Little minds observe and hurt more!

Program: Girls Glory

Student- Ravichandra, 4^th Grade

School- Babusapalaya Govt School

On 19^th February, 2018 Reaching Hands team arrived at 9:00 AM in Babusapalaya Govt School for the “Handing Over Ceremony” of the newly constructed toilets. Construction of these 4 toilets units have been possible through the generous donation of our supporting corporate Next Gen under Reaching Hands Girls Glory program.

Little minds observe and hurt more! Little Ravi Chandra of Grade 4 of that school approached and greeted us with his warm smile. He was excited with the new facility provided in his school. He sighed how much trouble he and his friends faced due to unavailability of toilets. He told one of his friend was infected as he went for open defecation owing to lack of toilets in the school.

He acknowledges that girls face more difficulties. The Girls feel embarrassed that the boys keep on staring at them. They make use of friend’s houses nearby for using the toilets. He adds this was the biggest issue in their school.

Reaching Hands timely intervention has solved the issue in this Govt school Babusapalaya. The toilets are based on high tech module with ample water facilities available.

This initiative is a huge relief not only for Ravi Chandra but to all the students in that school. He and his friends are extremely thankful to Reaching Hand and Next Gen for their support and concern for the children of the community.

 

” Trust the magic of beginnings”

Divyashree- 9th Grade

Govt High School Bennigannahalli

Divyashree is a student of Bennigannahalli Government High School and is currently in the 9^th grade. She resides at Doddaharalagere village that is located 6 kms away from school along with her parents and 2 siblings . Her father owns a silkworm farm and her mother is a house wife.

It was during the inauguration of toilets at her school that she learned about Reaching Hand. They constructed 3 new toilets with proper water facility. For cleaning the toilets an Ayamma too was appointed by them . The Ayamma is responsible for maintaining the toilets. All the girls are extremely happy about this initiative.

Divyashree says, “earlier there was only 1 toilet for 140 high school girls in my school and it was very difficult or never maintained properly. The girls would hardly drink water to avoid using the toilet through the duration in school”.

She adds, “the days during periods were extremely difficult, so we either skip school during those days or have to use the toilet in a friend’s house near school”.

She sighs relief looking at the new toilets and says she is extremely happy now that she and her friends have separate toilets and they don’t have to worry about teachers yelling at them for being late to class because of waiting in long queues to use the toilet or not coming to school during periods.

She is thankful to Reaching Hand for building 3 new Toilets for her and her friends.

Suddenly you know…”it is time to start somethings new and trust the magic of beginnings”

“Spoorthi Program” creates a winner again!”Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it”

Read the story of Sahana M. our “Spoorthi Center” student made use of opportunity given to her.

Sahana studies in 10^th grade at B. Narayanaura Government High School.  Her father’s name is Manjunath and her mother’s name is Nagarathna. Her father works as a Mechanic and her mother a housewife.  She has two sisters. The elder one is married and the other is studying in Maharani Arts and Management college.

Sahana is an introvert by nature and spends most of  her time alone. It is with great persuasion that she takes part in extra curriculum activities. She is organized and scores well in studies. Our Spoorthi Center trainer used to observe her and spend more time with her to understand her interest and talents.

The trainer observed that she can excel in other activities when given a chance. She was counseled for the same. Almost immediately she began spending much of her time interacting with other students and participating in extra curriculum activities. Her school suggested her name for the Kanaka Jayanthi event. She took part in the essay writing competition in which she won the fourth position and was awarded a certificate from the chief minister of State. That was a proud moment for the school.

Recently she took part in “HCL Young Kalam Science Fest”for which she worked on a model based on the concept of Hydroelectricity. She explained the important features of her model in front of various dignitaries at the event. It is because of  Reaching Hands spoorthi trainer’s effort that she is proving herself everywhere. She is thankful to Reaching Hand for setting up “Spoorthi center” in her school through which she is able to learn much more than her school curriculum.

“Life does not get better by chance but by change”

Read the story of Jamuna to know how she decided to make a change in her circumstance and not rely on her past failures.

Jamuna is one of the beneficiary of Planet first program of Reaching Hand which is an extension of “PRATISHTHA”- a skill training and placement center. Through this program Reaching Hand aims to empower youth through employ-ability and 21 century skills using blended learning methods.

Married at a very young age, Jamuna always wear a smile, talks with enthusiasm and is mature to face obstacles in a positive manner.

Jamuna says “since childhood I have dreamt of pursuing  fashion designing. I used to spend most of my time drawing, painting  and decorating things. I got good comments from everyone. Though I am from a poor family, I wanted to pursue my dream.”

She learnt tailoring course and because of her interest and sharp mind she mastered the art in a short span and start training students immediately after completion of the course. After 2^nd years PUC she had to stop her education because of family pressure. Her father persuaded her to get married to get rid of the responsibility when her mother was on the death bed. Soon her mother passed away due to cancer.

Jamuna adds ,“ it was like everything is over. I thought I will not be able to pursue my talent and dream.My life became so dark and I had no idea where I was heading.”

After marriage things were different but her husband is always supportive. Jamuna who has a son now , enrolled in Pratishtha center few months back and is positive that she can contribute to the society and show the world her talent too.She attended English speaking and communicative classes along with computer basics classes.

Jamuna completed the course and is currently working in the paper and cloth bag manufacturing unit of Pratishtha. Every day she stitches minimum of 100 bags and with the amount she receives she can support her family. She is extremely thankful to Reaching Hand for providing this opportunity.

Jamuna still spends most of her time drawing. She dreams to open her own boutique and stitch cloths of her own designs. Showing us some of her pictures she keeps highlighting about her passion.

She says,“Drawing is something which I really enjoy, I can sit and draw tirelessly for hours. My drawing pencil gets out everything  I feel.”

Through her determination she proves the quote,
“Life throws challenges, but with every challenge comes rainbows and lights to conquer it.”

 

 

 

 

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity”- Read Tanu’s story- The fighter with a smile

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity”

Tanu and his brother Shashi were like any other young kids, living with their parents. Strong willed, driven with aspirations and dreams, they looked forward to fulfilling every dream as days passed. They enjoyed the simplicity in their life being nurtured and cared for.

Good things also come to an end and so was the happiness of  this family. His father’s usual fights with his mom turned one fateful night into a nightmare. In an inebriated state he pushed his wife on a live electric wire. Tanu was in her arms and he was electrocuted along with her. While his mother succumbed to her injuries ,Tanu sustained burn injuries. That incident had his lower limbs amputated. His father was jailed and the siblings were abandoned by their grandparents too.

With no shelter ,support and hope for the future during that time of distress, recalling the dreadful experience Tanu says, “We were left to fend for ourselves. Our neighbors understood our plight and put us under the care of Wenlock Hospital. They funded my treatment. With time I recovered slowly. My brother, Sashi took care of me whichever way he could.”  

“That’s when “Reaching Hand” organization intervened and gave us a home to stay, funded all medical expenses and taught us to dream again. Reaching Hand is God’s best gift and miracle to us. New Home is like my own home with lovely, caring and fun filled people .” Tanu proudly exclaims.

Currently Tanu is studying in grade 3 at the “Home School” and his brother is in grade 10 in Capstone school. New Home tries to give them all the facilities to make their lives better.

“A Strong Spirit Transcends Rules”

Pamilselvi , 33 is one of the beneficiary of Reaching Hand “Planet First- (Paper and Cloth Making)” program which is an extension project of “PRATISHTHA”- a skill training and placement center that empowers youths through employability and life skills training using digital lessons.

A mother of two, she joined Pratishtha center a month ago to learn new skills to support her family. At our center she learns Computer and English courses and is being trained in our PAC manufacturing unit to make cloth and paper bags which will come handy in the future.

She has not received proper education because of her poor family background but her desire to learn along with other responsibilities shows her determination and willingness to learn and do something to fulfill her dreams.

She says “Reaching Hand has shown me the way and has given me a chance to learn once again. After joining the course, I am learning new things every day and I try to apply these in my daily activities. Through the Personality development classes I am now confident to communicate with others. Now when my daughter’s friends come home I greet them in English and I feel very happy and confident.”

Pamilselvi understands the value of education and believes that with proper education you gain respect in the society!

“The only motive in my life now is to educate my children and make them good, useful and respectful citizens. Both my husband and I work very hard to give them a better life. I will use my learning in making paper and cloth bags to become an entrepreneur and will support my family in the future”, says Pamilselvi.

Her hobbies include cooking, listening to music and catering.

Even in this modern era there are many women who are behind the four walls of their homes post marriage. They are not allowed to do anything for themselves and are forced to sacrifice their dreams for the sake of their family. But for Pamilselvi, her best gift for her family is to create an identity for herself so that they are proud of her.

CHUIMAYO – “Our Pride in Disguise”

Chuimayo is another young boy who lived with his parents and siblings in the Indian north eastern state of Manipur. Aspirations and dreams are not within the reach of many in that state. Chimayo’s uncle lived in Bangalore and forced his parents to let him relocate to Bangalore in hopes of better education and facilities.

Chimayo joined to be part of New Home family at a tender age of 7 in 2006 and started his schooling immediately in one of the best schools in the locality. Being an intelligent boy, he could grasp the toughest of syllabus with ease.

His love for reading helped him receive many prizes for essay writing competitions in the school. He made best use of the school and New Home library facilities. Though he appears timid, he is a football champion and his school holds the credit of their formidable team to him.

It is not a surprise that this hard worker passed his High School in flying colours and was enrolled easily in the science stream for his higher education. With little coaching, he cracked the entrance exam and joined a prestigious Institute of Technology in Mangalore. He has completed his first year in Automobile Engineer and is spending his semester break with New Home. He aspires to excel in his field and make a change where ever he is.

He owes his “Journey to Success” to the New Home team who has been his constant support and motivation. Looking back, he says” New Home has taught me to love unconditionally, be considerate to others and to believe in yourself”.

“When destiny finds you, nothing can stop you”- Way to go Chuimayo!

What’s in a Skill? Read Abby’s article…

Did you know India has 31 skill development councils ranging from aerospace to weaving to sports? Or that there’s a governmental agency focused on skilling?

Before joining Reaching Hand, I’d never heard “skilling” used as a verb nor heard of phrases such as the “skill gap.” However, now I have become keenly aware of the skill lingo and challenges associated with it. This skill gap arises as each year over 15 million Indian youth enter the workforce but over 75% are not job-ready. This will lead a need for over 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet industry needs. Each year approximately 7 lakh (700,000) engineers graduate from college in India, however only 5 percent are skilled for employment. In order to overcome this deficit, Prime Minister Modi introduced the Skill India scheme, which includes the National Skill Development Mission and aims to skill at least 400 million people in India by 2022. [1] Skilling in India can range from BPOs (call centers) in rural India that provide customer care for cell phone carriers in local languages to beautician and tailoring services in big cities.

At Reaching Hand, we view the skills gap as not only an employability issue, but seek to create a more gender-just and environmentally friendly society as well. We have three centers mainly focused on English, Retail, Work Skills, and Basic Computers. Recently we have also started Steer to Change, a program to teach women driving and place them in cab services, particularly for corporates and PAC, a paper bag-making program as plastic bags are illegal in Bangalore. Particularly in our women’s driving program, we are defying gender norms and aim to create a society where it is equally common for women to drive for corporates and cab services as it is for men.

Volunteers from Mu Sigma speaking about communication and interviewing skills
Volunteers from Mu Sigma speaking about communication and interviewing skills.
During the past 5 months I’ve been at Reaching Hand, I’ve noticed one of the biggest challenges in skilling is teaching soft skills. While students may have an abundance of technical knowledge and language skills, the most important part is supplementing this expertise by building skills related to self-esteem and confidence. However, these skills are arguably the hardest to teach, requiring the most one-on-one attention and finesse. For the majority of jobs, students will have to attend an interview, which certainly requires a sense of personality development and confidence. In fact, this is a large reason why there is such a large percentage of people who are deemed unskilled. As an effort to help close this gap, I started organizing workshops for our students through corporate volunteers on topics such as interviewing, internet searching, and retail. By merely engaging with students, encouraging them to speak up and express their own opinions, they have grown tremendously.

When teaching and assessing the impact of soft skills on students, one student – Ashwini – particularly stands out. I attended Ashwini’s first interview where she was too timid and quiet to engage with a recruiter. Over the next month, trainers worked with her in order to build up her confidence. Last week, I attended another of Ashwini’s interviews where she demonstrated a much more confident demeanor and landed a job at a large retail chain! I believe centers like ours have a place, particularly for those to whom higher education may be unaffordable or inaccessible. But, unemployment isn’t limited to those who didn’t have the opportunity to pursue higher education. Soft skills and market-aligned training are equally important to those with degrees. In addition to skills centers, I believe India will need to increase their market-aligned training in technical knowledge and soft skills across institutes of higher learning in order to meet the needs of a growing economy.

[1] Duggal, Sanjeev. “Bridge the Skills Gap.” The Hindu, 7 Aug 2016. Web. http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/Bridge-the-skills-gap/article14556912.ece

Poop as a Social Construct: Read Deepa Patil’s article

There is no particularly pleasant word to describe the waste that leaves our bowels after digestion. Faeces. Excreta. Stool. Poop. Composed of varying proportions of bacterial biomass, protein or nitrogenous matter, carbohydrate or undigested plant matter and fat, human faeces is essentially a rich blend of organic solids and water. The remaining solids consist of calcium and iron phosphates, intestinal secretions, small amounts of dried epithelial cells and mucus [1]. Everywhere in the world, it is deplored for the signature foul smell of its odorous volatiles that are derived from the decomposition of sulfur-containing amino acids. And its range of colours, shapes and consistencies are disgusting at best. Poop is clearly a physical, biological construct. In India, it is also a social construct.

The social connotations of poop are a consequence of the country’s lamentable experience with manual scavenging. Manual scavenging refers to the process of manually carrying, disposing and any sort of handling of human waste from sewers and pit latrines. This human waste is often handled with only the simplest of tools (i.e. flimsy brooms and buckets), without any protective safety or sanitation gear. In fact, manual scavengers commonly use their bare hands to empty filled pits and clean clogged sewers and then transport the waste on their heads to dumping grounds. It is an inhuman occupation that people are forced into without any other opportunities for livelihood, exposing themselves to infection and indignity.

But the deepest evil of manual scavenging is its strong correspondence with caste-based discrimination. Generation after generation, members of oppressed castes were employed only as manual scavengers and rejected from any other employment, not to mention any other social participation [2, 3]. Some legislative progress has been made regarding this injustice. In 1993, Parliament enacted the Employment Of Manual Scavengers And Construction Of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act. This was reinforced by the more comprehensive Prohibition Of Employment As Manual Scavengers And Their Rehabilitation Act in 2013. The reality, however, is that the practice of manual scavenging continues in rural and urban settings around the country today.

While the condemnation of manual scavenging is unquestionable, there is one key disadvantage to the nonspecific rejection of all forms of human management of waste collection pits. Urine-diverting dry toilets (UDDTs), for example, offer an environmentally-friendly sanitation alternative in many areas around the country that lack sufficient access to water or have a high risk of surface water and groundwater contamination. Once the urine is diverted, the solid waste is collected in pits for several months until it is entirely composted. UDDTs are one model of EcoSan toilets, named for basing their design on the concept and movement of ecological sanitation – the desire to close the loop between human excreta and agriculture. EcoSan toilets can reduce water use, effectively manage faecal sludge and even promote livelihoods, lowering compost costs for farmers and providing employment to the people who sell the compost.

What remains is an apparent conflict between environmental progress and social progress. Some believe the connection between EcoSan toilets and manual scavenging is too strong [4]. After all, someone would have to collect and transport the resulting compost. That and the general disdain for human waste may prevent EcoSan toilets from being accepted by the Indian mainstream. Others deny the similarity, since the faeces is processed and treated until it is unrecognizable as such, and EcoSan compost management can require high safety and sanitation standards to protect workers. Moreover, the greatest immorality of manual scavenging is that it forces this work on one specific community, relying on caste-based and religious tradition to validate discrimination. Though idealistic, the burdens of managing and maintaining EcoSan toilets and compost can be distributed fairly within a community [5].

I do not know what is more troubling: promoting a system that is well-intentioned but reminiscent of the human indignity and oppressive reality of manual scavenging, or the environmental devastation and corresponding human suffering that will result without ecologically-sound, sustainable sanitation solutions. Perhaps there is not a generalizable conclusion of what ends to prioritize. In fact, the ends do not appear to have any contradiction at all. It is the means to achieve social justice and ecological sanitation that must be reconciled.

—

References:

[1] Rose, C., Parker, A., Jefferson, B., Cartmell, E. (2015). “The Characterization of Feces and Urine: A Review of the Literature to Inform Advanced Treatment Technology.” Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. 45 (17): 1827–79.

[2] A friend recently recommended this Tamil documentary by Divya Bharathi to better understand the caste-based oppression of manual scavenging.

[3] For a background on caste in India, many refer to Dr. BR Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste. I suggest reading Arundhati Roy’s introduction, The Doctor and the Saint, as well.

[4] At a conference I recently attended, Vishwanath Srikantaiah, director of the Bangalore-based, ecologically-minded design firm, Biome, spoke to the impracticality of mainstreaming EcoSan toilets in India. While undoubtedly theoretically superior to current sanitation systems, he does not think they will stick beyond a niche community of environmentalists.

[5] I heard Santa Sheela Nair, a former Tamil Nadu bureaucrat, say that the environmentalist and sanitation community of academic, public, corporate and social sector leaders have a responsibility to advocate for the potential of EcoSan regardless of what we believe may be acceptable in communities. There is a reason why EcoSan toilets are not banned under the relevant 1993 and 2013 legislation – it is not manual scavenging. Nair urged us not to be disillusioned by what seems in line with community norms. After all, if norms were never questioned and challenged, manual scavenging may have still been legal today.

The article was first published here http://aif.org/2017/04/poop-as-a-social-construct/ on April 25, 2017

 

A story that can touch your heart. Life is all about giving

 

 

The date for TCS W 10k is fast approaching. In our own little and big ways, we are trying our level best to raise money for a cause.

At this juncture, we believe this is a story worth sharing. In fact, it is not a story but an experience to cherish. Merlin – one of our team members – It is her story.

One day she was waiting for an auto-rickshaw to go home. She says she always prefer autos which are painted in green purely because they are comfortable. But on that day, she got a rickety one – all tattered. It was then, she received a call from one of her friends in Mumbai. She wants to know about Girls’ Glory and TCS W 10k. Merlin was explaining to her in Hindi.

After a few minutes, she got down in front of her house, paid the man the auto – fare and was about to go to her house when the auto-driver beckoned her. He was about 70.

To her surprise, he held out his hand with a fistful of money. It comprised mainly of coins. It would hardly come around  ₹ 200.

He told her “This is all I have. People do not prefer my rickety auto. Hence, I could hardly earn ₹200 a day.  I have heard you speaking about something where you need money for girls’ education. I have eight daughters and one son. I cannot send my daughters to school because I could not afford it. If this money could be of any help to support a child’s education, I will be gratified,”

Merlin says she was stumped and overwhelmed by the old man’s generosity and tears were rolling down her cheeks. “That’s hard-earned money that came with a lot of blessing. I decided to keep the money handed over by him as my treasured possession. Of course, I will give the equal amount from my money. But this one is mine.” She says with tears in her eyes when she recalled it.

“I asked his name. But he was not even ready to disclose his name,” she adds.

Her experience tells the truth. To give you need a big heart – A KIND HEART THAT EXPECTS NOTHING.

Best of Luck for each and every one who are out there to raise money for a cause.