were documenting the condition of street kids in Chennai when they met Jayavel and decided to extend their help to him. Jayavel and his sibling were sent to Siragu Montessori School, which is a special school run by Suyam Charitable Trust for such underprivileged kids.
After this, there was no looking back. After passing class 12 with flying colors, Jayavel appeared for the prestigious Cambridge University’s entrance exam.
Today, 22-year-old Jayavel has done a three-year course in“Performance Car Enhancement Technology Engineering”from Glyndwr University, Wrexham, United Kingdom.
Last September, Jayavel was slated to go to Turin, Italy, to pursue his studies with a full scholarship, but that didn’t work out at the last minute due to external problems with the consultancy. Now, he is going to the Philippines to study Aircraft Maintenance Technology.
Dhasarathan and Dhanraj with their parents[/caption]
Dhasarathan Rajaramani, 23, is studying MBBS (4th year) in Crimea State Medical University. Dhasarathan’s brother, Dhanraj, is doing a course in Bachelor of Design from Indian institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacture, Jabalpur (IIIT DM Jabalpur).
Both these brothers were working as child labourers in a brick kiln until 2005, when they met Uma and Muthuram.
[caption id="attachment_84525" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Dhasarathan in Russia[/caption]
Uma used to visit these brick factories to spread awareness on child labour, and was able to convince the owner of the factory to let Dhasarathan and Dhanraj come with her.
Uma and Muthuram[/caption]
Uma and Muthuram met in school when they were just in class 1 and had no idea that they would become soulmates in the future.
Uma’s journey began when she was just 12. Uma’s mother was a government school teacher, giving Uma a chance to interact with slum kids. A bright child, Uma started teaching mathematics to these kids. Muthuram and few other friends also pitched in in this noble deed.
By the time she was 16, she was addicted to her passion of helping others. Uma would visit camps for cataract operations for the poor and elderly people, blood donation camps and those for accident victims. She attended to thousands of patients in such camps.
Little Mahalingam studying at Uma's house.[/caption]
She would visit the hospital regularly and teach Mahalingam mathematics. He even travelled by ambulance to write his class XII exam, and cleared it. Today, Mahalingam has done his masters in economics, all with Uma’s help, and has a happy life with his wife and daughter.
Just after Mahalingam, in 1998, when Uma was 22, Uma rescued a 5-year-old boy who was on the verge of being sold by his father.
It was after this incident that Uma felt the need to register for an NGO, so she could help more children trapped in child labor. She and her friends registered 
Little Jayavel (Extreme left) with other street kids at Siragu.[/caption]
In 2003, Suyam Charitable Trust started the Siragu Montessori school for these kids, and in no time, the number of children enrolled increased from 30 to 300.
Muslima Bibi at the newly inaugurated Malancha Sadhan Resource Center[/caption]
This two-year long journey turned out to be one of the most gratifying and reassuring experiences for everyone involved in the venture. It proved that if organisations persevere, their beneficiaries will take their work forward themselves. Seeing parents take the initiative to give back to their communities is always lovely and inspirational. It nurtures a sense of camaraderie, and lets every parent know that they aren’t alone in their struggles. The team at Vaani is hopeful of what the future holds for the deaf children of Malancha.
You can help Vaani make more such dreams come true by donating 
Ajivam School, Ghazipur[/caption]
Priyanka, a B.Sc. graduate in botany and a student of Bachelors of Teaching Course, could have landed a better-paying job in any of the top private schools. However, she has decided to dedicate her life to educate the children of Ajivam.
She somehow convinced her parents to postpone the wedding for the next two years until she finished her junior college. She passed class 12 with flying colours and took admission in B.Sc. But her parents could not wait any longer, and got her married when she was in the first year to Vijay Jaiswal from Kansaharia village.
Luckily Priyanka’s in-laws and her husband were supportive and she was able to study further. She soon got pregnant and delivered her son just before the second year exams.
Priyanka Jaiswal with her son[/caption]
Through her entire journey, Priyanka wanted to do something for the girls of her village, who were deprived of education just because of their gender. She got the opportunity while doing her teachers training course, when Ajivam came into existence.
Priyanka with her students at Ajivam[/caption]
Ajivam is now working on opening a public library in Ghazipur. With this library, the school wants to serve local communities by providing free and easy access to a broad range of knowledge resources, information and training. It also wants to promote the idea of higher education for girls and self-dependence through better employment for the village residents.
Manisha Mehta
Born in Udaipur, Manisha spent much of her childhood in Mauritius. She was passionate about dance from a very young age and loved matching her steps to the beats of music. During her formative years, she trained in several dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Jazz, Jive and Ballet. However, her favourite dance form was Rajasthani folk, especially Ghoomar, which she used to learn when she returned to Udaipur every year during her school holidays.
That was the beginning of Manisha' journey. When she returned to Bengaluru to start her own software company, she continued to teach dance to kids whenever and wherever she could. The turning point came just before she was about to turn 40.
A few days before her 40th birthday, Manisha read somewhere, "life starts at 40." And that's when she decided to not just follow her passion, but also to utilise her skills to give back to society. She founded her own dance academy, Dancekala.
She also decided to make it a fundraiser, with all proceeds going to the orphanage. All the expenses for the preparations came from her own pockets but Manisha says that it was totally the worth the hard work to see the kids from the orphanage take to the stage for the first time.
Manisha plans to teach as many kids from the orphanage for as long as she can.
Children in celebratory costumes planting in the Aravindam Foundation centre at Kamdhenudham Gaushala, Gurugram.[/caption]
The library is a place for storytelling and reading with fun activities.[/caption]
With an energising environment and engaging activities, enrolments soon go into waiting lists.[/caption]
The Aravindam Centres help the children with their homework assignments, and have a daily fun activity in the form of music, theatre, dance, or martial arts.[/caption]
Birthday celebrations are a great way of imbibing a sense of belonging and bonding.[/caption]
Janmashtami at Aravindam Foundation, Gurugram.[/caption]
Adding value for the mothers motivates them to accompany their children to the centre.[/caption]
Hansa was born with a cleft lip.[/caption]
Shankarbhai Koli and his wife Ramilaben are parents to five children—four girls and a boy—with Hansa being the youngest. The family survives on meagre wages earned by Shankarbhai, who works as a temporary labourer and often switches jobs. His total earning of ₹3,000 isn’t enough to make ends meet. His wife Ramilaben too pitches in to help at times, working in the neighbouring fields.
Though Hansa’s condition bothered both of them, the parents couldn’t do much. With such low wages, they could hardly manage the daily expenses of their house. The girls too used to stay at home and take care of the younger ones and help their mother with the household chores.
In the village, all the children go to school when they are six years old, but none of Shankarbhai’s kids went to school as he was barely able to manage their daily expenses. The daughters used to help their mother with the household work and take care of their younger siblings.
Even though Hansa had a cleft lip since birth, none of the relatives or neighbours would treat her differently. They would show their concern for Hansa who, being a cheerful child herself, would usually play with her siblings at home. Hansa’s parents also did not treat her any differently than any of their other children.
Hansa with her siblings.[/caption]
In India, daughters are often still considered as a burden since their birth, and Shankarbhai already had three girls. Having yet another girl whose face was damaged due to the cleft lip gave the couple sleepless nights.
It was due to the efforts of Dharmendra Hothi, Project Coordinator with Gram Swaraj Sangh (GSS), that the plight of Hansa first came to light. Dharmendraji, as he is popularly called, came across Hansa six months ago when he saw her playing in the area.
“When my partner Dalpatji and I first met Hansa, we were taken aback by her plight and the condition of her face. We decided that we should do whatever it takes to help change her situation,” he says.
Dharmendraji provided the family with details of the doctor who they could visit to get Hansa operated upon. But the family was reluctant, so Dharmendraji himself contacted the doctor and discussed Hansa’s case with him. The PHC doctor, Dr. Pragnesh Prajapati, informed the GSS members that the lip surgery was only possible at Gandhidham, which was 50 km. away. He also informed them about the ‘Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Yojana’ scheme, under which Hansa could be treated free-of-cost. Yet Shankarbhai and his family were in two minds.
After a lot of effort, the GSS team members were able to convince Hansa’s parents to go ahead with the operation. The anticipation of a better life for Hansa finally convinced them.
Once the family was on board, an appointment was booked for the operation. Dr Pragnesh’s driver offered to pick up and drop Hansa and her family for the operation at Gandhigram.
The operation went well, and after five days, the stitches were removed.
Hansa with her father after the surgery.[/caption]
Shankarbhai is elated with the results, “We are very happy now that Hansa is ‘normal’. She can lead her life without any issues. Also, we are very thankful to GSS and their team for helping us and changing the life of our daughter.”
Ramilaben couldn’t hold back her tears while saying, “I am very happy that my daughter is treated. She looks very beautiful now!”
Dharmendraji, who was satisfied with his team’s efforts, said, “We are happy that we got an opportunity to change Hansa’s life. Such successful cases motivate us to perform even better!”
The family says that Hansa can now eat and drink properly too. They claim that the neighbours too have begun to praise both her and her parents, and she is often invited to many social events in the village. Looking at the impact of the surgery on Hansa, even the family’s near and far relatives, as well as neighbours, are happy with the way things have turned out for her.
Kumar Nilendu, General Manager, Development Support, CRY, observes that Hansa’s story is that of hope and triumph over all odds. He says, “The efforts of CRY partners were outstanding, but the most endearing part is the efforts made by the government doctor at the PHC and other doctors as well. These stakeholders together made possible what would have been ‘unthinkable’ for the poor parents. This actually proves CRY’s conviction that joint efforts by civil society and government are the need of the hour, and this will go a long way in ensuring the rights of Indian children.”
You can help more efforts like this, by donating to CRY and its partner organisations