tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66475448171638767302024-03-14T21:44:52.365+05:30Blog.MagicBusPilelo-Ho is the official Blog of Magic Bus India Foundation, Asia's largest poverty alleviation programme.
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www.magicbus.orgMagic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-28992892959039534592019-05-13T15:05:00.000+05:302019-05-13T15:06:31.498+05:30Learning to Unlearn: How we can create inclusive spaces in the field for people with no interest in sports<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ravi Chauhan</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It has been 10 years in Magic Bus and I am
still thrilled about the work I do here. The children, communities, sports and
so much more add value and memories to this journey. From a rugby player in the
Magic Bus junior team to my present role as a Training Manager enabling Magic
Bus staff and volunteers to carry out our activity-based curriculum in India
and Bangladesh, I have come a long way. In the last 10 years, I came across
various situations during which I was encouraged, challenged, criticised
and supported - all with one single
motive, that is to enable me grow to the best I can. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: orange;"><i>The Premier Skills programme, a course
offered by the British Council and Premier League, was an opportunity that came
my way. This ‘community coach educator’ programme helped me look at what I do
with a different lens. Often as a trainer we are required to reinvent
ourselves. This particular programme helped me think of new strategies to
involve and dialogue with communities using the medium of sports and
activities.</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Over here, I must pause to explain why this
is important in Magic Bus’ context. In Magic Bus, typically we organise
community tournaments to kickstart our programme. We invite a large number of
stakeholders – local leaders, headmasters of schools that we work with, parents
and children. We organise a football match and get all of these stakeholders to
participate. It helps us break the ice in the community. It gives us a
platform, a foot-in-the door to begin some serious behaviour change
conversations around gender equality or sending children to school. It is the
playground that we begin our efforts to change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I vouch for this approach. Countless times I
have seen how parents voice their issues, school teachers open up about
what works and what doesn’t in their schools, children talk about what issues
they face at the end of a tournament. But at the Premier Skills programme I
learnt that football as a medium might not be the best way to begin a
conversation or include everybody. There are people who get left out because of
the game we choose. True it breaks the ice but does it do the same for
everyone?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">That got me thinking. What can we do to
transform a tournament to a celebration where all stakeholders have a role
whether or not they can kick a ball? When I say celebration, I see people in
community driving the programme all by themselves. In such a celebration, we
can have activities that excite every single person. How about having different
corners in the ground (the same football ground) well suited for different
kinds of people? What about raising a platform where parents and donors can
have a direct interaction? Or, parents and school teachers? Sounds interesting,
right? </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: orange;"><i>We at Magic Bus have a whole host of engaging games that can be played
by different age groups. And these could be used to begin a conversation among
different groups of stakeholders who probably don’t know each other well but
whose support is essential for the overall well-being of the children.</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">While football is an engaging sport widely
viewed and liked by people across ages, it might not be enough to bring about
collaboration or communication among different stakeholders in the community.
While working with communities, we have to continuously reinvent our approach,
and learn to unlearn different strategies that we might have used with success
before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">By: Ravi Chauhan </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Manager-Training, Magic Bus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-28108524703460218442019-01-03T16:22:00.000+05:302019-01-03T16:30:22.982+05:30Renuka on her path of empowerment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Renuka, 23, wanted to be a Chartered Accountant and build a dream house for her family. A resident of Delhi, Renuka lives with her parents and younger brother. The latter has only recently completed his secondary education. Her father works as a bus driver in a private company and her mother is a homemaker.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />After clearing the Common Proficiency Test (CPT), Renuka was determined to follow through on her ambitions. But something put a staggering hurdle on her way. Watch this video to find out more about what stopped her from achieving her dreams.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><i><span style="color: orange;">To ensure we reach out to more and more girls with right opportunities, donate to us <a href="https://donation.magicbus.org/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i></span></span><br />
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-73825154547197522272018-10-12T12:09:00.002+05:302018-10-12T12:13:27.967+05:30In pursuit of work: Vikas’s story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>"I never imagined any company would hire
me,"</i> says 22-year-old Vikas from Chamle village of Bhiwandi, a town
located almost 36km away from the city of Mumbai. Vikas’s parents are farmers
with an income of Rs. 5,000 a month. Their family of five was surviving on this.
Vikas didn’t have the means to opt for college. <i>"I had to look out for
work instead. But with just a higher secondary degree there were no jobs
available for me."</i> He enrolled for a diesel mechanics course with the hope
to find a job, but in vain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Convinced that all doors to employment are
permanently closed, Vikas fell in the company of young people who whiled away
time playing cards. That is when his uncle spoke to him and informed him about the
Magic Bus Livelihoods Centre at Ambadi, just 8km away from his home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Thus began Vikas’s journey as a part of the second
batch of young persons who underwent livelihoods training at the Macquarie-supported
Magic Bus Livelihood Centre in Ambadi, a village located at Bhiwandi tehsil of
Thane district in Maharashtra.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Vikas is among the 10,000 young people who attend
Magic Bus’ Livelihood programme across India.</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The programme that began in 2015 connects
the aspirations and potential of young people to available market opportunities.
In doing so, the organisation focuses on building their employability skills
and maps job potential based on individual strengths and mobility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the Livelihood Centre, Vikas got an opportunity
to plan his career. He went for counseling sessions where he spoke about his
strengths and came to terms with his limitations. He took keen interest in
learning to speak in English, and in the digital and financial literacy
classes. At the end of the two-month long course, he sat for job interviews
lined up by the Centre. He joined as an RO technician at a leading water
treatment plant with a starting salary of Rs. 9,000 per month.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: orange;">"I could sense a beginning at a point of my
life when I had completely given up hope," he says.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Within six months of his joining, Vikas got
promoted as a team leader with four employees reporting into him. His
performance earned him a place in the sales team of their water purifying
products. Within a span of just four months, he sold more than 50 units of water
purifiers, earning business worth four lakh rupees. It was around this time
that he also received an offer to intern with Coca Cola. It was a paid
internship of Rs. 7,000 per month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="color: orange;">At present, Vikas works two jobs. He earns Rs.
17,000 per month. "Our conditions have improved. We don't need to worry about
two square meals a day. I still see this as a beginning. I want to work more,
see more of the world and do better with each job," he signs off.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px;">Vikas is a story of hope, a face of India’s future that is largely young. In the next few years, India’s future will be written by ambitious and enterprising young persons like Vikas. And this is where the need emerges to make a young population – so large in number – ready to dream and work. In making this a reality, non-profits like Magic Bus works with various stakeholders – corporates, government entities, and the community to ensure every young person has the opportunity to work, earn, and move out of poverty.</span></div>
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ensure we reach out to more such young people with right opportunities, donate to us <a href="http://bit.ly/2EgdzJ8" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></i></span></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-9423501634233141892018-01-22T16:04:00.001+05:302018-01-24T19:18:36.405+05:30Learning to Learn: How the DISHA programme helped Jagu return to school<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJeIEQFM1ql0VQrpyYb9IvUiKIfFXGWHlxduokKK1580RGpuwD5GEpYmSU94N-ALveve3NrJ4atiNVi0Nb71rJarrQfjnhLlAzzENM924DMHciZ4jRpmjVqvOmJom499wjUS8QNBiixjI/s1600/Jagu+Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJeIEQFM1ql0VQrpyYb9IvUiKIfFXGWHlxduokKK1580RGpuwD5GEpYmSU94N-ALveve3NrJ4atiNVi0Nb71rJarrQfjnhLlAzzENM924DMHciZ4jRpmjVqvOmJom499wjUS8QNBiixjI/s400/Jagu+Image.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Image used for representative purpose only</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jagu Rathore is 16 years old and lives in Lakhanpura village in
Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Khargone is located 74 km from Indore, the largest
city of Madhya Pradesh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They are a family of five. With his elder sister’s marriage, Jagu,
his parents and elder brother live in a wooden hut that Jagu calls ‘home’.
Jagu’s parents are farmers. “Banjaras, Gujjars, and Thakurs are three caste
groups that live in Lakhanpura. Almost all of them are dependent on
agriculture. Those who own vast acres of land are the richest. Even in a small
village like ours, the division between the rich and poor is visible,” Jagu
explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jagu’s parents never went to school. His elder brother studied
till the 10<sup>th</sup> standard and his sister till the 5<sup>th</sup>
standard. <i>“My parents always wanted me to study further. They struggled to make
ends meet and would spend more time in the fields than with us. But that is the
story of every poor household in Lakhanpura,” he says.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jagu went to a school in his neighbourhood. “I had absolutely no
interest in studying. Like my friends, I wanted to make quick money by working
odd jobs. I did not listen to my parents’ advice,” he admits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>One day he stopped going to school and started working at a garage
earning Rs. 1000 a month.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He was unaware of changes taking place in his school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">HDFC’s DISHA programme began in Jaggu’s school around the time he
had dropped out and had no intention to return. Ritesh, Magic Bus staff who
manages the DISHA programme in Madhya Pradesh, says, “We were initially not
welcomed by school authorities. But we spent the initial months winning their
support. We listened to their problems and wherever possible, offered to work
with them on these. The teachers shared that children in the schools are
irregular and they have no interest in lessons. That became one of our early
goals to achieve – getting them back to schools and interested in being there,”
he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With its activity-based curriculum, that promised fun and learning
at the same time, Ritesh’s team soon managed to capture the imagination of the
children. In fact, news about the sessions reached the elders at Lakhanpura,
who had already started participating in some of the Community Connect initiatives
of the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was Vishal who brought the news of an “interesting hour-long
activity session in school” to Jagu. “I already felt weary of the work and
longed to go back to school. After learning from Vishal about this new
development, I was keen on finding out more about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By then, Nirbhay Singh Gurjar, who was in charge of the
activity-based sessions in school, had heard about Jagu and visited his parents
to find out more about the boy and his circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jagu finally reached school he was surprised to find a circle
of his classmates, holding hands, buzzing with excitement. Without saying a
word, he joined them. At the end of the session, he was keen for more
information. No one had spoken to him about the importance of education in such
an engaging manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8gEvAWV8i_UQ9r7Kbb0x2MzpPGisHyzD4NZok7Gn-ibVKIRCic4soOt6b-jXcKjD1Xv3NVI7YU_T751US9JYQ_8jRVYc2jorRsw-MGrYQ55p_6_rTju0pgH_MJ3GLiYzRxT3dTCn6th-i/s1600/Jagu+Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8gEvAWV8i_UQ9r7Kbb0x2MzpPGisHyzD4NZok7Gn-ibVKIRCic4soOt6b-jXcKjD1Xv3NVI7YU_T751US9JYQ_8jRVYc2jorRsw-MGrYQ55p_6_rTju0pgH_MJ3GLiYzRxT3dTCn6th-i/s400/Jagu+Image+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Image used for representative purpose only</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>“I came back every day with the hope that I would learn something
new. Each session would be different from the last. I had finally become
curious. I started paying the same amount of attention in class and was
surprised how interesting my lessons could be,”</i> he says, his voice brimming
with enthusiasm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I was made the class monitor because I am responsible,” he adds
in a small voice, trying to suppress a smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><span style="color: orange;">The DISHA programme is aimed at
building life skills of adolescents, improve their learning in numeracy,
reading, and science and ensure they are job ready. </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The programme is funded by HDFC Bank
and implemented by Magic Bus, Life Labs, and Learning Links Foundation, in
partnership with the State governments of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. It works in 172 schools across four States
impacting the lives of 17,500 adolescents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">----</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><b>Photographs used in this story are for representation only.</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
</div>
Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-51712532647290755502017-09-20T16:29:00.001+05:302017-09-20T16:29:36.744+05:3011-year-old stands up against domestic violence in Bombay Port Trust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDG6e3Onh7VZdlzce4He0H8HqhcLsC7eaFp_PPet7h2A5GxK-KzfNB5Ad9Q-1QOO9ttzGpMx1DhvuA5g3QMIhvT6rsxdSwZz0jd3_DlibWUM2_n1s2YbkMtiqu92AWEz7IhZGySrYDZQK/s1600/Shivaji_Park210417_178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDG6e3Onh7VZdlzce4He0H8HqhcLsC7eaFp_PPet7h2A5GxK-KzfNB5Ad9Q-1QOO9ttzGpMx1DhvuA5g3QMIhvT6rsxdSwZz0jd3_DlibWUM2_n1s2YbkMtiqu92AWEz7IhZGySrYDZQK/s320/Shivaji_Park210417_178.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Reference Image</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Nazifa Kachi was playing
with her friends in Bombay Port Trust when she noticed something odd about her
neighbor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“Her whole eyes were
swollen,” she said. “She told me that her husband and his family beat her up
with a belt. I tried to tell her to file a police case, but she just ran away
the next day.”<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That wasn’t the first
time Nazifa saw women in her community beaten and bruised by their husbands.
Even as an 11-year-old, she is no stranger to the horrors of domestic violence
because it was right where she lived.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BPT is a community
located along the coastline of Mumbai. Nearly 100,000 families live on the land
in less than humane conditions. Since BPT is an illegal slum, residents are not
provided with basic necessities like water and electricity and have to pay <span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-citys-outcasts/" target="_blank">50 to 200 times more</a></span><span id="goog_1830083063"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1830083064"></span> for inconsistent access
to those amenities than more affluent citizens (Subbaraman, 2015). The
possibility of the government destroying the shanties looms over residents
every day, and demolition in some areas has already begun.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BPT’s problems don’t
stop there. Social issues and inequality run rampant through the community.
Mumbai has seen a <span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Nearly-300-spike-in-rapes-in-city-since-11/articleshow/55424613.cms" target="_blank">354 percent increase in rapes</a></span>
since 2011, many of those taking place with alarming regularity in slums like
BPT (Hafeez, 2016). Because of this, parents have to be very careful about
letting their daughters leave the home for short errands or play-dates with
friends. Even a walk to school can be dangerous.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nazifa’s family isn’t
originally from BPT. They migrated from a village in Gujarat for her father to
work in the naval port. When asked if she liked her community, she was quick to
shake her head and say “no.” Her father works/322554 as a helper in the local
port, earning Rs. 7000 a month. Her mother is a home-maker. Four of them live
in a small shanty, one of the many that stands squeezed to each other in the
darkened, open-drained alleys of BPT.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“I don’t like that the
teenage boys and men use drugs and sexually harass women,” she said. “I want to
make a change and tell people drugs and alcohol are bad and involve police,
because it leads to worse things. Violence and fights happen a lot here.”<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Since her parents and
her four-month-old brother now call BPT home, Nazifa is determined to make a
difference.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nazifa has been a Magic
Bus participant for four years and is in fifth grade. Every week, she and her
friends attend Magic Bus sessions delivered by mentors from her same community.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">“When Nazifa enrolled,
she was silent and shy,” said Shanti Ravi, the BPT Magic Bus community
coordinator. “Now she is taking initiative for issues in the community she
cares about. I’m amazed. She’s so young and already doing this.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nazifa’s mentors are her
favorite part about Magic Bus, and she said they have been helpful on her
journey for justice. Their job is to deliver important sessions to participants
such as the importance of health and gender equality, but they also helped
Nazifa. She said after she complained to them about the violence in the
community, Magic Bus staff raised awareness to local families and children that
domestic violence is a dehumanizing and criminal offense in India.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“In the sessions, Nazifa
reflects those lessons and wants quick action,” Ravi said.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Magic Bus also takes
participants to the local police station, where they interact with officers.
Nazifa befriended one of the officers and got their phone number in case she
saw another incident of domestic violence.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“She is the only girl
around here that does this kind of thing,” Ravi said.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">Nazifa has big dreams
for the future: both for her community and personally. She aspires to have a
career in the medical field and will be the first in her family to go to
college. Her ultimate goal, she said, is to help those around her. “The reason
I want to be a doctor is to be able to help all those in need. In BPT, we see
children and adults suffering from so many diseases because of the unhygienic
conditions in which they are forced to live in.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“When I’m a doctor I
will help these women,” she said. “For now, I will do what I can. I want to
make sure they’re okay and I want people here to be happy.”<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-48845483395534673602017-08-23T11:15:00.001+05:302017-08-23T12:21:43.550+05:30Finding a job was a beginning to their dreams: the story of two sisters from Vizag<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #f1c232;">A year ago two sisters started
to look out for a job against their wish to get an education. When they finally
found a job, they realized that it could be a passport to what they have always
wanted to do in life.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mahabunnissa
is 21 years old and Karimunnissa is 23.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The
sisters are from Gajuwaka village in Vizag where they live with their mother
and brother. Gajuwaka is “neither a village nor a full-fledged city”. It is one
of those semi-urban areas on the outskirts of a city from where daily wage
workers commute to every day in search of work. “It is an industrial area.
There are a lot of industries around. Mostly people work in them as daily wage
workers,” says Mahabunnissa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mahabunnissa
and Karimunnissa lost their father seven years ago. It was a big blow to the
sisters as both of them considered their father to be a role model. “He never
went to school because his parents couldn’t afford sending him to school. So he
always motivated us to study,” Karimunnissa reminisces. So close were they to
their father that when he passed away, they decided to move from the
neighbourhood. “It was too painful to keep living where we did. Plus, the mother
had to start working to make ends meet. And there were no livelihood
opportunities for her in our old neighbourhood,” explains </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mahabunnissa. She
adds, “We shifted. The shift was bittersweet for us sisters. We had to deal
with the loss and adjust to our new surrounding which required us to be
sociable.” The family moved 200kms to Kakinada, their father’s native place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">The
financial crisis required both sisters to discontinue schooling and look out
for jobs to support their mother. Their mother took up a job in the packaging
factory, making Rs. 5000 per month. Their brother, who had earlier dropped out
because he failed his tenth standard examination, was working as a welder in
construction sites. “He left his job and now sits at home,” says Mahabunnissa,
a hint of exasperation in her voice.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Karimunnissa
heard about the Magic Bus Livelihoods Centre in her neighbourhood after a friend
of hers enrolled and told her all about it. “We were desperately looking for
jobs. Having studied till the 10<sup>th</sup> standard, we were anxious that no
one would give us a respectable job. We did not want to enter the daily wage
work space,” says Karimunnissa. She decided to drop in at the Livelihoods
Centre one day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her
first day at the Centre involved introductions to the staff and introductory
counseling sessions. That day, she left with hope in heart and smile on her
lips. “I knew I had come to the right place. The staff is so encouraging here.
They understood my problems. They did not pity me but genuinely wanted to help.
I felt respected and appreciated,” says Karimunnissa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To this
day, Karimunnissa credits the sessions on spoken English, communication skills,
and computer literacy for helping her get a job. “I got my younger sister to
the Centre too. What we learn in school is important and yet not enough to help
us get a job. That is where the Livelihoods programme comes in to help,” she
says with a smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For
Mahabunnissa the experience was no different. “I learnt so many new skill sets
but the most important one for me was learning how to communicate,” she
explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After
completing their training at the Magic Bus Livelihoods Centre, Karimunnissa was
placed as a mammography technician at a clinic for a salary of Rs. 10, 200 per
month. It has been a year since the day she got her first job that put an end
to her search for a respectable job. It fanned her hopes to complete graduation
in the future. “Part of my salary goes to running the family and a small part
is kept aside for my education. I want to at least complete my graduation and
move to a better and well-paying job,” she says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her
younger sister has similar plans. Employed as a Sales Executive in a premium
watch brand’s showroom, Mahabunnissa sees this as an apprenticeship
opportunity. She earns Rs. 8000 a month and is keen to go for correspondence
courses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzm6KnnuAEeUG_esEYrBgiBm_m9RIHGdrVNMOLg5U6EkhBQAerYqb0l1TtR8SKxKx9RCHy_o0kdG28xZ0O8btEbrBzLCQGu29_WRnRIze4PM0FnlX74IKYwHHPI7gwKCmfiyK8Q_OdBlp/s1600/Prianca_51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzm6KnnuAEeUG_esEYrBgiBm_m9RIHGdrVNMOLg5U6EkhBQAerYqb0l1TtR8SKxKx9RCHy_o0kdG28xZ0O8btEbrBzLCQGu29_WRnRIze4PM0FnlX74IKYwHHPI7gwKCmfiyK8Q_OdBlp/s320/Prianca_51.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Reference Image</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Both of
them support each other in whatever they do. Both of them have a goal in life –
one for themselves and one for their family. Both of them feel the need to
complete their education and move to better job opportunities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-41949179813514541442017-08-22T15:10:00.000+05:302017-08-22T15:12:19.654+05:30The journey back to school: Mohsin's story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Rajasthan accounts for nearly 10% of the total
child labour in the country with Jaipur alone having more than 50,000 child
labourers in the age group of 5-14 years. The state stands third after UP and
Andhra Pradesh as far as child labourers are concerned.(TOI, Mar 12, 2013)</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One in every 11
children in India is working. (Mint, Jun12, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">More than half of the 5.5 million working children in India are
concentrated in five states—Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra. (Mint, Jun12, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">56% of the working
adolescents are no longer studying. And 70% of those in hazardous conditions
are not studying. (Mint, Jun12, 2015)</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">...........................................................................................................<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Bhatta basti in Jaipur is notorious for child labourers who work
on lac bangles within their households. Most of the adult members are either jewelers
or unskilled labourers. Substance abuse among children and adolescents is high.
Dropouts are common as children become workers early on in life”, says Magic
Bus’ Neelima, who is in charge of the programme here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There are 500 children in the Magic Bus programme in Bhatta basti.
Do they go to school? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Yes. A few of them work in household industries like
bangle-making, but they also go to school. Initially, when children came for
the sessions, they used foul language and were into substance abuse. This has
changed considerably. Our work is a challenging one. Consider this: If a child
spends two hours in the sessions learning the importance of education and the
disadvantages of substance abuse, she also spends the rest of her time in the
community where substance abuse is the ‘style’, with every other child being
compelled to work than study. Therefore, we also work with parents, caregivers,
community members, institutions within the community to ensure that a child
does not lose out on her formative years”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Such is Bhatta basti. It looks a bit different from the shanties
that dot the landscape of megacities like Delhi or Mumbai. There are rows of <i>pucca</i> houses here – with exposed red
bricks and high ceilings. Many houses have no roof. An open drain underlines
the sorry state of hygiene in the area. People who call Bhatta basti home are
largely from a single community engaged in bangle-making, stone-cutting, and
tailoring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Let’s walk along the meandering, narrow lanes of Bhatta basti
along a partially hilly landscape to hear the story of a 19-year-old who lives
in the area and whose story wants to be told. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Which
class are you in?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Chances
are, almost all of us have been asked this question at least once, or sometimes
more than once, during our lifetimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_fCo6C-5nW1ca7DcjV9SPBP3iO95tgQnT2ZaBTeQ-axUY7nMaUbjaQEYtuu_Iggbow4vFHmIybtrGWzvrx6nI8ODwdI9EQbmuLTTazRGqKQWTAs7jynzaw6hLDGjI1RX5AJhtaLS5v5f/s1600/may.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="556" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_fCo6C-5nW1ca7DcjV9SPBP3iO95tgQnT2ZaBTeQ-axUY7nMaUbjaQEYtuu_Iggbow4vFHmIybtrGWzvrx6nI8ODwdI9EQbmuLTTazRGqKQWTAs7jynzaw6hLDGjI1RX5AJhtaLS5v5f/s320/may.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mohsin Farukhi</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For
Mohsin Farukhi, this was a question he had carefully avoided since he was 13
and stopped going to school. “My father worked as a stone-cutter in a nearby
shop. My elder brother joined him after he finished his seventh standard because
we were in desperate need of money. My younger brother failed in the eighth
standard and started work at a local watch repair shop. My father stopped going
to work once both my brothers started earning. When they got married and had
their own children, they could barely spare any money to support the family. My
elder brother earns Rs. 7000 a month while my younger brother makes Rs. 8000.
This is why my parents started putting pressure on me to start working”,
explains Mohsin. Consequently, he dropped out in the seventh standard and started
assisting in a shoe shop where he was paid Rs 5 for working 12 hours in a day.
“My father dropped me to my first workplace. I could never tell him how much I
wanted him to drop me to a school instead”, Mohsin looks away as he shares the
memories of his first day at work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He
didn’t stick to his first job for long. He soon made friends in the
neighbouring stores and found out a different place to work with better pay. “I
realised one thing: there will always be jobs available for children like us
because we can be paid less and made to work more”. While Mohsin worked for
longer hours in jobs that did not interest him, his father started working as a
priest (locally called <i>mohzim</i>) in a <i>dargah</i>. His mother is a homemaker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzTBqgrW_1gdA5kl2FMR8AkO-wYFai2_sUq9wem6_jGbfKVBaH3OfoycF_Dkc8lzntUs3KPXQ2LsNkuzt_tju9V_4LTWqHPz5hq6KesFJiJFMl6qHqifRWcsK9-G-YkKUPZTcePI05yrz/s1600/Mohsin_126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzTBqgrW_1gdA5kl2FMR8AkO-wYFai2_sUq9wem6_jGbfKVBaH3OfoycF_Dkc8lzntUs3KPXQ2LsNkuzt_tju9V_4LTWqHPz5hq6KesFJiJFMl6qHqifRWcsK9-G-YkKUPZTcePI05yrz/s320/Mohsin_126.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mohsin with his mother</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With
three of their children working and two of them married with children, the
family decided to build a </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">pucca</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> house
in a different locality. So, they shifted to Bhatta basti area. “We could only
afford a </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">pucca</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> house near an open
drain. Its stench is unbearable on most days, but we are used to it. Sometimes
it overflows, but we have learnt to live with that too”, Mohsin shares.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Three
years ago, Mohsin came to one of Magic Bus’ sessions. He was 16 then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">Having
never had the time to play, Mohsin took a strong liking to the activity-based session.
“The person leading the session sat us down in a circle and asked how many of
us went to school. I saw several hands in the air, and ran away”, he recounts.</span></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sarfaraz,
who was conducting the session that day, saw Mohsin leave in a hurry and
decided to find out more about him. He called upon him the next day while he
was leaving for work. Mohsin confided in him his eagerness to learn. “If you
want to go to school, who is stopping you?”, Sarfaraz asked. Mohsin explained
his situation. That day, Sarfaraz left Mohsin with a hope, “You can still
study. I will help you get re-enrolled”. The support he was looking for came to
him in the form of a mentor he could trust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTeOQxGaEFT-AkWS9WX7f8xeuP_jIYJi32nA4Sd93i5-kUd8J7cejTcgUVOeAM-_E82ExRY66BXcUaULL8WrMWbQJhryOtM2hv44esDogn2_wIitiAL4wFQHa-tvVoqB2fdgO8voC5t1q/s1600/Mohsin_47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZTeOQxGaEFT-AkWS9WX7f8xeuP_jIYJi32nA4Sd93i5-kUd8J7cejTcgUVOeAM-_E82ExRY66BXcUaULL8WrMWbQJhryOtM2hv44esDogn2_wIitiAL4wFQHa-tvVoqB2fdgO8voC5t1q/s320/Mohsin_47.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mohsin with Sarfaraz</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b><i>When
Sarfaraz spoke to Mohsin’s parents, he found out about the abject condition
they were in. “Without Mohsin working, how would we manage to make ends meet? I
have no income option at all”, Mohsin’s father said. Sarfaraz approached an NGO
and mobilised funds for Mohsin’s education. Mohsin negotiated with his father
to allow him to go back to school in return of working to support the family.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After
a period of three years, Mohsin went back to school. He got enrolled in the
tenth standard in a private school. “He was concerned about which class to get
enrolled in. “I don’t look like a boy from the seventh standard. Everyone would
make fun of me in school”, he would say. We consulted the teachers at the private
school and got him enrolled in the tenth standard”, recalls Sarfaraz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">Mohsin’s
challenges were far from over. “I found the lessons difficult. After all these
years, I found it difficult to concentrate. It was exhausting to work and study
simultaneously”, he shares. </span></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately,
He failed the tenth examination. “His parents persuaded him to discontinue
education. They didn’t think it was a worthy investment. But, Mohsin persisted
in his attempts. And, of course, we stood by his decision”, says Sarfaraz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today,
Mohsin has completed his 12<sup>th</sup> standard. He aspires to become a nurse
because getting a MBBS degree would be too expensive for him. “I am, by far,
the most educated in my family. My parents never went to school and my brothers
dropped out. I don’t want to stop here. I want to study further and work in
dignity”, he shares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mohsin </b></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="color: orange;">Regardless
of the final destination, Mohsin inspires us to continue doing our work with
the same unflinching determination.</span></b></i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></b></i></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-61172905252494209732017-08-04T16:06:00.000+05:302017-08-04T16:06:00.541+05:30An entrepreneur-in-the-making: Shashikant Jaiswal’s story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shashikant Jaiswal</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Twenty-year-old Shashikant Jaiswal can tell you the
exact date when Mahatma Phule Nagar, a slum cluster adjacent to IIT Bombay,
came up. “It was in 1991 that migrants living near the Powai Lake were moved
here following a beautification drive of the city,” he explains, adding “A
large number of our neighbours are migrants from Maharashtra, mostly from
Satara and Aurangabad. Those from UP and Bihar are in a minority like us,” he
adds with a smile. Mahatma Phule Nagar has a large population of Dalits. “I
follow Babasaheb’s writings. They are remarkably insightful especially when all
around people are so strongly divided by caste.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shashikant’s grandfather came to Mumbai sixty years
ago. He spent almost his entire life as a daily wage worker. He put all his
savings in setting up a cloth shop in Wadala. He married twice. Shashikant’s
father is the son of his first wife. Due to domestic feuds, Shashikant’s father
was not allowed to participate in the family business. He found himself in the
same place as his father - selling peanuts in the day and working as a guard in
the night till he joined a mill as a daily wage worker with a salary of Rs 3000
per month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #bf8f00; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">“My father’s income
went in buying food for a family of four. We had to borrow money in case any of
us fell ill or had to buy books for school,” Shashikant shares. With no extra
income to support his education after the seventh standard, Shashikant took to
doing odd jobs like distributing newspapers, helping political parties set up
their billboards, to make money. “I would earn Rs. 500 a month and give it to
my mother. All of it went to pay my school fees,” he says.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There were insurmountable hardships. There were also
some eye-opening lessons. “Despite extreme poverty, my mother was not expected
to step out to work. Women stepping out in public to work and earn is still
looked down upon in my family. When my elder sister finished her Bachelors, I
negotiated with my parents to let her get a B.Ed degree. In reality, I fought
with them and their mindsets. My sister always wanted to be a teacher. She is
married now but I am happy that she is still keen on getting a job,” he observes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shashikant believes that a gender equal society is
possible but the change has to begin at home. This conviction had its roots in
the training he underwent in Magic Bus as a Youth Leader. “In my tenth
standard, I felt this strong urge to do something for my community. I wanted
children here to go to school and learn well. It might seem to be a most
ordinary, achievable dream outside Mahatma Phule Nagar but it is not so in a
community of so many out-of-work youth taking to substance abuse, a community
that is yet to wake up to importance of education. As a Community Youth Leader
I get to mentor these children using a deeply engaging activity-based
curriculum. I also run support classes for children in my neighbourhood so that
they can keep up with the pace of learning at school,” he shares. Shashikant
dreams to open a school in his neighbourhood for underprivileged children – a
learning environment modeled after the gurukul system of education. “Every
child nurses a dream. Poverty stifles that very dream. My education will hold a
light to those who are fighting to save their dreams from the clutches of
poverty,” he explains. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shashikant has other dreams and most of them concern
his family. He wants to buy land in Allahabad, his home town, and build a house
of their own. “We have always lived in other people’s homes. We could never
afford a house of our own,” he reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #bf8f00; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">Although he started
working since the eighth standard, Shashikant was aware that only a salaried
job can put an end to the financial distress at home and also support his dream
for further education.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #bf8f00; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">“I was in the first
batch of Magic Bus’ Livelihoods programme at Vikhroli. Back then, I was certain
I could be an entrepreneur. Through the Livelihoods training, I actually got an
insight into my skill sets and drawbacks. They helped me develop a roadmap for
my career, “he says, adding, “It has been three years since I completed my
livelihoods training. Yet I still fall back on my mentors from the Centre to
guide me on my career decisions. I have firm faith in their ability to suggest
the best way for me.” At present, Shashikant works as an Account Representative
in a multi-national software company, Accenture, earning Rs 25,000 per month. </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most of his income goes in paying off the family’s
debts but he saves enough to support his further education and also his dream
to have a house of their own in their hometown.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Apart from balancing a demanding work life with
education, Shahshikant is still Magic Bus ‘bhaiya’ for numerous children in his
locality – someone they laugh with, share their sorrows, anxieties, and listen
to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you were to pass Mahatma Phule Nagar on a
Saturday and Sunday, you might meet an enthusiastic 20-year-old, surrounded by
an excited bunch of children much younger and smaller than him, matching him in
step and energy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-66465519485494928732017-07-20T14:56:00.000+05:302017-07-20T14:56:17.219+05:30The girl with big dreams and a bigger determination to fulfill them: Sravya Madasu from Telangana<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGx9584LF_4ZsH3uLX2wX1NJgHcx1n8obJ9EKhQSMawzf1eA_z4qBS1keS3WAQ1V-VmpWalx5mgA87j0WNP0r0MXFTpoU5oSwjQaP-GQjYFdG8blCN7Vhy7Xq3rk5gG_F2AHN_CmPlFDR/s1600/IMG_0815.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGx9584LF_4ZsH3uLX2wX1NJgHcx1n8obJ9EKhQSMawzf1eA_z4qBS1keS3WAQ1V-VmpWalx5mgA87j0WNP0r0MXFTpoU5oSwjQaP-GQjYFdG8blCN7Vhy7Xq3rk5gG_F2AHN_CmPlFDR/s320/IMG_0815.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Sravya Madasu</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">14-year-old Sravya Madasu wants to be a doctor.
“There are no hospitals in the radius of 10 km of our village. It is so
difficult to get a doctor during emergencies. I want to be the first doctor of
Pudur village and open a hospital in my community.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sravya goes to a government school in Bollaram and
is ‘happy’ that her mother cannot afford to send her to a private school.
“Would I have met Magic Bus had I been studying in a private school?” she asks
innocently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She lives with her maternal grandparents. “We live
in a <i>kuchcha</i> house – the one which is
made out of mud,” she explains. “I live with my elder sister, mother, and
grandparents,” she says. After a small pause, as if out of habit, she adds, “My
father does not live with us. He left my mother just when I was born. He did
not want two daughters. My father believes that daughters are of no use. I have
never seen his face since.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“My mother has been an inspiration to both of us
sisters. She was married at 17 and really struggled to educate herself. She is
a graduate and wants to study further. She works as a computer operator at the
Gram Panchayat office with a salary of Rs. 5000 a month. She wants to complete
her B. Ed. so that she can be a teacher. Teaching pays better.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her mother learnt from life. She was forced to marry
early because her parents – both of them were agricultural labourers – had
barely enough money to educate three children. She works hard so that both her
daughters study further and build their own careers. “My mother never speaks
about marrying any of us. My elder sister is studying electronics. I want to be
a doctor. She is forever supportive of all our dreams,” she says proudly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With Rs. 5000 a month, a day-to-day struggle to have
enough to eat, is inevitable. “There have been so many days that we have slept hungry.
Sometimes we just have rice with a little bit of pickle. But that is fine as
long as the family is together and supportive of each other,” she says. There
are times when Sravya’s uncle steps up to support the family financially.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So what brought Sravya to Magic Bus?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Actually it was the other way around – Magic Bus
came to my school. Initially we were all hesitant to participate. Is it another
P.T. class? We used to wonder. Gradually, we understood that Magic Bus was less
about the balls and cones, and more about application, drawing parallels and
inferences with our real life,” she explains. Sravya joined Magic Bus
two-and-half years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5a7_4VcZ-LmNO8AdwLk1tqCaEUud0qrB5rcXbmRcAYDfZOPRydA3Ro0UWESMi4l3hyERSLNNJocL3jLlOW3D_5WD4pQ8Qn_Ds1IT0EruZ9DOBBJ3nXmu1KVEWpH1InSTsXd4HWIGw5_vM/s1600/IMG_0816_For+Blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5a7_4VcZ-LmNO8AdwLk1tqCaEUud0qrB5rcXbmRcAYDfZOPRydA3Ro0UWESMi4l3hyERSLNNJocL3jLlOW3D_5WD4pQ8Qn_Ds1IT0EruZ9DOBBJ3nXmu1KVEWpH1InSTsXd4HWIGw5_vM/s320/IMG_0816_For+Blog.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Sravya at her school</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“None of us at school ate healthy, nutritious food.
In fact, we used to pick and separate the vegetables and eat rice alone.
Through the sessions, we came to know how important it is to have nutritious
food. Similarly, we have learnt so many new ways of taking care of ourselves,
of leading healthy and hygienic lives,” she says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Doesn’t her mother tell her about everything she
needs to know?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Even if she wanted to, she barely has time to do
that. In Pudur village, every other person is engaged in daily wage work that
keeps them out for long hours. They cannot give their children the attention
they require. There are so many children in my school who are irregular; there
are others who do not pay attention in class. All of us need mentors in our
life to guide and inform us. Our Magic Bus <i>didi</i>
is just like that to us,” she explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">While underlying the
immense value of mentors in each of our lives, Sravya also promises that if she
ever gets an opportunity to mentor someone else, she would take it up happily
just like those who made a difference in hers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-85966119705195975622017-07-17T12:17:00.001+05:302017-07-17T12:19:47.519+05:30Learn at leisure: Learnings from the DISHA programme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>DISHA programme is funded by HDFC bank and
implemented by Magic Bus, Life Labs,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> and
Learning Links Foundation, in partnership with the State governments of
Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. The programme aims to
build life skills of adolescents, improve their learning levels in numeracy,
reading, and science, and ensure first-generation learners complete their
formal education. The programme works in 172 schools across four states
impacting the lives of 17,500 adolescents.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the challenges in school-based interventions
is the discontinuity that takes place when the schools are closed during
vacations. Disha being such a school-based intervention, we were concerned
about the long summer vacation in the months of April to May. We wanted to
continue the learning process despite the school being on vacation. We wanted
to ensure that nothing interrupts the learning process that Disha has fueled.
This gave birth to the idea of a <b>Summer
Camp</b>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While summer camps are a fairly common urban
phenomenon, it is unheard of in the back and beyond areas where the Disha
project operates. The children living in these remote regions have never
experienced anything like this. Summer vacations for these children mean
visiting relatives, playing with friends; some children, especially in tribal
belts, accompany parents to the forest to collect forest produce such as tendu
leaves, selling the produce at weekly markets, making brick kilns. Girls end up helping with household chores.
Sometimes children even start gambling, playing cards with small sums of money.
Being first generation learners and with no support system at home, children
start disengaging from the learning process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We put our heads together to make it a different
summer experience for our children, one that would be joyful and full of
learning. The focus remained on developing life skills and improving their
numeracy and literacy skills. The underlying principle was to make learning fun
and engaging. We worked with the children and not with their teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The camp was called <i>Masti-ki-Pathshala</i> in Madhya Pradesh and <i>Dhoom Dhadaka</i> in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Not
all children who attend the Disha programme came for the camps due to lack of
resources to cover all the schools under the programme. There were many
children who had left for their native villages during the summer holidays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu7GrBHrqoM9UqbQOIsAUt6i7IhA_Ztc-bhqXE0BfeE1F1qvip-ibLOuJJhEBwL0EcFTnB3Y3VORAcIutQmov1k2uvyrF4sJtGvqW3HhCCT04FULeRjGI9XNdxV8PIugnxgzEtee3k1CC/s1600/Masti+ki+pathshala.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="511" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu7GrBHrqoM9UqbQOIsAUt6i7IhA_Ztc-bhqXE0BfeE1F1qvip-ibLOuJJhEBwL0EcFTnB3Y3VORAcIutQmov1k2uvyrF4sJtGvqW3HhCCT04FULeRjGI9XNdxV8PIugnxgzEtee3k1CC/s320/Masti+ki+pathshala.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Masti Ki Pathshala</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under life skills education, some of the innovative
activities included Best out of Waste, Community Mapping, Collage Making, and
Treasure Hunt. These activities
encouraged children to work in groups, think out-of-the-box, get creative,
solve problems by engaging with others, negotiate, and take decisions. Science-based activities and projects were
also undertaken to ensure children have more clarity on science-related
concepts that they learn in schools. To improve language and numeracy skills,
innovative activities and Teaching Learning Material (TLM) was used. For
example, building vocabulary related to daily life through a game of dumb
charades, using story boards to narrate stories, using pebbles to teach
counting, number line, learning about shapes through everyday objects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYliYCOtlhDiXsvh5XmRQCvbttLrmHuHFqoL6jmKR2r4YLCVkC4NxalAgu3cRiXduj6KdiLond61u4IfH23GKA1XK7NGqzDsnvWvReg9ws2Bod40IuEZpza0Cm4aU26OuOD7yhQ9d3OVMW/s1600/Best+out+of+waste.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="488" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYliYCOtlhDiXsvh5XmRQCvbttLrmHuHFqoL6jmKR2r4YLCVkC4NxalAgu3cRiXduj6KdiLond61u4IfH23GKA1XK7NGqzDsnvWvReg9ws2Bod40IuEZpza0Cm4aU26OuOD7yhQ9d3OVMW/s320/Best+out+of+waste.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Best out of waste</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEiWweg8422_nh0AkstDrFelofRS9tZldJfY8aiTmuH-_3TaV9BCgIW2-TNf4a3Odi_G24VVAQEyWzyWNr22jPXh5FhM3WtWmFp_7VheINvBbLzZO0dvXAdeHZfFa7vm5T4QaV1b1H1N9/s1600/Learning+to+Count.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="557" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEiWweg8422_nh0AkstDrFelofRS9tZldJfY8aiTmuH-_3TaV9BCgIW2-TNf4a3Odi_G24VVAQEyWzyWNr22jPXh5FhM3WtWmFp_7VheINvBbLzZO0dvXAdeHZfFa7vm5T4QaV1b1H1N9/s320/Learning+to+Count.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Learning to count using pebbles</b></span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Masti-ki-Pathshala</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
received wonderful support from the community. Parents, Gram Panchayat members
and SMC members have supported it wholeheartedly. In Chhattisgarh, 643 children
attended the Summer Camp. SMCs were actively engaged in planning and
organizing them. In one of the locations where the Resource Person (RP) was
finding it a challenge to reach on time, the Sarpanch provided temporary
accommodation to support the camp. Seeing the success of the camp, <b>the Chhattisgarh government has recommended
that in the coming year, we organize a camp across all of Disha’s schools!<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Rajasthan, 150-200 children were attending the
camp every day. Those who were marked as absentees in school were found to be a
regular at these camps. They have now
promised to be regular in school in the new academic year. In fact, some of the
schools not covered by the Disha programme have also requested for the camps to
be organised in their schools’ coverage area. The camp will end with an
exhibition to showcase the work done by children where community leaders and
other stakeholders groups will be invited.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Maharashtra, the Summer Camps were organized
within the school premises. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to build
rapport with children and school stakeholders as the Disha programme is in its
inception phase here. We started the Camp in 15 schools out of the 28 schools
where Disha is functioning at present. <b>We
reached out to as many as 423 children!</b> In Nagpur, the Principal of a
school was so impressed with this initiative that he purchased a cricket bat
and ball along with a football for the children in his school. Teachers said that the students who would
never come to the school started coming regularly for the Camps. In some
schools there were no cupboards for the Science programme but post the Camp,
the Panchayat resolved to pool in money for its purchase.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Madhya Pradesh, the Camp was conducted in 10
schools. One of the biggest highlights is the role played by the Community
Coordinators in getting children for the Camps. They conducted door-to-door
visit, informing and involving the parents in the process. They worked really
hard to develop a link between the project and the community.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUuRh5sztZlUH-0A-mqZHdID5RplgwGHVuBhoXYr2cR7HobRNcpUqzzKIA_MMMh06p9CbVpjGXo9k-wBmoyLtT5Y9Xbzb7_Aivs6oYz6mu2IhToVZsBunHY0x4_xLYFbH1WXObLyeWB-J/s1600/Picture+on+numeracy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="588" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUuRh5sztZlUH-0A-mqZHdID5RplgwGHVuBhoXYr2cR7HobRNcpUqzzKIA_MMMh06p9CbVpjGXo9k-wBmoyLtT5Y9Xbzb7_Aivs6oYz6mu2IhToVZsBunHY0x4_xLYFbH1WXObLyeWB-J/s320/Picture+on+numeracy.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Numeracy</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>By: Team Disha</b></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-49508880958228971572017-06-23T18:05:00.000+05:302017-06-23T18:07:48.951+05:30Magic Bus - Changing and moulding lives of thousands!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Maybe, not everyone
is blessed enough to live a life they actually dream of.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But maybe, there yet exists
a bunch of people who are busy spreading humanity around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghDn8zXVkTnNjulzNLjV6ySREcGzH04cclcGMD-SWVc6JeTDSATe-M6QhcHchd2fVUbrZ2xmX0DDmXrD1u6GM-2pYEFDrvC0mi07qPoY3FZ9DFgthABGed-u2w_zBs0KDmUectzkf41jkw/s1600/Khushali+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghDn8zXVkTnNjulzNLjV6ySREcGzH04cclcGMD-SWVc6JeTDSATe-M6QhcHchd2fVUbrZ2xmX0DDmXrD1u6GM-2pYEFDrvC0mi07qPoY3FZ9DFgthABGed-u2w_zBs0KDmUectzkf41jkw/s320/Khushali+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Magic Bus”, mere a 8
letter word seemed worth exploring when I first heard it. There exists super
man with super powers and then there exists some hearts who just can’t resist
spreading good. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Indeed, Magic Bus is a latter one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This Non Governmental
Foundation, with a worldwide reach is really changing lives around. The
words “Childhood to Livelihood” are not mere the words they give, but
something they get into action, changing and molding lives of thousands.
Running in almost 22 states of India with a strong base of about 4 lakh children already enrolled, today Magic Bus has been ridiculously changing lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Getting an opportunity to
spend a day out with a few kids was actually a great thing. It was around 10:30
in the morning and I saw a bus coming from far. As it stopped, kids
ran out, carrying their bags, with a real happy face. Actually, this made me
smile. What was next? From the way they greeted their mentors to the thought
process they have developed, they got me wondering, how in every broken lane of
our country, lies a talent, an art, and a true self.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTEMaFT7pTLYs3mydXmnmYlTaw7kw12Kek98dVCXYaw0v1xD5l8owb4zIDMaTdXx0jGqWXwhZe06C-b4otWK_jxHHJ01metbW7SwD4zVGwv_UqFZVpTZbZ-GRi9ng95IpDjNWjfHOSKMc/s1600/Khushali+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTEMaFT7pTLYs3mydXmnmYlTaw7kw12Kek98dVCXYaw0v1xD5l8owb4zIDMaTdXx0jGqWXwhZe06C-b4otWK_jxHHJ01metbW7SwD4zVGwv_UqFZVpTZbZ-GRi9ng95IpDjNWjfHOSKMc/s320/Khushali+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">From getting them enrolled
in schools, counseling and helping them design their lives, the organization is
really giving the best they could. the staff and the mentors engaged, are
really doing a job worth a loud applause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Just in their primary
schools, these kids dream something even we lack to! They want to be a
police and save girls from eve teasing. They want to be a doctor, cause they
saw some one dying, merely cause a doctor in their slums could not be
approached. They want to be cricketer, because they saw Captain Dhoni getting awarded
and that they want to be one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And yet we see them with a
different perception? They think the same as we all do or maybe a step ahead.
And what’s worth wondering again is the fact that they actually want to learn,
to grow and to prosper. Just because they don’t get what they want, and hence
lag behind, we take our eyes off them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But as mentioned, there yet
exists pure hearts and fragile souls, and no doubt Magic Bus is a bundle of
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It takes huge effort and a
great wisdom to come ahead and dream of changing lives. And yes, Magic Bus is
doing this. An appreciable effort and obviously a salute deserving team!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6WUzJ2iy2CAAgp-m92r_ns2PE1E8n3pVR9wzPP0Z0XMN7xGajxjzjKfuoftQXiFaaqJWzWit4uUIczAwIiCeY8eqZaP_WbXLsy-8mZ-i19iC3d22xzqV7bEdH3x56VN0LH4hkLzwXDjX/s1600/Khushali+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6WUzJ2iy2CAAgp-m92r_ns2PE1E8n3pVR9wzPP0Z0XMN7xGajxjzjKfuoftQXiFaaqJWzWit4uUIczAwIiCeY8eqZaP_WbXLsy-8mZ-i19iC3d22xzqV7bEdH3x56VN0LH4hkLzwXDjX/s320/Khushali+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13.365px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">By: Khushali Shah</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13.365px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Thank you Khushali! Your lens has beautifully<b></b> captured the happiness and zeal of children and youth associated with Magic Bus Programme.</i></span> </div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-86142635963814178012017-06-23T17:08:00.001+05:302017-06-23T17:08:36.978+05:30Magic Bus stands true to its name<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgas5aZ6cEP9qZ-nA8xpZHgKpyUd6aMbDGeHELbArvpL4UwQkWCctJba7OtuGXtZ3lLm61BkVr5mfITrB21f5JpYDZh7VPO2GrBS-IXoHxQgBWmJVG62YIZR0iFmZYjHDBnqx76So3kP__Z/s1600/Shajan+blog+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1034" data-original-width="1378" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgas5aZ6cEP9qZ-nA8xpZHgKpyUd6aMbDGeHELbArvpL4UwQkWCctJba7OtuGXtZ3lLm61BkVr5mfITrB21f5JpYDZh7VPO2GrBS-IXoHxQgBWmJVG62YIZR0iFmZYjHDBnqx76So3kP__Z/s400/Shajan+blog+pic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Who am I? I am someone who chose his parents & pin code wisely.<br />
<br />
How far you go in India depends on the parents you were born to & the pin code. I call it the ovarian lottery. I have been lucky, I chose my parents and my pin code wisely. 300 million didn’t and therefore are reeling under abject poverty.<br />
<br />
Magic Bus stands true to its name and is symbolic of the work they are doing in the area of educating & empowering children right from childhood to livelihood.<br />
<br />
I have been to several NGO’s across India, so much so that I have lost count, but I have never ever visited a slum.<br />
<br />
Today, courtesy Magic Bus, I visited a slum in Milind Nagar, Mumbai, my first reaction was that of bewilderment, small dingy cobbled roads, heavily populated with shanties on either side, garbage dumped in pompous display, even the dogs don’t move, so you have to be an amateur steeplechase athlete to jump over both the dog and the pipes. I managed it all three times with panache. Welcome to Mumbai - Welcome to India because true India lives here.<br />
<br />
I was extremely impressed by the dedication and sincerity of the Community Youth Leaders, Babu & Supriya. Babu had spent 9 years with Magic Bus - The way they went about their work, enthused me, the children had one thing in common, dreamy eyes and a flashing smile. The children were being exhorted to a small interesting game under the simple principle of “each one teaches one “.<br />
Babu’s & Supriya’s impact on these young children is profound & long lasting. They shape the character, curiosity level & intellectual potential of these children. In other words, they help shape our society.<br />
<br />
Hats off Supriya & Babu - It’s not easy what you are doing, that’s the reason why you are doing it. You are the chosen one.<br />
<br />
As Gabriela Mistral has so poignantly said. “We are guilty of many crimes, but our worst sin is abandoning the child; neglecting the foundation of life. May of the things we need can wait; The child cannot. We cannot answer tomorrow. Her name is Today “<br />
Education is also a basic component of social cohesion & national identity. The foundations for a conscious & active citizenship are often laid in school.<br />
<br />
What Magic Bus does to a nicety is, it gives shape to children’s dreams, gives the child a sense of belonging – making him/her feeling wanted. The schools where these children go are not particularly great, therefore a dovetailing of situational awareness coupled with a basic understanding such as washing hands before eating goes a long way in eliminating the vulnerability.<br />
<br />
Another unique feature of Magic Bus is that it uses a robust learning model ABC (Activity Based Curriculum ) that uses activities and games to change attitudes and behaviours. 40 sessions per year - each with a key message, teach children important life skills around education, gender, and health.<br />
<br />
<br />
My message to the children was simple “Don’t worry about where you are now, focus on where you want to go “ Embrace these challenges & hardships, they will make you strong & keep you rooted.<br />
Working at the bottom of the pyramid is a daunting task, but this is where a radical transformation must happen. These 300 million people must enter mainstream for India to stand any chance of stamping its prowess on the global arena. In a country where we have more cell phone’s than loos, we don’t even realize what we need. That is what poverty can do to you.<br />
<br />
But our dreams are more powerful than our memories & life is lived forward but understood backwards.<br />
<br />
As I made my way outside the dwindling path – to the more comfortable surroundings, I thanked the Lord Almighty & Magic Bus for giving me this opportunity to see the blatant reality of life.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">By: Shajan Samuel</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><i>Thank you Shajan! Your lens has beautifully<b></b> captured the happiness and zeal of children and youth associated with Magic Bus Programme.</i></span> </div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-91200803437345485042017-06-20T18:13:00.000+05:302017-06-20T18:13:11.126+05:30She finds her feet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After years of domestic abuse, this 29-year-old not only decides to break
out of it but also finds a way to be independent while fighting those mindsets
that subjugate women in all societies.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“I did not know I
could be anything apart from a daily wager, just like my parents,” says
29-year-old Sashwati (name changed to protect identity) At Ambadi village in
rural Bhandara district of Maharashtra, almost every other person is an
agricultural worker. “Some have land. The majority don’t. The ones who don’t
have land work for those who have,” she explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sashwati went to
school. She completed 12th standard and was married immediately after. “It did
not matter that I finished my secondary schooling. I was not allowed to go to
college because it was at a distance. There is a lot of fear about young,
unmarried girls stepping out of their homes. And so, I was married off at 21,”
she says with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “My parents thought that marriage
would protect me and help me have a small world of my own. Little did any of us
that it would actually push me towards my own destruction,” her voice trails
off and she can continue no longer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio68Xb2KmB8cKcojk0K9u18nG2H1CPdA4YrrOm0OHGe92Br2KUavda6Q_aYiJEp2xySh8PhQkkhsSeZ0MJyEV9YJuKjuGLU_gBLfSj9oZtgq6wSJ2kWeE9ThtOM31hvh8ZJ_4xlyXAb6pL/s1600/Prianca_40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio68Xb2KmB8cKcojk0K9u18nG2H1CPdA4YrrOm0OHGe92Br2KUavda6Q_aYiJEp2xySh8PhQkkhsSeZ0MJyEV9YJuKjuGLU_gBLfSj9oZtgq6wSJ2kWeE9ThtOM31hvh8ZJ_4xlyXAb6pL/s400/Prianca_40.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reference Image</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“It was painful. I
thought I will get a lot of love and respect after marriage. I was let down
repeatedly. I was abused day after day. Suddenly home was no longer what I
expected it to be. I was scared, stunned that this could happen to me,” her
voice carries the weight of pain and betrayal. Sashwati never shared a word
about the abuse and beatings at home. She never told her sisters or her
brothers that she was unhappy. Her in-laws kept torturing her for dowry. “I
almost started living with the pain and humiliation. I was unhappy but I knew
there was no way out,” she accepts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After the birth of
her first child, she hoped to take refuge in the new relationship. She also
hoped that her husband would change his behaviour. But it was not to be so. The
violence continued and grew worse since her in-laws knew she could be
threatened with her son. “When my son was 3 years old, they beat me up so badly
that I had blood streaming down my head. My son saw it and was scared of even
approaching me. That was the moment I realised I am not in this alone. He would
be suffering with me. I picked up my child and went to the nearest police
station to file a complaint against my husband and in- laws. That night, I went
to live with my sister. I told her the entire story and spoke to my brother. My
husband and I were called to the Nagpur police station the next week. In the
presence of the police and my brothers, he threatened to kill me if I went
ahead with the complaint,” she narrates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sashwati refused to
give in to her husband’s threats. “After a point, I stopped caring about what
he could do to me. I had to make him stop somehow. I knew I had to live for my
son.” She returned home and became a target of gossip by her neighbours. Even
her sisters-in-law appeared hostile when they learnt she would never go back to
her husband. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“They were afraid that I would claim my share of the property. I
had no such plans. My parents are so poor that they have barely anything to
stake my claim on,” she shares with a laugh. Isolated in her own home, Sashwati
decided to work twice as hard as before. “To forget my past and to earn so that
no one would blame me for being a burden on my brothers,” she sighs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She went back to
doing what her parents did – long and hard hours of sowing and harvesting in
the fields, under the merciless sun, for Rs 100 a day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It was around this
time that Vaishali, a Magic Bus staff, came to visit her house. She was
enrolling children on the Magic Bus programme and asked if Sashwati’s niece
would like to join them for a session. Her brother wasn’t willing to send his
daughter out to play with people he barely knew. Vaishali assured him that it
would be safe for his daughter and invited him to come for a session too.
Sashwati appealed to her brother to let her niece participate and promised she
would watch over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">During the two hours
that she watched her niece play with 24 other young children, Sashwati
momentarily forgot the nightmarish life she had lived in the last several
years.“I laughed. I cheered. I listened. I realised how little of this I did in
the last eight years of my life,” she shares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Her interest in the
sessions and about those who conducted them (the Community Youth Leaders or
CYLs) brought her to Priyanka Patil, another staff in charge of mentoring those
who deliver these sessions. Priyanka was looking to involve more enthusiastic
Community Youth Leaders, as the number of children attending the sessions grew
each month. Sashwati volunteered. When Priyanka told her about a five-day-long
offsite for the training of CYLs, she was perplexed. She shared with her family
and they reminded her that she was a mother of a five-year-old. “You can’t go
just like that. Who will take care of your son?” they asked her. Sashwati
prevailed with them. “It was an opportunity for me to do something that I
wanted to. I did not want to let go of it,” she says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Her family
supported her decision grudgingly; and Sashwati found herself on board her
first journey to a place far away from home, with people who were as similar as
they were different. “It was all so new and exciting,” her voice quivers with
excitement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Things started
falling into place faster than she had assumed. Months after she started her
work as a Community Youth Leader, she was spotted by the Programme Manager,
delivering a session to children. “Her confidence and enthusiasm drew our
attention,” says Prashant, recollecting the first time he saw her. Later he
came to know all about Sashwati. “They knew my financial problems. They were
happy with my work and so they offered me a job: I could be a Youth Mentor at
Magic Bus!” she beams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“As young girls, we
never had the freedom to step outside our homes. We moved between school and
home. We were asked not to loiter, not to be loud. It was almost as if we
learnt to remain unheard. Magic Bus is breaking this mindset and I am happy to
be doing that for a living. I understand the value of helping each girl to grow
up to be resilient and independent,” her resolute words linger on as she takes
a brief pause. “More than anything, this job has helped me win back my
self-esteem. I am no longer destined to live anonymously. I have a name within
my community. I am not the subject of pity or derision. I am loved by my
children and more by my son. He says he wants to be a District Magistrate one
day and not let me work at all,” she laughs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“I am 29 years old
but my life seems to have just begun,” she sound buoyed with newfound energy
and hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She was quiet for the longest time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Till a point when,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Her unsaid words gathered and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">poured<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Washing out all:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A clean slate, once again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-50830077423448907512017-05-17T17:18:00.002+05:302017-05-17T17:18:48.736+05:30Paving her way towards her dreams: Asma from Mysore city<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“All my siblings are married. My brothers continue
to work odd jobs after marriage. My sisters are homemakers. <strong>My father was never in favour of girls’ working
outside their homes.</strong> That way, my siblings are living to our
father’s wishes,” Asma (21) says with a shy smile.<br />
<br />
Asma lives at Rajiv Nagar in Mysore City with her family. She has seven
siblings. Earlier they used to live together in a rented house. The rent was
Rs. 3000 per month. With time, as her siblings married and started their own
family, they moved away to live on their own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Asma is the only girl in her family to have
completed a pre-University course and work as an insurance agent, earning
Rs.4000 per month</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. Her father is a
scrap-dealer. “He is 65 years old now. When he had just entered the profession,
he would make Rs. 300 per day. Now he barely manages to make Rs 100 a day,” she
explains. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHtIk1y5DZqkEh08HPRUEXWTpVWJUIGTi1kwBPefrdQs8ULNxA931nbhgwkropj1IptDMOaqCX_RyTbqQUt4Uiv5-6rmJIy3lEXgODGuEIYbD6b7BlhQWe-ZI8ev-JKc6nbQJr2jngvMI/s1600/Nasmeen_112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHtIk1y5DZqkEh08HPRUEXWTpVWJUIGTi1kwBPefrdQs8ULNxA931nbhgwkropj1IptDMOaqCX_RyTbqQUt4Uiv5-6rmJIy3lEXgODGuEIYbD6b7BlhQWe-ZI8ev-JKc6nbQJr2jngvMI/s320/Nasmeen_112.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reference Image</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Girls in my community are married off before they
reach 18 years of age. Throughout our childhood we are taught household chores.
Our aspirations to work and earn are never encouraged. It took me a great deal
of convincing to get my father to agree to a job for me. None of my five
sisters were allowed this freedom,” she explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She remembers the time her mother used to roll beedis to pay for school fees.
“Somewhere deep down, my mother knew that I dreamt of working one day,” she
remarks. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Convincing her parents to
let her study and work wasn’t Asma’s only challenge.<br />
<br />“<strong>I have not done much walking
and running around since a polio attack at the age of five. It made people
around me look at me with a lot of pity. No one likes to be pitied</strong>,”
her voice grows serious. Asma’s family perpetually fell short of the money
required for her many surgeries. They borrowed from the relatives. The burden
of debt followed them around like their own shadows.<br />
<br />
“When I heard about the Magic Bus' Livelihoods Centre from a friend in my
neighbourhood, I was eager to join,” she says. “<strong>The Centre appeared to be the only way I could get a job, be
independent and support my family financially</strong>." The Centre
was 5kms away from her house. She would hop on to the tri-cycle she had
received from the government and drive down to her classes. <br />
<br />
At the Centre, Asma devoted herself to picking up skills that would help her
find a job. “<strong>Since my
childhood I wanted to stand on my own feet. With this job I am a little closer
to my dreams</strong>,” she says.</span><div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaur-sKzvjhVxOobgpLUoz8jME-Gch2Z_M50ySyXPYd8-50tZmfM-Z7F73ubHqrqlp-I6wjKoR1O3Z1Tjbx-9g4G6IxsONetfltdrPyfbbDmTojbGbxk13hFyee1RiMh3V6-fqXSNXGOfI/s1600/Nasmeen_106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaur-sKzvjhVxOobgpLUoz8jME-Gch2Z_M50ySyXPYd8-50tZmfM-Z7F73ubHqrqlp-I6wjKoR1O3Z1Tjbx-9g4G6IxsONetfltdrPyfbbDmTojbGbxk13hFyee1RiMh3V6-fqXSNXGOfI/s320/Nasmeen_106.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reference Image</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her determination paid off. She was rejected
multiple times, all on account of her disability. But these experiences made
her more determined to give her best to each interview she faced.<br />
<br />
“<strong>There is a difference in
believing in yourself and getting the world to believe in you. With this job, I
have done the latter. I want to go on. One day, I will have a business of my
own</strong>,” she shares.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-41888034480534272152017-05-05T11:40:00.000+05:302017-05-05T11:42:37.299+05:30The way to the classroom: Phoolwanti’s story from Bihar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Bihar has nearly 2.2
million Musahars, according to the state Mahadalit Commission’s interim report.
Community activists, however, claim that the population of Musahars cannot be
fewer than three million in Bihar. About 96.3 percent of them are landless and
92.5 percent work as farm labour. <b>Literacy
rates in this community, which upper caste Hindus still consider untouchable,
is only 9.8 percent; the lowest among Dalits in the country.</b>” The Quint, The Musahar Community in Bihar struggles to
educate its children, 23 January 2017<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">12-year-old Phoolwanti lives with her family in
Lohanipur slum cluster in Bihar. Her family is a small one, comprising her
mother and her younger sister. “My elder sisters are married and have children
my age. They were married at my age,” she says, adding, “My entire family is
into rag-picking. My father was a rag picker. He died of tuberculosis. When he
fell ill and could not work anymore, he was less concerned about recovering
than about getting my elder sisters married. I think, the tension and debts
killed him,” her voice falters. “I cried a lot when father died. Mother tried
her best to save him. She took him to the hospital. She worked extra hours to
pay for the medicine. All of us ate one meal a day to save some money for his treatment.
But we could not save him,” she sighs.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9nVNN3CRUDocLOqEerOR1Ul25UY4sBn7_0uYh9FzvNTgki2uVY9ZsNKcc2HjmXEZ9HHiA24ya9qGKFaOenmLhE7RgYbWd83gbaPRq78uS5N-hCrGBIv4uH56uju2vGGIu9Z-Tc_7Lbil/s1600/Phoolwanti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9nVNN3CRUDocLOqEerOR1Ul25UY4sBn7_0uYh9FzvNTgki2uVY9ZsNKcc2HjmXEZ9HHiA24ya9qGKFaOenmLhE7RgYbWd83gbaPRq78uS5N-hCrGBIv4uH56uju2vGGIu9Z-Tc_7Lbil/s320/Phoolwanti.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phoolwanti from Bihar</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Phoolwanti lost her younger brother to a disease she
“knows nothing about. I simply know he would lay curled up in the corner of our
house, clutching his stomach in deep agony.” Her mother works as a rag picker.
“Her day starts at 6 in the morning. I hear the dragging sound of her sack on
the floor and know it is time to get up. She works the entire day, collecting
scrap, walking long, long hours in the sun,” her voice appears strained
recounting a day in the life of her mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For Phoolwanti, the squalor of her surroundings is
the only reality she is used to. “We live on garbage. We drink dirty water. We
boil our water sometimes. Most of the times there is not enough money to buy
fuel to light the hearth. On such days, we do not think if the water is dirty
enough to drink.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lohanipur is home to a large number of Musahars –
one of the most marginalized castes in India who are routinely forced to live
in subhuman conditions and face rampant discrimination. In the struggle to put
together two meals a day, most of these families do not send their children to
school. Children, like Phoolwanti, either accompany their mothers at work or
stay at home to finish household chores and take care of younger siblings.
“None of my sisters went to school. My parents did not send me to school.
Instead I went with my mother to collect and sell scrap every day. On days I
went to work, mother made 300 rupees a day. Without me, she would only get 200
rupees a day,” she explains. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Phoolwanti had no time for school. But she wanted to
go to school. She imagined how school would look like every single day she set
out to work with her mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Prior to beginning sessions in this community, Magic
Bus staff first reached out to enroll parents into the programme. Phoolwanti’s
mother agreed to send her child for the sessions and volunteered to participate
in the parents’ meetings as well. But when both of them failed to turn up on
multiple ocassions, Magic Bus staff, Ritesh decided to pay them a visit.
Phoolwanti’s mother shared her plight with him. “I can’t send her to school. If
she goes to school how would I feed them? How will I return the money I had
loaned to marry off her elder sisters?” she asked. Ritesh reasoned with her,
calmly. But Phoolwanti’s mother remained unconvinced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What followed was a series of follow up meetings
with Ritesh visiting Phoolwanti’s mother to convince her to send her daughter
to school. In those meetings, he tried to explain how early marriage and lack
of education have been some of the reasons behind their abject poverty. When he
learnt that her mother was planning Phoolwanti’s marriage, he firmly explained
how this would destroy her daughter’s future. “She will never be able to move
out of this suffering if you marry her so young,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>“To me, the best aspect of Magic Bus’ approach is
involving youth from a community to work with children from the same community.</b>
This creates trust in the minds of parents. It was easier for me to convince
Phoolwanti’s mother because she knows I belong to the same community and live
in the neighbourhood,” says Ritesh who has been working in Lohanipur as a Magic Bus Youth Mentor for the last one and
half years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>“Ritesh bhaiya<i>
</i>never gave up. It is because of him that my mother put me in a school and
asked me to study instead of working,” says Phoolwanti.</b> There were many times
when pushed to starvation, her mother considered pulling her daughter out. But
Ritesh always helped her reconsider.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Phoolwanti goes to school today. “I want to take my
younger sister with me too. But every time I get her to the classroom, the teachers
drive her away. She has to have her name registered to attend classes. Next
year, I will get her name in the muster rolls,” she resolves. “I find English
and Maithili difficult. I enjoy Hindi. There are so many stories. I love
reading them,” she sounds excited <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b>“I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I see so
many children not being able to go to school. I want to bring them to school. I
want to tell their parents about my story and encourage them to support their
children’s dreams. Just like my mother did. Just like Ritesh bhaiya did”,</b> she
signs off.</span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-10347142839663510302017-03-10T14:56:00.000+05:302017-03-10T14:56:26.112+05:30A Ray of Hope in Guntur<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In
Guntur, Magic Bus works in 13 slum communities, all of which are in the
outskirts of the city, and have only recently been brought under the Guntur
Municipal Corporation. These are some of the poorest communities in Guntur, and
where most of the people live in kutcha houses, and the communities lack even
basic infrastructure.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EcHBaQyonjDdZX_v4yj2qDTbcqeH34QtgPIHPPQANfgsNAgCOjLmUlk99xbsTYpH966Ou_D-9rg1ZZbFa8HnwRqp3hAe8u7z5OkGoTxXa8I7rAFj_ixR7hrF1pZDL-n6RjCXcjkjtlAS/s1600/BlogPic2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EcHBaQyonjDdZX_v4yj2qDTbcqeH34QtgPIHPPQANfgsNAgCOjLmUlk99xbsTYpH966Ou_D-9rg1ZZbFa8HnwRqp3hAe8u7z5OkGoTxXa8I7rAFj_ixR7hrF1pZDL-n6RjCXcjkjtlAS/s320/BlogPic2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In
the last 18 months, in addition to working with children and youth, we have
engaged the community leaders and have empowered and assisted them in demanding
their rights from the Municipal Corporation. As a part of our review, we
visited three communities, and met children, youth, parents, school
authorities, anganwadi workers and community leaders to get a first-hand understanding
of the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">One
of the first people we met in Guntur was the Headmaster of a Government School,
and he was full of praise for the work we do. “After Magic Bus came, prosperity
came to our community”, he said. “We got electricity. And now, roads are being
constructed and drains are being dug”, he added, waving his hands so we could
take in the construction work going on around the school grounds. We dismissed
it as hyperbole, but when we later checked with the Programme Manager we found
that there was indeed a direct co-relation between us starting to work in the
community, and the development – our Manager had invited the Municipal
Commissioner to one of the events, and then repeatedly petitioned him to invest
in basic infrastructure in the community. Though electricity, water and surface
infrastructure should have been provided after the community came under the
Municipality, it might have taken years if not for the timely intervention of
the staff working on the HGS-Magic Bus Programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The
same story was echoed in the two other communities we visited. In both, we
interacted with the parents of children on our programme, and they told us that
the Programme Manager, the Training and Monitoring Officer (TMO), and the Youth
Mentor (YMs) supported them whenever they wanted to make a representation to
any Government department or agency. Our programme staff have assisted in polio
campaigns and government health camps, and they ensure that all the children
are the community are enrolled in schools under the RTE. Two community leaders
we met both said that after the programme started, not only have the children
started indulging in physical sports (as opposed to marbles and gambling), they
have also become better behaved and less rude. Whenever there is any issue
concerning the community, the elders consult the YMs, TMO and Programme Manager
– in fact, one of them even joked that if the TMO chose to stand for elections,
he would be elected in a landslide!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Of
the dozen Community Youth Leaders (CYL) we met, some had gone through the
Livelihood Programme and had been placed in good jobs (the rest are still
studying). However, they continue to be involved in the programme, and ensure
that they conduct sessions on their weekly leave. One of them had even taken a
day off, so he could meet us and tell us how becoming a CYL had changed his
outlook towards life and of how he would only stop being a CYL when Magic Bus
asked him to stop. Another CYL who has got placed spends her weekends
performing the duty of a YM, because her community does not currently have one.
We also met the mother of a CYL who told us that she was worried about what
would happen to her son, but that he has discovered a purpose in life, she
knows that he will do her proud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">There
are many cases of people going way beyond their duties to bring about change.
Here is just one: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Lavanya
is a Youth Mentor who has got dozens of first generation learners enrolled in
school (47 was the number shared by the Headmaster of the school). We met three
children who she had enrolled just a week back. After losing her husband, the
mother of the children made her way to Guntur where she found a job as a
domestic help. While the mother went out to work, the three girls, the oldest
of whom was 9, were left alone to fend for themselves. Our Youth Mentor got
their papers made and enrolled them in the local school. In just one week, the
girls have learnt to say “Good morning” and “Thank you”, though their English
vocabulary does not extend much beyond that. None of the girls are old enough
to be enrolled in the programme, but we have already made a difference in their
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">We also met a woman YM who lost her husband a couple of weeks back, but was back at
work 11 days after the tragedy. She said that she knows the impact of the work
she does, and that was what gave her the strength to fight back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In
Guntur we are clearly going beyond our stated vision of helping children and
youth break out of poverty – we are empowering entire communities to access their
rights and take advantage of available resources. It is almost a textbook case
of what an Integrated Community Development project should look like. We wish
we could take you to some of these communities so you can see first hand the
impact that the HGS-Magic Bus Partnership is making.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Posted by:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Natasha Ramarathnam</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">https://twitter.com/nuts2406</span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-85934140583902523852017-03-01T11:22:00.000+05:302017-03-01T11:24:04.908+05:30Dreams with responsibilities: Vaishnavi’s story from rural Maharashtra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Vaishnavi Kathelkar is 19 years old. She is in the final year of graduation and wants to pursue post graduation afterward.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Vaishnavi Kathelkar</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She belongs to Chinchala village in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. There are six members in her family. She has an elder sister, who is preparing for Civil Services; and two younger ones in the tenth and twelfth standard. Her father worked as a mason until he met with an accident that took away his ability to work. Her mother is an LIC agent. She makes Rs 3000 per month.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Vaishnavi with her mother</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Vaishnavi and her family live with their uncles and cousins in a six-room house. Each family lives in one room. They share a kitchen and bathrooms. But do not share expenses. <b>“When father met with an accident, none of my uncles came forward to help us out with money,”</b> Vaishnavi points out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Despite the financial pressure, Vaishnavi claims they never thought of dropping out. “Both my sister and I are good in studies. Our parents have always encouraged us to pursue our career aspirations. But when father met with the accident, both of us decided to take turns to support our mother. We were confident about balancing education with a job,” she shares.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Vaishnavi with Magic Bus Youth Mentor, Yogita</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A year ago she and her sister were introduced to Magic Bus by Youth Mentor, Yogita Satpute. The latter was convinced that both the sisters could be great role models for girls in her community. “Unlike other communities, people in Chinchala are aware of the importance of education. Parents encourage their children to go to school. What they do not understand is that schooling is only a part of education. Life skills are as important as the lessons children learn in school. It helps a child negotiate and make most of the different situations,” Yogita explains. Vaishnavi agrees, <b>“The training for Community Youth Leader was an eye opener for both of us. We did not know how important it was to learn essential life skills like the negotiation. We had never had the scope to think beyond books and school. The curriculum is refreshing. We enjoyed every minute of interacting with the children.”</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her father’s accident compelled her to look out for work. “Yogita di told me about Magic Bus’ Livelihoods Centre. I thought it was a good idea to get some guidance on planning my career. I learned skills to help me face interviews. I also improved upon my language skills,” she says. She took up a job at the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) as a Punching Operator. Her working hours start from 11.00am and continue up to 5.00pm. She earns Rs 3,500 per month which goes to running the family. “I would go to college at 7.00 in the morning and attend practical classes till 10.30am. I would then rush to office, work till 5.00pm and reach home at 7.00 in the evening. On some days I am too tired to even have my dinner,” she shares.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vaishnavi undergoing Complete Need Assessment at Magic Bus Livelihood Centre</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The long hours and exhausting travel does not stop her from dreaming. “I wanted to be an Army Officer. But that couldn’t happen. I want to join the police. I find tough physical activity exciting,” she signs off.</span><br />
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-42760472858702447192017-02-18T11:02:00.000+05:302017-02-18T11:02:32.740+05:30LION, the movie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dev Patel-Nicole Kidman starrer <a href="http://lionmovie.com/">LION</a> is based on the hard-hitting, real-life
story of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saroo_Brierley">Saroo Brierley</a>.
Ever since its release, the movie has won countless hearts, nominations and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/15/why-lion-should-win-best-picture-oscar-dev-patel-nicole-kidman-oscars-2017">awards</a>.
It is only a matter of time before it releases in India. <b>On 24<sup>th</sup> of
February this month, we will finally get to see what the world is raving about.
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A lesser-known fact about this film is that the makers are
also leading a social impact initiative through their <a href="http://variety.com/2016/film/news/lion-heart-campaign-india-1201924715/">#LionHeart
campaign</a>. Magic Bus is proud to be one of the charity partners of LION.</div>
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Don’t believe us? Here’s what some of our heroes have to say
about this film.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“Lion is
a beautiful film. It moved me deeply. Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel are both
outstanding as the child and Adult Saroo, and Nicole Kidman’s monologue in
which she tells her adopted son the truth about his adoption is the most
powerful scene in another exceptional performance. I loved the moments when
Saroo’s past and present seem to fuse. Congratulations to all concerned. It’s a
terrific piece of work.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/salmanrushdie" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Salman Rushdie</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">,
award-winning author</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruXa-FKGvkLLRIDvWAFZ6de6LSm3FrOrK9VlTyFngFAvVSUidhwA0zSIbSvRDY1CoLwNnd7D8y_X7dLUdp5t5E0jXDuRY3u4aT5cssuFHaXlZ4-0V7XmqYOs5Bo2X0FXAXbTAREfwrc19/s1600/Salman+Rushdie.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruXa-FKGvkLLRIDvWAFZ6de6LSm3FrOrK9VlTyFngFAvVSUidhwA0zSIbSvRDY1CoLwNnd7D8y_X7dLUdp5t5E0jXDuRY3u4aT5cssuFHaXlZ4-0V7XmqYOs5Bo2X0FXAXbTAREfwrc19/s320/Salman+Rushdie.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Lion is the most real, moving, bonding and
universal story I have ever seen on film. And it’s a special gift now that we
are being told to isolate ourselves and pretend we are not all passengers on
space ship Earth.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/GloriaSteinem" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Gloria Steinem</a><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">,
writer and activist</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“As a refugee, an immigrant, and a mother, LION
resonated deeply with me. It is a remarkable film and testament to the
indomitable human spirit.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/madeleine" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Madeleine Albright</a><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">,
Former Secretary of State.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Lion is a profoundly beautiful testament to the
power of finding and understanding your identity. People from all backgrounds
and all walks of life will be moved by this universal story.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ChadHGriffin" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Chad Griffin</a><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">, President of Human
Rights Campaign, the largest national LGBT organization</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“In a world that seems to be broken apart by
divisiveness, LION roars with the kind of hope we are looking for.” – Global Citizen</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Lion is an inspirational movie, a true story of
joy and hope in adversity. Beautifully shot and directed, it has moved
audiences around the world.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/lionelbarber" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Lionel
Barber</a><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">, Editor, Financial Times</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeSxheKa8-klkiu3WLYh61KGdMrP0gwY5RUjj0gEYcdFRPQ95GssV3TziWrFIGERB01tCPTP3sp9mvHRv40vCs4GVLnVmlcjwaIyRkayjG5xt7jyrQNQN8BnX1zwN6j0k5cTs37b2qpB2k/s1600/Lionel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeSxheKa8-klkiu3WLYh61KGdMrP0gwY5RUjj0gEYcdFRPQ95GssV3TziWrFIGERB01tCPTP3sp9mvHRv40vCs4GVLnVmlcjwaIyRkayjG5xt7jyrQNQN8BnX1zwN6j0k5cTs37b2qpB2k/s320/Lionel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Lion takes you on an emotional, visceral
journey. It’ll give you another good reason to believe in the magic of
humanity.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/andrewrsorkin?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Andrew
Ross Sorokin</a><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">, New York Times Columnist/Editor, Co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk
Box.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Zu1lDfKzytM1dD0yLrJw9HSaSW7710nZms1hT3bAXogI7zmFrwcpM3znOiAIq6dUJ8VnKwSU-4GrDx57JtrKQDOuSSTgOcVKdkVgXhm8LEhquPW8qz0h6ipXUf2XLw7Qa-se2FQzmIMp/s1600/Sorkin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Zu1lDfKzytM1dD0yLrJw9HSaSW7710nZms1hT3bAXogI7zmFrwcpM3znOiAIq6dUJ8VnKwSU-4GrDx57JtrKQDOuSSTgOcVKdkVgXhm8LEhquPW8qz0h6ipXUf2XLw7Qa-se2FQzmIMp/s320/Sorkin.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“When a powerful story is told with emotion,
beauty, pain and love, it can transcend geographies and self-interest. This is
what Lion has accomplished and why it is an incredible tool that is creating
impact across the globe. May it guide the human desire to do more in a
disparate world” – Justin Reeves, Executive Director of Magic Bus USA</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXv47rG1kCq6KrrjCQfI9Adug9oNaNqXFQ54jKRt4e2HXq0HFZrux_bF6LcDv6ivrUd_A2nIZJKEtKjjyqystRYUFUs6zRGXSvDfkEkghgRiFOpl1pJNGNDx3XufvqSXy7uQ3HcPzcDLf/s1600/Justin+Reeves.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXv47rG1kCq6KrrjCQfI9Adug9oNaNqXFQ54jKRt4e2HXq0HFZrux_bF6LcDv6ivrUd_A2nIZJKEtKjjyqystRYUFUs6zRGXSvDfkEkghgRiFOpl1pJNGNDx3XufvqSXy7uQ3HcPzcDLf/s320/Justin+Reeves.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“In Lion, the human heart roars, pulses, and
quivers in the search for what really matters.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/DrOzTheGoodLife" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Dr. Oz</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx6LVgtui7ohwqCDPKu8reAWqVZsmTyK1qQIhjEzh2OX5b6hPt5B7VJVj_7SW4ZrVCaW3cEy4h4CwK9UCMp56l4YvKFMfZ8p7HMfyNeH474uE1pYOry5HDP8-LpHMl6fQ4lc8k5wu_JxGJ/s1600/DR.+OZ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx6LVgtui7ohwqCDPKu8reAWqVZsmTyK1qQIhjEzh2OX5b6hPt5B7VJVj_7SW4ZrVCaW3cEy4h4CwK9UCMp56l4YvKFMfZ8p7HMfyNeH474uE1pYOry5HDP8-LpHMl6fQ4lc8k5wu_JxGJ/s320/DR.+OZ.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">“Each night before my match I have my team come
for dinner and movie night. We watched Lion before the final of the Australian Open
- what an incredible movie.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">It’s one of
the most emotional and amazing films I’ve ever seen. It has my vote.” – </span><a href="https://twitter.com/rogerfederer?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Roger
Federer</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-Fq4zDTbWpW3ToOazLWF3Ei6YxgFPRwj6bBcAE3schPp25EVM-BFKFGl8IA4NjW5Tc-C79Xnlw0aVM1beeOg1uP6tH8T06Wb0Ci9kBoJv2JY4uj2V_zbru_KgNMrzWsYMUXQWj0-gIY7/s1600/Roger+Federar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-Fq4zDTbWpW3ToOazLWF3Ei6YxgFPRwj6bBcAE3schPp25EVM-BFKFGl8IA4NjW5Tc-C79Xnlw0aVM1beeOg1uP6tH8T06Wb0Ci9kBoJv2JY4uj2V_zbru_KgNMrzWsYMUXQWj0-gIY7/s320/Roger+Federar.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Don’t wait. <b>Get your free pass to a private screening of the
movie on the 22<sup>nd</sup> of February in Mumbai.</b> Participate by clicking on
this link: <a href="http://bit.ly/LIONscreening">http://bit.ly/LIONscreening</a><br />
<div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-82578883118009490482017-01-05T16:37:00.002+05:302017-01-05T16:39:24.851+05:30The Zeal to Excel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Johar
and his family of seven members—including his paternal uncle—live in a
make-shift tin shanty. He is the oldest among his siblings. His father and uncle are
both carpenters and his mother is a housewife. The average family monthly
income is between Rs. 8000 to Rs. 10000 ($118.8 to $147.8). Both is parents are
school drop-outs (father is a Class 8 drop-out and mother dropped out in Class 5).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcoknpXaiZYeKZQT7qiM1-jXV6jwRP3gUng0GwOgyfu8BAkl5gOoeDUK8GiXv8Z0vUkM7KzxQFN3N14fZwhnb3-ggPy9JPmdCUOKLv49UXmRq9Mxr3jucizwIiTSbk3yAT3ryET6Ai2z2/s1600/Johar+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcoknpXaiZYeKZQT7qiM1-jXV6jwRP3gUng0GwOgyfu8BAkl5gOoeDUK8GiXv8Z0vUkM7KzxQFN3N14fZwhnb3-ggPy9JPmdCUOKLv49UXmRq9Mxr3jucizwIiTSbk3yAT3ryET6Ai2z2/s320/Johar+blog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Representative image. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;">In
2011, Johar joined the Magic Bus programme and also got his three younger
siblings enrolled. He got interested in the programme as it gave the
opportunity to participate in extra-curricular activities and learn through
interactive activities. There, he honed his interests in wrestling and
kabaddi</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> and went on to win </span><span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;">awards
at the zonal level competitions in both these sports. He also plays football
for his school team and has brought laurels in inter-school football
tournaments. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Academically,
Johar is in Standard 9 and is appreciated by the Magic Bus TMO (Training and
Monitoring Officer) for his hard work and sincerity. For Johar this appreciation
and encouragement from his TMO constitutes one of the best memories associated
with Magic Bus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Magic
Bus has transformed Johar in many ways. He has now become more punctual. His interest
in sports has increased and proudly expressed that. The activity based learning
approach of the Magic Bus programme has strengthened his inclination towards
education. He is quite motivated by the encouragement received from the Magic
Bus staff, and aspires to serve his nation. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We wish Johar all the best for his future endeavors. </span><span style="font-family: "century gothic" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-81618076514230715072016-12-23T15:00:00.000+05:302017-01-05T16:39:40.849+05:30Walking Towards a Brighter Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Salman Sheikh is a young boy in class 7, having a problem of a
small foot. This made him extremely self-conscious and non-participatory in
play activities, despite being quite interested and intelligent in his studies.
He also faced a lot of peer pressure wherein, he used to be bullied for his
small foot problem. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHDBP0lj83fb2ze7uO-gF1F9c0qLBJh_aeJHyFauLtAKxKlzRZHsmWHILCpGd-Ue_2I_CAPG2DH6LJJa8UnhpidSwFErObVOmjv2euEMAG7OqGd3l1cXtCNm2HF6YOD74P6nJwcvefkJHh/s1600/blog+post+Salman.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHDBP0lj83fb2ze7uO-gF1F9c0qLBJh_aeJHyFauLtAKxKlzRZHsmWHILCpGd-Ue_2I_CAPG2DH6LJJa8UnhpidSwFErObVOmjv2euEMAG7OqGd3l1cXtCNm2HF6YOD74P6nJwcvefkJHh/s320/blog+post+Salman.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Representative image. Picture courtesy: Heena Patel</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">He along with his four siblings, and parents are economically
sustained, through a moving and makeshift, multi-purpose store. His father has
completed his Class tenth and his mother is a seventh-grade drop out.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 2014, during a Magic Bus mobilization event, Salman enrolled in the
Magic Bus programme. Initially he was very hesitant regarding Magic Bus as to
how it would be. But after a couple of sessions he saw that senior children and
those his own age who never allowed him to play due to his small foot, were now
also including him play.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This encouraged Salman to start running and practicing despite his
foot problem. He now plays kabaddi too and handles pressure in play quite well.
After Magic Bus sessions, he started participating in expressing himself
positively and frankly. Salman has come a long way since then, he has even participated
in multi role drama performed by a single person. Besides drama, Salman enjoys
playing football. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Salman is very positive about Magic Bus sessions, and has managed
to overcome his lack of confidence about his small foot. His parents’ to remark, “Earlier he was hesitant
to play with other children, but now he has not only started getting involved
but also plays quite well with other kids”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A very smart and hardworking child, he aspires to become a doctor,
as he loves the idea of how helpful doctors are, and the hard work they put
behind in saving someone’s life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Magic Bus wishes Salman a world where he can confidently walk with
his head high, without any apprehensions. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-33940226628703410902016-12-23T14:28:00.003+05:302016-12-23T14:34:44.252+05:30The Freedom to Play, The Freedom to Dream...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">S</span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">hrutika Bandu Devgade is a Class 7 student, and hails from a family of 3
siblings and her parents. Shrutika’s father (Bandu) and mother (Kalpana) are
both B.A. (Bachelor of Arts – Year 2) drop outs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her father is a daily-wage earner; a painter by hobby, which later
transformed into his career option. He earns a minimum Rs. 300 (US$ 4.45) per
day, and post digitalized flex making the work frequency as a painter has
further decreased and the family income has become irregular. Earlier he made a
lot more money, especially during elections. To supplement his income Shrutika’s
father, engages as a wooden handicraft worker. Her mother, does a few odd jobs
in stitching and sewing work, as a casual labourer and not as a professional.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Shrutika enrolled into the Magic Bus programme in 2013 and since
then, her father and mother say that, “</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">T</span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">here have been many
positive changes in her behaviour, after she has joined Magic Bus”. She has
started participating in dance and drama, story-telling, drawing, and many
other extra-curricular activities. Her confidence levels have grown, and she
forthcoming in making conversations with new people, quick in her replies and exhibits
gender confidence when engaging in interactive activities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Shrutika’s enthusiasm is infectious as she skips to school every
day, even when she is unwell. This positive attitude has won her a gift for
having 100% attendance in school. Shrutika also stood first in a drawing
competition in school, and she credits her interest in art to her father. She
recently participated and won the first position, at the Village Block level in
the Navratna Puraskar Yojna (a competition organised by the government). She is
currently attempting to win the District level competition as well. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Best moment in Magic
Bus:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She describes her best moment as the freedom to play games. She wants
to be an inspiration to others just like a Magic Bus Youth Mentor was to her. Her
ambition is to become a software engineer as she has interest in computers. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Magic Bus is hopeful that her grit and enthusiasm will help her achieve her dreams, one day. </span></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-68238945363160127722016-12-08T14:47:00.001+05:302016-12-08T14:49:22.877+05:30We are on instagram!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Are you addicted to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/magic.bus/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>? So are we! </h4>
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Don't forget to follow us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/magic.bus/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, we don't want you to miss out on any of the lovely images we share. </div>
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<div>
Here are a few of our recent posts you may like:<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
1. <b>Kaustubh Khade raises funds for Magic Bus</b></h3>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BNv_0NygvZe/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#Repost @paddlehardindia with @repostapp ・・・ Miles to go before I sleep. We've reached Diu. But it's not enough. We have a long way before this expedition is over. So tomorrow we will set out again. Back to Conquer the Coast. Conquer the Coast. Kayaking from Gujarat to Kanyakumari while @travelbelleindia is cycling the same distance. We are raising money for a NGO called Magic Bus. So do go to their page and donate for a good cause. www.bitgiving.com/Kaustubh #paddlehardindia to be featured #paddlehard #nofilter #nofilterneeded #sfconquerthecoast #sf #kayak #seakayaking #paddling #kayakadventures #kayaking #paddles #kayaks #kayakers #paddle #seakayak #kayaklife #kayakgram #oceanlife #kayaker #lifeatsea #kayaklyf #kayakingadventures #paddlingmixtape #getoutside #adventureculture #modernoutdoorsman #simplyadventure #getoutstayout</a></div>
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A photo posted by Magic Bus (@magic.bus) on <time datetime="2016-12-08T08:46:18+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Dec 8, 2016 at 12:46am PST</time></div>
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2. Equal Opportunities </h3>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BNv_maGAJdB/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Every #child must get equal opportunities. Regardless of their caste, gender or religion. Do you agree? :) 📚</a></div>
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A photo posted by Magic Bus (@magic.bus) on <time datetime="2016-12-08T08:44:25+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Dec 8, 2016 at 12:44am PST</time></div>
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<br />3. Etihad Volunteers</h3>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BNO2b8HAtsE/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">A wonderful mixture of backgrounds, cultures and languages - all learning from, and inspiring each other. Etihad Airways employees and #magicbus Community Youth Leaders get to know each other as they create Warli art decorated pottery at the @magicbuscentre</a></div>
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A photo posted by Magic Bus (@magic.bus) on <time datetime="2016-11-25T11:49:25+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Nov 25, 2016 at 3:49am PST</time></div>
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<br />4. Ranbir Kapoor with our children </h3>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BK5wofqgCHr/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Happy Birthday #RanbirKapoor! Thank you being a #magicbus supporter :)</a></div>
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A photo posted by Magic Bus (@magic.bus) on <time datetime="2016-09-28T14:11:51+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Sep 28, 2016 at 7:11am PDT</time></div>
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5.International Youth Day with Being Indian</h3>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAdLLVgA2b/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">No better way to celebrate #internationalyouthday than with @issahilkhattar & @beingind. Watch us celebrate the spirit of giving back :) link in bio!</a></div>
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A photo posted by Magic Bus (@magic.bus) on <time datetime="2016-08-12T11:33:43+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Aug 12, 2016 at 4:33am PDT</time></div>
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There are many more! Go follow us now: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/magic.bus/" target="_blank">@magic.bus </a><br />
<script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-54984833876322791082016-12-05T18:09:00.000+05:302016-12-06T15:51:17.032+05:30Boarding the Magic Bus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdtUpLB6iyVYEUJlZ6nMxi4BrC1y-yPUgCoz7Y08qOP4R3bH1K0FVp8otCwd4qInsrfPSWEiU4eucSBlqXWS6H04Uz3HiOgv-vOsXyicY3-wVr1lB-o-WYFAkmiuWM1jaUSDOsBpbIOBN/s1600/CharlottePic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhdtUpLB6iyVYEUJlZ6nMxi4BrC1y-yPUgCoz7Y08qOP4R3bH1K0FVp8otCwd4qInsrfPSWEiU4eucSBlqXWS6H04Uz3HiOgv-vOsXyicY3-wVr1lB-o-WYFAkmiuWM1jaUSDOsBpbIOBN/s640/CharlottePic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The experience which followed stepping on board
(literally and figuratively) for an internship with Magic Bus in Delhi was
something more than what I had anticipated. Holding a small badge in my hand, I
couldn’t understand back then what the shiny, red bus symbolized suspended there
in the yellow reflective plastic. After pinning it to my back pack, I stepped
out onto the slick wet roads intrinsic to Delhi’s monsoon season, and
approached my first Magic Bus session.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">These lessons promote personal hygiene, gender equality, the importance of
education and finishing school past the twelfth standard. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is done
through engaging students in interactive activities</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Community Youth
Leaders (CYLs), as the adolescent/ young leaders from the children’s
communities are called, encourage the children to work together and achieve
different objectives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For many children and youth, </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Magic
Bus represents not only a path to dignified living,
but rather an implicit effort to give those who have been marginalized beyond
recognition, a chance at life. I have come from an admittedly privileged
background, and currently attend New York University in New York City for
Global Public Health and Communications. I have always had enough to eat,
always had a roof over my head, and have always been guaranteed a desk in the
school classroom every coming September. Receiving a high school diploma was an
opportunity that I viewed more as a burden - a stepping stone to better things –
rather than a grand achievement. </span></span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But, for many children I read about, met and played
with in Delhi, their relationship with education was that of utmost importance,
one of surprising dedication at times. Education </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">is</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> the tool that divides the undignified and the dignified, it
defines the life these children will lead.</span></span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As
many have said, Delhi is unlike any other place on earth. It resides in a
spectrum of its own. Nothing can compare to the driving, the smells, the
colours and the collision of human existence that inhabits the unique city.
From an objective, or possibly entirely subjective viewpoint, Delhi can come
across as utterly chaotic, completely unapologetic and apathetic. However, at a
closer glance, amidst the chaos lie countless organizations and individuals
working to loosen the knots of social unrest and smooth the jagged edges of
this ever-growing city. One of these organizations is Magic Bus.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Walking
through the sodden grass as the sun protruded through the clouds, I was
apprehensive and excited about my first session. As a crucial cornerstone of
the Magic Bus mission, each session serves as a time to teach slum children
life skills and lessons that may be lacking in other aspects of their lives.
</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Boys
and girls held each other’s hands tightly as they jumped through chalk-drawn
shapes on the dew-filled grass during an interactive session, which focused on teamwork.
Their laughter filled the enclosed park, being the testimony to a lesson well
learnt.</i></span></b></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My eyes began to see, and to understand, the
happiness and growth that this hour of educational play allowed these children.
This time served as a break from the unfathomable pressures these young
children face. During this hour these children were not the primary provider to
their parents, school drop-outs, potential child-brides, or a marginalized member
of society, they were simply children. A kid just like I was when I was ten or
eleven, playful and indulgent.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Behind the unfathomable will for social good and
progression to livelihood that Magic Bus stands for, lies the simplicity of
human interaction and the ambition for dignified work that every human being strives
for. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></span>
<br />
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Magic Bus gets on board children and youth across age, gender, religion
and caste, and drive them towards a brighter future.</span></b></span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></strike></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By: Charlotte Moore, Magic Bus Volunteer</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Thank you Charlotte! Your lens has beautifully<b></b> captured the happiness and zeal of children and youth associated with Magic Bus Programme.</i></span> </div>
</div>
Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-32410696160389118772016-12-05T16:58:00.002+05:302016-12-05T17:00:57.465+05:30Volunteer Diaries: A Thousand Paper Cranes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFwpzxK3qcqG7VblxHP1AII3vDwTLbanEAgGoQZPrCvTyV17UNt5K06RWLsdB86DjE0ZIEySNL_bzZMb15TjOEB5jTxauP_M-iX2kufaoYyktBkQiXc-uL9hxf-rkYii39TJkSAUMnUfqp/s1600/Joya+and+Riya_Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFwpzxK3qcqG7VblxHP1AII3vDwTLbanEAgGoQZPrCvTyV17UNt5K06RWLsdB86DjE0ZIEySNL_bzZMb15TjOEB5jTxauP_M-iX2kufaoYyktBkQiXc-uL9hxf-rkYii39TJkSAUMnUfqp/s640/Joya+and+Riya_Final.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What difference can I make? That</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">s what I first thought when my father
suggested flying out of Singapore to work with an NGO in India.
At that time, to me, Magic Bus was just another organization that a group of
students in my school claimed to be passionate about. I had no
connections with Magic Bus, which is why I was taken by surprise when my father
mentioned it. Nonetheless, I decided to venture into it once I recruited my friend Joya who was up for the challenge too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I must admit that I initially walked into the Magic Bus
office quite blindly. I could barely cough up a sentence as to what the NGO was
or did.
The only answer I could give to those who asked was one that I relate to, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"It's got to do with empowering kids through</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> sport</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">”, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">basketball and soccer
being two of my passions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">While this was probably an oversimplified
understanding of the activity based learning approach of the organization, I
had left out a whole other</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and
significant</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">half of the Magic Bus family: T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">he Childhood to Livelihood Programme.</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Youth Livelihood Center nurtures some of India<span lang="FR">’</span>s most '<span lang="NL">needy'</span> candidates into first generation
earners by teaching them IT, English, Life and Core skills necessary to
survive the real world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Joya and
I spent a week at the livelihood center teaching two classes of both English
and IT. We had a class of 18 students aged 18-24 and started with
the basics of English. We were dumbfounded at their knowledge of the language,
which was much better than we had anticipated. So instead, we moved on to
teaching them “<span lang="NL">polite words</span>” that would come in
handy when they went for their job interviews or meetings. Most students caught
on quite easily, so we introduced some sentence games to help build their
confidence in using these words. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The second English lesson began with a quick
revision game, and the rest of the lesson was devoted to a seminar which let
the youths converse in English. The classroom quickly transformed into a call
center, and we took the youth step-by-step through a job that they might find
themselves having to tackle in their near future. By the end of the session,
everyone had successfully been on a 'call' with either me or
my friend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With the IT classes, we let the students use the whole
lesson to work independently on presentations explaining various job types. The
following class, when the students gave their presentations, the improvement in
each and every student was quite obvious.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>One youth, who barely spoke at the
beginning of the week, was eager to come up and give his presentation (in
English that too). Another, a bright but shy young girl, finally worked up the
courage to present, and the sense of accomplishment shone through her smile
when she was, quite deservingly, given the loudest applaud. </i></b></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This energy was
then applied to the '</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">bang' </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">game, which Joya
and I taught them, and the '</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">dancing' </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">game, which they
taught us in return. It was a great way to end our time together.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Something that I will never
forget are those 2 hours we spent in our last English class with the youth. We
had decided to introduce the Japanese art of Origami. You could virtually smell
the excitement in the air as we handed out the neatly squared pieces of paper,
which soon transformed into beautiful and elegant paper cranes. Some decided to
keep theirs, others to gift them, but the majority went along with our idea of
hanging them up to personalize the classroom. </b></i></span></blockquote>
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<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Overall, my experiences with Magic Bus have encouraged me
to continue my involvement with the NGO and I intend on doing so in my upcoming
December break. Having the chance to work with young adults from very distinct
economic and social background shaped me into a more open-minded and
appreciative person. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><br />There’s a Japanese saying that if you make
a thousand paper cranes, your wishes will come true. That is my hope for each
and every one on the Magic Bus journey.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By: Riya Narayan, Magic Bus Volunteer<br /><i><br />Thank you for spending time at our Livelihood centre, Riya and Joya! You indeed taught our youth the precious art of carving hopes and aspirations for themselves. </i></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647544817163876730.post-56697949137076510772016-11-22T15:50:00.002+05:302016-11-22T15:50:25.204+05:30Turning Tables: Priyanka’s journey to becoming a young leader in her community<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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16-year-old Priyanka Kumari lives with her family of six
members in Tughlaqabad village, a slum cluster that grew on a disputed land and
still continues to bear the brunt of fear and dispossession. People living here
are mostly migrants, employed in daily wage work and devoid of access to basic
necessities like clean, drinking water.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2xAj74a0EropLnh6fMmXl63FqH6gGFpjsjowBCeGUn3FW1DitWcrdKuRaf0RHJUDrkcgKe5mbHLcEa-4DiM1W3EVixLEyWQ0AYSeWBP5UyMcsKIL-0FFXH-Ew6pHb97QyiPFLWP-Py_-/s1600/Prianca_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2xAj74a0EropLnh6fMmXl63FqH6gGFpjsjowBCeGUn3FW1DitWcrdKuRaf0RHJUDrkcgKe5mbHLcEa-4DiM1W3EVixLEyWQ0AYSeWBP5UyMcsKIL-0FFXH-Ew6pHb97QyiPFLWP-Py_-/s400/Prianca_5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">This is Priyanka Kumari</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Priyanka, her four siblings, and parents live here, in a
one-room house overlooking a makeshift bathroom. “We pay Rs 1600 plus
electricity per month for this space,” she explains. A 60-watt bulb hangs from
the corner of a dilapidated wall. Priyanka’s mother, Pratima Kumari, switches
that on whenever visitors come to her house. It is just enough to light up the
stove where she cooks. When she is at work in a nearby garment factory, the
sisters huddle together under this light to go over their lessons and
textbooks.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUeTBtntqBPvjmKUYCph-zLdv2ZNQHqS_pt759ONBvcqtcOoDWTsA-w0ICaZMHuxZgKD1MlPj8SXfA-NE-yC8E_Ota9JpSEQC1iZ_1ELJ9bjVz8hW28JrOk5ek042crr0Ax5OY5Viw3kN/s1600/Prianca_34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUeTBtntqBPvjmKUYCph-zLdv2ZNQHqS_pt759ONBvcqtcOoDWTsA-w0ICaZMHuxZgKD1MlPj8SXfA-NE-yC8E_Ota9JpSEQC1iZ_1ELJ9bjVz8hW28JrOk5ek042crr0Ax5OY5Viw3kN/s400/Prianca_34.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Priyanka's mother, Pratima Kumari.</td></tr>
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Pratima Kumari firmly believes in educating her daughters. </div>
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<b style="color: orange;"><br /></b><b><span style="color: #e06666;">“Only education can make them independent,” she says emphatically. </span></b></div>
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She studied
till the tenth standard. After her marriage, she gave birth to three girls. “No
one values a girl in our community. They are looked down upon as a burden. Each
time I gave birth to a girl, my in-laws tortured me, reminding me of my duty to
bear a boy,” she shares. Unable to bear the torture any further, she ran away
from her in-laws house in Bihar. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9ffldW_HpsM0uh5107WO-o2RmRRTwKVr2SO8mQp51Q3Et8mG5h-IPdJBcVbd90_RuSt7_eoMJwRFYEPPrJV0368_2_bLJkf8P0zgQFDgsQqM_Cu93rIb1zAIYZm6xtAFc1Wm84rRG3XP/s1600/Prianca_35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9ffldW_HpsM0uh5107WO-o2RmRRTwKVr2SO8mQp51Q3Et8mG5h-IPdJBcVbd90_RuSt7_eoMJwRFYEPPrJV0368_2_bLJkf8P0zgQFDgsQqM_Cu93rIb1zAIYZm6xtAFc1Wm84rRG3XP/s400/Prianca_35.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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She had the support of one of her uncle. He
found her a single room in Tughlaqabad’s Kamgar Mohalla with a rent of Rs. 1100
per month. “After all that he had done for me, I couldn’t ask for more help. I
stayed hungry for the first 17 days here. I managed to find work in a nearby
garment factory. I was paid Rs 1800 per month on my first job,” she recollects.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her mother’s experience left a deep impression in the mind
of young Priyanka. Back home, she saw her father’s nonchalance towards her
mother and his conviction that it was “all her fault that the family is broken
up”. When her mother visited them after six months, she was accused of
deserting her family. “No one understood my mother’s plight. No one took her
side. Only I decided to come to Delhi with her. I was in the sixth standard
when I came to Delhi with my mother,” she says. Her father followed them after
seven months.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #e06666;">“It was unbearable to live with both of them under the same roof.
My father would regularly beat her up in front of me. We lived in a small
one-room house. Even if I tried to shut the images out of my mind, I couldn’t,”
she says. </span></b></div>
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Meanwhile her two younger sisters were brought up in their native
village by her maternal grandmother. It was only two years ago that the entire
family reunited in Delhi. With her father getting a job in a factory as a guard, the
monthly income has increased to Rs. 10,800 to sustain a family of six.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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When Magic Bus sessions first started in the area, no one
was willing to send their daughters for it. “It is so common for girls of my
age to be teased and groped in our neighbourhood,” Priyanka shares. But when
Anurag <i>bhaiya </i>(local word to refer to
a Magic Bus Community Youth Leader) approached parents with a request to send
their children to the sessions, Priyanka’s mother relented. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHVjOIiDpw2BRMWh3ADDcrnVgKYhcJkY1xaLOlILGCg1EWgCb0LQmET0bUfR3zkJh1KRDaZC-Ft8D_csbrjbUCg3Oocf9bBqwUo1SEKv9khKxVONhpY3k4ib745098G2GThKg_i0b8PTGl/s1600/Prianca_72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHVjOIiDpw2BRMWh3ADDcrnVgKYhcJkY1xaLOlILGCg1EWgCb0LQmET0bUfR3zkJh1KRDaZC-Ft8D_csbrjbUCg3Oocf9bBqwUo1SEKv9khKxVONhpY3k4ib745098G2GThKg_i0b8PTGl/s400/Prianca_72.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Anurag Bhaiya speaks to Priyanka's mother.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #e06666;">“On my first day, I
felt alone and nervous. I had never seen much beyond my home and neighbourhood.
In the sessions, I was supposed to interact with so many other children. As days
went by, I relaxed, made friends, and actually started to enjoy the sessions.”</b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her happiness was short lived. Soon her neighbors started
gossiping about her friendship with boys of her age during the Magic Bus
sessions. “It is so unfortunate that boys and girls of my age cannot interact
with each other without raising eyebrows and questions on character and
morality. It is true that my community sees no value in bringing their girls up
to be independent, free, and confident. It is as if they want us to be mute and
demure in all that we do.”<b style="color: #e06666; text-align: center;"> </b>Priyanka says.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her mother was repeatedly harassed with threats and insults
about her daughter’s character. Fed up of all the allegations, she asked
Priyanka to stop going to the Magic Bus sessions. “I struggled. I cried and
pleaded with her. I appealed to her better sense of judgement. But my mother
did not budge from her decision.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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After almost three years, Priyanka’s mother realized her
mistake. She understood that her daughters could only flourish if she supported
them in all that they wanted to do. Priyanka had leadership qualities and
always wanted to work towards the betterment of women and girls in her
community. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_j0yueFicb8XJV9MNDTgr9K1fNbVZXYh23zJvtyduDV9xp1r8aFot-2dgpXKULdRg4zkJqER3QFUUhLzXQ_7TB_gFnDvw-_tmy16ZfOK0PQt98NyitZzBmqEcsQ7MO2rXsfnD0X9E5emP/s1600/Prianca_55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_j0yueFicb8XJV9MNDTgr9K1fNbVZXYh23zJvtyduDV9xp1r8aFot-2dgpXKULdRg4zkJqER3QFUUhLzXQ_7TB_gFnDvw-_tmy16ZfOK0PQt98NyitZzBmqEcsQ7MO2rXsfnD0X9E5emP/s400/Prianca_55.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Priyanka with her sister</td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
She decided to stand by that dream and asked Priyanka to take up the
role of a Community Youth Leader.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #e06666;">“When Arif came home and explained what a
Magic Bus leader is, I was convinced that my eldest daughter could be one. I
also realized that my earlier decision of stopping my daughter from doing what
she really liked was actually wrong. Mothers should not cave in to societal
pressures. They should stand by and support their daughter’s dreams. I am so proud
to see Priyanka scaling new heights with each passing day.” Pratima Kumari
explains.</span></b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Priyanka’s vision is clear. “I want
my community to value women and girls and not to look down upon them, or
restrict them from following their heart. I want to resist any effort to deny
girls equal rights.” she signs off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Help girls like Priyanka move out of poverty - Donate <a href="http://www.bit.ly/DonateToMagicBus" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Magic Bushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02365872006616246083noreply@blogger.com0