CYBER-CIRCLES
For Indian immigrants who came to the US decades ago the most exciting encounter was – with another Indian! Their numbers were small and the circles of caring friends few. Now, as the community has grown, so have the circles. Here we are attempting to put all these countless circles into the clouds.
Now when a new migrant comes, the loneliness will be a thing of the past – for friends, community and cyber circles are just a mouse click away.
We invite you to use this piece of cyber real estate to let newcomers know about your organization, its benefits and its work.
Email details of your organization to cybercircles@ lassiwithlavina.com
SPOTLIGHT: CRY AMERICA
By Adam MacGregor
My name is Adam MacGregor, and I am a volunteer and a firsthand witness of the lasting change that CRY America helps to foster among India’s neglected children.
In August, 2008 I visited a project by SPAN, (The Society for People’s Awareness), a CRY America-supported NGO working in the slum district of Kamarhati in West Bengal. I’d never seen slum life before, and was a bit unprepared for what I saw. On the way to the school building that housed SPAN’s office, our jeep passed the town dump, where dozens of people scavenged through immense mounds of dirt and refuse in the humid monsoon-season heat. The scenes of poverty were wrenching – the thought anyone had to spend a childhood under such conditions, even more so.
It was in a nearby part of this slum district in Kamarhati that I met Mohammed Naushad and Mohammed Sharashad – two young boys of school-going age who were working 9-hour days in a tea stall making approx $1 per day to support their family. At my prior job, I was often worn out after the typical 8 hours. I could only imagine what this kind of toil does to a young child.
In an effort to enroll children back into school, keep them there and ensure that they are out of the workforce, SPAN has recruited Education Volunteers from the 11th and 12th standards, These volunteers serve as mentors to the Mohammed brothers and other child-workers like them. The aim is to show the children at risk – as well as their parents and employers – that it is within their power to advance themselves.
Where these brothers once worked at the tea stall uninterrupted, they now attend a bridge school for a few hours per day that will enable them to advance to government schools. SPAN, the Education Volunteers, and their teacher look to the day when the brothers will be able to withdraw from the labor force totally and concentrate entirely on school.
The visit to Kamarhati was the best of surprises: where I expected despair, I instead found hope, pride, enthusiasm and an unshakable and truly humbling confidence – as in the case of the children’s group Ek-Saath (All Together).
Among other community awareness-raising activities, this 25 member-strong collective of children publishes its own magazine with the help of SPAN. They create their own artwork and write their own articles – in both Urdu and English. The writings stress the importance of enrolling in and finishing school, offer unflinching condemnations of child labor, and highlight the kinds of changes they’d like to see in their own community.
In the words of Zeba Yasmin, class 8: “Education is a light that shows us the path…If we are educated, we get honor in the society.”
Let’s help – All Together – to shed that light on India’s marginalized children.
Support CRY America and its vision of building a ‘just’ world for all children. And I have seen the change that has been enabled. Let us do what’s right so that all marginalized children will see a better today and tomorrow.
CRY – Child Rights and You America Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization driven by its vision of a just world in which every child has an equal opportunity to develop to his or her full potential. Since inception, in 6 years, CRY America, along with its 10,000 donors, 500 volunteers and 41 supported projects has irreversibly transformed the lives of over 245,580 children living across 1,376 villages and slums in India and the U.S.
For more information, visit www.america.cry.org
