Delhi reflections
Feb 18th, 2010
Here are some thoughts of members live from Delhi…
Here is a picture of us outside the clinic run by Asha in Anna Nagar, a slum colony in Delhi.
(Click here to see a PowerPoint of our photos showing why we think Asha is doing a great job)
Josh Hoyland, James Chapman, Kate Fisher, Di Rogers, Chris Renshaw and Phil Townsend are all on a visit to Delhi. We arrived on Saturday 13th Feb and return to Sheffield on Monday 22nd. We are all staying in the YMCA in central Delhi and journing each day to Anna Nagar about 20 minutes drive away.
Kate says Namaste from Delhi! She has just been completing a mural in the Clinic that you can see on the right! With her are Mina and Nirmala who are workers in the Centre – Nirmala is the team Leader, and Mina is a Community Health Volunteer, and president of the Womens group, Mahila Mendal.
We have been painting the rooms of the clinic for the past 3 days and meeting up with local people both in the centre and also visiting their homes.
Asha is doing an amazing job helping the local community by educating them about health care and helping the young people to gain an education that will lead to qualifications and jobs that will enable them eventually to escape the pressure of life in the slums. 4.2 million people live in slums in Delhi out of 14 million, and 350,000 are under the care of Asha.
We are all enjoying our time here and it is opening our eyes to a totally different world. It is truly wonderful to see the difference that this Christian Charity is making to the lives of people here and we feel it is a prvilege to make a small contribution this week. On Saturday we will be visiting a slum where Asha has only just started.
For more information about our links with Asha click here
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I’m glad to hear that they’ve been putting you to work. :)
It’ll be interesting to hear the comparison between the slums where Asha’s been working for a while and the slum where they’re just getting going.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:36 am
Well we’re back from Delhi now – bit of a shock going from 25 degrees sunshine to snow! I have had a memorable time. Beggars on streets and in roads, non-existent road rules, eating great curry and drinking excellent ginger tea, meeting some amazing people from Asha who work in the slums, painting and decorating 7 rooms in 2 and a half days!, doing group work with children, young adults and women’s group, visiting red fort, afternoon tea at the Imperial Hotel.
The time went very quickly. Anna Nagar itself is a reasonable well established slum with running water, electricity, TVs in some houses (one room where all family live and sleep) and drainage systems. On Saturday, we went to a slum in the North of Delhi where 3000 families from the Punjab were living. They moved to Delhi about 25 years ago following a civil war. Many losts husbands and siblings. It is a well established slum but Asha only started working there a few weeks ago. It is run by slum lords and male leaders. Houses were basic but large – no electricity apart from that siphoned off the mains supply! Fresh water is delivered to the slum once a day. There was no drainage system so the smell was bad. Toilets not being serviced by government. Some of the children go to school but there was not much hope (from male leaders) that they would go on to college/university/etc. The leaders want Asha’s help to provide healthcare and education support for slum dwellers. They want help with the drains too. Over the coming months, Asha will work with the men, women and children of this slum to try to get things in place.