Lessons to Last a Lifetime

Ten weeks ago I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom playing Tetris with everything that needed to be stuffed into my suitcase for India, worrying about the bugs, the beggars, the dirt, the danger. I would never have imagined that today I would be returning to the United States with more clarity on the strength of my inner power. Never did I think I would be able to haggle for a better price on a scarf, never did I think I would be able to stand my ground when change was miscounted, never did I think I could endure the sweltering heat of New Delhi in the summer. But not only did I learn about my personal strength, being in India this summer interning for Maitri, I’ve gained a better understanding of my career goals as well. 

I wanted to work for a nonprofit humanitarian organization that served the needs of survivors of domestic and sexual violence. I hoped to one day establish my own such agency that not only served physical and legal needs but also mental health through esteem-building workshops. To better understand the needs of women, I needed to understand their plight and therefore understand their lives, understand their position in society, in their homes. Thus came about my project to better understand the perspectives of married men towards sexual violence and their opinions of marriage. I learned a lot about men's perceptions of a woman's role in the family. Maitri has helped me get one step closer to my goal of becoming a resource for women in need and understanding what it takes to address sensitive issues like domestic and sexual violence. 

Not only that, I am most grateful to Maitri for giving me perspective on the inner workings of a nonprofit organization, the central crux being a passion for your work. I’ve met some of the strongest women at Maitri; women who live to challenge the ingrained beliefs of patriarchy, women who have a piercing voice against the notion that a woman should be silent. But what I’ve found to be most touching at Maitri is that it is truly a family. Whether it is eating lunch together or catching the newest Bollywood movie in theaters, Maitri is held together by a thread of love and support. And I feel honored to be able to say that I too am connected by this thread, forever connected to some of the greatest people who are working everyday to provide all with identity, dignity, and respect.   

Rebecca Miah
MPH Candidate 2016
Hubert Department of Global Health
Rollins School of Public Health | Emory University
rebecca.miah@emory.edu

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon – Run with Maitri, Run for Kids, Run for Education!

Delhi’s poorest children often fall through the cracks in a competitive education system that expects students to study and learn beyond school hours. But families living in poverty can’t afford after-school programmes like tutoring and tuitions. Poor children face pressure to excel in school, while experiencing chronic financial stress at home. Some children may even miss school to help sustain their families. As a result of these issues, low-income children sometimes fall behind in academics and struggle to catch up as the school year progresses.

The income gap perpetuates lower educational achievement and lower earning potential for poor youth.  But Maitri believes these youth have the potential to excel.

Project Maitrigram seeks to end this cycle of poverty by filling the educational gap. Project Maitrigram provides underserved children and young women with no-cost after-school programmes, supplemental instruction, English classes and vocational courses that help India’s most vulnerable youth achieve their highest potential.

In order to sustain these critical educational programmes and launch new initiatives, (like a children’s library and reading resource centre), Maitri relies on supporters who share our vision.

Do you believe that education is an essential right? Help Maitri make this right a reality for underserved children in Delhi!

On November 29^th 2015, Maitri is taking part in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. Maitri is seeking passionate individual and corporate sponsors to run in support of Project Maitrigram! Corporations can improve their visibility and brand image by participating in Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives like ADHM, which give back to communities in need.

Please contact anjali.thakur@maitri.org.in or call  011-24122692  for more information on how your company can run alongside Maitri for the cause of children’s education! Join the Maitri team and start training for the half marathon today!

 If you don’t wish to participate in the marathon run, please visit Maitri’s ADHM fundraising page to donate directly to the cause.

Thank you!

Sona Jani, MPH Candidate 

Summer 2015 Intern
Health Behavior and Health Education 

An Experience for the Books

When I begin to look back at these past three months, I have changed and learned so much. I remember the night before moving to India I was lying in bed debating whether or not I made a good decision to move to India. I now feel like this country is my second home and Maitri is my second family. From my very first day at the office I was welcomed with open hands and warm hearts. I have made lifelong friends with individuals that I would have never met if I had decided against coming.

I was given the opportunity to help conduct research at Aashirwad, a senior home, as a representative for Maitri twice a week. Through this experience I met many influential people that I would have never come across. I also met other students that are my same age that were the facilitators for the research study. I never planned on seeing myself in a senior home in New Delhi, India, but the experience was absolutely worth it.

I was also able to help teach at Maitri’s project, Maitrigram, where I helped with teaching English to under served women and children. I am so glad that I was able to help with something that will better the lives of these individuals. All the students were so dedicated, even coming to class during the heat of the day in summer and paying close attention to the lessons prepared. I helped teach the conversational English class. These students surprised me with their knowledge and ability to read, write, and speak English very well. This project site seemed to amaze me every day that I was present due to the commitment and intelligence of these individuals.

The workers and volunteers at Maitri are making a difference daily to many lives, and I would really like to thank them for the experience I have had while in India. I have seen these individuals stay late tutoring students one on one who needed help with a particular subject to workers volunteering their own personal time on their day off to help promote the NGO and raise awareness about a particular project site.

Maitri has help prepare me for my life ahead. I have learned how to do many different types of office work and field work. This will help me why I prepare to enter the University of Utah’s College of Social Work in the spring of 2016. It will also help me when I graduate and enter the social work field and begin my career. I have also learned life lessons while being in India and as a part of Maitri. I have learned things here in India that I truly do not believe I could have found anywhere else in the world. This country has shaped me into what I believe is a better person. Though there were days that I wanted to be back in Utah, but I would definitely never take back this experience I have had over the past three months.

I would personally like to thank Maitri for all the things they are doing for the Indian people and the world. I would also like to thank them for letting me be a part of their family and supporting me in the work I was able to help with while I was here. I am going to miss this organization and all the friends I made.

 

Brok Dixon

University of Utah

Help End Open Defecation in Ranchi, India

According to the United Nations, 47% of India openly defecates on a daily basis.

Maitri would like to help stop open defecation by constructing forty toilet facilities in ten different areas in Jharkand, India. This would help by providing clean facilities to the rickshaw pullers of Maitri’s Ranchi project. On a larger scale this will improve sanitation for rickshaw pullers while also promoting hygienic public health practices to India as a nation.

The importance of this project for India and the world:

• Globally about 600 million people openly defecate, making this a very large public health concern

• India has more than twice the number of people who openly defecate than the next 18 countries combined together

• India accounts for 90 percent of the people in South Asia who practice open defecation

• India also accounts for 59 percent of the population in the entire world who openly defecate

 

Most rickshaw pullers are migrant workers from rural villages who have come to try to generate income for their families. With open defecation, every individual’s health is at jeopardy as they are exposed to hazardous wastes and disease prone environments. This marginalized population is in dire need of relief as they suffer each day from poor working and living conditions. With something as simple as a toilet, these individuals’ lives would be changed drastically and possibly even saved.

Project Ranchi would provide and create solutions to this major public health issue in Jharkand. By working to reduce the rate of open defecation, the lives and hygiene of many migrant workers will significantly improve. Maitri will construct functional latrine units, provide access to clean water and regularly maintain facilities free of cost to rickshaw pullers who are already struggling daily.

Maitri could greatly use your help in ending open defecation. Beginning at 6:30pm and lasting only twenty-four hours, Global Giving will be matching all donations at thirty percent. If you are able to, please visit our Global Giving page to find out more about this initiative and to donate.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/build-40-toilets-for-migrant-workers-in-india/

Thank you for your donations or consideration. Have a wonderful day! 

Sincerely,

Maitri India

Brok Dixon

University of Utah, USA

 

Dignified Widows

Visiting Project Jeevan’s site was an unexpected experience. I had been working at Maitri for a month prior to the visit and all I had known about the widows were that they were victims of their culture and society. I knew that they were untouchables that had been abandoned, abused, and forgotten. So when I finally met them I had certain expectations about the sadness and heartbreak they were experiencing. What I actually found were grateful and spiritual women who had found a community they called home. They greeted me with a special call they make to honor guests. Vrindavan, being the holiest city to Lord Krishna of the Hindu religion, is where these women spend their lives in his worship. Each day they play instruments and chant mantras while they dance for their spirituality. On my visit a particularly lively widow invited me to dance with her in front of the group. Watching the widows dance and sing exemplified the identity, dignity, and respect that Maitri seeks to restore to its beneficiaries. The backgrounds of these women did not stop them from dancing and Maitri gave them a place to do so.

Please visit Maitri’s Indiegogo platform for elderly widows’. This initiative benefits one of India’s most destitute and marginalized populations who is greatly in need of relief. Prior to Maitri’s efforts these women had no alternative to their suffering, abandonment, stigmatization, and poverty. Currently the old age homes and nutritional support offered provide a better quality of life to those in need. 

Indiegogo Platform

-Lauren Holman

Photo taken by Brok Dixon

Patriarchy, Politics, and Violence against Women: Delhi's Self-Defense Program for Girls

eve-teasing 

Since 2002, Delhi’s Special Police Unit for Women and Children’s (SPUWAC) has trained over 125,000 women and girls in a mixture of physical fitness and martial arts techniques that are intended to protect them from assault, harassment, or “eve-teasing” (often known as “catcalling” in the United States). 

On Friday, June 5th, I had the opportunity to attend SPUWAC’s self-defense program finale. The crowded auditorium was filled with female students who had participated in the 15-day self-defense program, along with their teachers and faculty, NGOs, and media.

As this year’s self-defense course culminated, SPUWAC also launched the unit’s very first self-defense manual and training DVD for girls. The manual and video include step-by-step photographs and directions for defense maneuvers that can be used to disable an attacker in cases of harassment and assault.The manual describes what to do if an attacker puts his hands around your throat, grabs you from the back, shoves you, pins you down, or attempts to use a knife. I have to admit, it was hard to watch the self-defense video. I spent a lot of time during the presentation covering my mouth with my dupatta and laughing... 

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t take the video’s recommendations seriously. Many of the situations and maneuvers were dangerously unrealistic for the young, school-aged girls at whom the manual and video were directed. In several instances, the video depicts a woman deftly disarming an attacker and flipping him to the ground. Another example shows a woman using her handbag to choke an auto rickshaw driver if he goes the wrong direction and refuses to turn around.

After screening the video, Delhi’s Police Commissioner Bhim Bassi, took the stage to speak about the self-defense initiative’s success. Bassi congratulated the schoolchildren who had completed the training, and explained why he believed that self-defense was the most effective solution to violence against women in Delhi. 

Bassi started by acknowledging that sexual harassment and rape are problems faced by all nations, regardless of socioeconomics or degree of development. Even if it’s hard to believe, this statement is true: violence against women is a global epidemic without boundaries. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s recent analysis of primary data from 80 countries found that the lifetime prevalence of violence against women is 35%. This means more than 1 in every 3 women across the world experience physical or sexual violence during their lifetime.

However, Bassi’s perspective (and the Delhi police’s position) on violence against women began to unravel from here. Bassi proceeded to say that changing the violent psychological mindset of men is a slow and difficult process. Apologizing to NGOs and activists in the crowd who advocate for gender equality, he said that the Delhi Police cannot waste time trying to shift men’s attitudes towards women. Bassi blamed men’s “natural genetic disposition” their aggressive behavior and violence. "

Delhi Police Commisioner Bhim Bassi

In order to see immediate change, Bassi said, women and girls must work to bridge the natural physical gap between males and females. “Men will not risk assaulting a woman if she is capable of hurting him,” Bassi said, “Men prey on women because they know they won’t face any resistance or injury. He substantiated his theory with anecdotal evidence, saying men don’t harass or assault other men because they fear the consequences.

If women and girls are capable, confident, and empowered to take action, Bassi explained, then men will be too afraid to commit violence and perpetrate harassment. In fact, there is some recent evidence that empowerment self-defense training can successfully prevent rape and sexual assault. In a large scale study at Canadian universities, a 12-hour self-defense program for female students reduced attempted sexual assault by 63%. 

But is it ethical or effective for government institutions to take this approach to preventing violence against women on a societal scale? Share your opinions in the comments! I’ll share my perspective (along with some relevant stats) in a second installment on the blog - coming soon!

Sona Jani

University of Michigan, School of Public Health

sonajani@umich.edu | http://sonajani.blogspot.in/

The Value of Education

Recently I have had the opportunity to teach English classes at one of the many slums in Delhi through Maitrigram. There are two different groups of students that I have been able to work with. The first of these is made up of women ages 22 to 32. This class takes place in the middle of the afternoon during the heat of the day. Their willingness to learn given India’s conditions inspires me (It’s extremely hot in Delhi). These women are completely new to the English language and are now just learning how to write their ABC's. These ladies are incredibly strong willed and visibly motivated to learn English. They give all their attention to whomever is instructing the program. I was able to help them with their writing skills and forming English letters that are so new to them; they picked them up so quickly. My favorite letter that I was able to work on with them was writing “Gg". They had a little trouble writing the capital letter “G”, but once they understood how to write it the lowercase "g" proved to be nothing difficult.

After the first class was finished we took a five minute walk to the main project site where we met with the second batch of students. These are ages 18-25. It is very easy to teach them because we are all around the same age; with this we have developed a friendship too. Many of these students have taken English classes in school for several years, so they are getting closer and closer to fluency with every lesson we teach. We are working mostly with their conversational skills so that they will be able to receive a job or career in a field that they are interested. We have been discussing different topics like movies, sports, and anything that keeps them wanting to converse. We choose common themes for the students because we want them to be knowledgeable when having an everyday conversation. The students inspire me in so many ways, they show up on time to every class. Even though learning a new language is difficult, they are so motivated to learn and they all keep trying to progress so they may further their knowledge.

It is situations and people like this that simply inspire me each and every day. These students show a great appreciation to us and to Maitri India that makes teaching easier. They come to class smiling and willing to learn which is sometimes hard to find in students. It is always such a nice sign to see them trying their hardest to learn because it shows that they care.  

-Brok Dixon 2015