Spent Friday on an outreach visit to Gujarat villiages with my host Veena and centre manager Parul. Normally they travel by train but we were taking a load of stuff for kids so went with a driver. I was dreading the drive based on last experinece getting out of Mumbai by road but it wasnt too bad. National trunk road to Dehli is wide, multi laned and not too many animals, ox carts etc. I still wouldnt want to drive, lanes are ignored(I suspect they just dont have the experince with lanes, or may be something cultural like queueing issues), and vehicles drive down the wrong side, even on the highway. At one sage our driver saw a jam ahead so cut across the median strip, to the far side of the oncoming lane, followed by a procession of copycats. We played chicken with oncoming vehicles for a while, until the jam was passed, then created a new traffic jam as we, and our followers tried to get back on the right side of the road.. go figure..
The creche and school we visited are amongst small villages, well away from services like power, water, medical etc but in very nice countryside. The school facilities are very sparce as they receive very little funding. I took a load of crayons and pads which was a hit, but wished to do more. One 10 yo blind boy at the school had no access to any type of learning, other than singing songs.
Kids at creche
Hate to play favourites, but the nicest smile in the school
Also attended a women's group meeting. The group pool resources to get bank accounts for small cottage industries. Started with a beautiful song on the porch sung by 15 women, singing about womens empowerment. Unfortunatly the meeting turned sour as a group leader had apparently not been banking funds and refusing to repay, so the meeting turned fairly bitter.
Me squatting with staff from the outreach centre
No comments:
Post a Comment