Rajasthan

By | |
Comments Off on Rajasthan

RAJASTHAN – JAISALMER

DSCN0076

We put up hundreds of posters about the value of life.

On June 20th. 2011, was the shocking TV programme about the baby girl infanticide in Rajasthan, image003Jaisalmer area. In this programme Preeti Choudhry stated:
“According to unofficial estimates, nearly 2500 cases of female foeticide or female infanticide take place in the state of Rajasthan everyday – Midwives say girls are being disposed off ruthlessly – 14 cases of possible female infanticide in three months in a single village.,”

We were shocked and immediately visited many villages in the area to see if this was true. We came up with the ratio of 1 girl to 8.4 boys. This was too hard to believe and seeing our statistics were done by word of mouth, we would prefer to go by the Official Government statistics

2001 According to Indian census, Jaisalmer district’s population is 5,08,247.
Male constitutes 2,79,101  females 2,29,146. Mother nature sends us slightly more girls than boys. That means at least 50,000 females, or 1 out of 6, are missing.

image001

Bhati elders meet to discuss the marriage and dowry

image006

We distributed thousands of pamphlets. Click on the photo to read the pamphlet.

Sex ratio 2011 Official statistics: Sex ratio of 849 females for every 1000 males: 1 out of 7 females did not survive and this is not malnutrition.

Some of the most beautiful people in the world “the Bhati Rajputs” needed our help to break this centuries old tradition, as approximately a staggering 50% or 1 out of 2 of the baby girls born to Bhati Rajputs did not survive.

2012, January 9th: Attended “Pravasi Bharatiya Divas” with many PIOs (Person of Indian Origin), who were invited to invest into our beautiful Rajasthan; distributed 27 reports of our findings; met many dignitaries; handed reports to ministers and key dignitaries.

image002

Beautiful Bhati Rajputs Marriages

Shortly after this Jail Sentences were given for the killing of the baby girls and it was all over the local newspapers. THE FEMALE INFANTICIDE HAS STOPPED ! ? ! ? ! BY THE GRACE OF GOD MAY THIS BE TRUE. Also Amir Khan dedicated a TV programme on the subject and gave it more publicity.

Women are still seen as a liability, mainly because of the exDSC00387 - Copytreme high dowries.

We focus on Female Confidence Building through vocational training and English classes.

DSCF8578 - Copy

 

At present 50 ladies who are thrilled to open up and come out from behind the veil where appropriate. Meet the beautiful women from Jaisalmer.

Don’t you think that instead of the bride’s parents, the man ought to be man enough to pay the dowry for the beautiful woman that he marries ? Our culture is beautiful but this heavy yoke of tradition should be removed, so our girls won’t feel like a burden and second class citizens.

In Ranisar Katchi Basti (Jaisalmer) we operate have a small slum school with 42 children.

DSC00322  42 children attend morning classes. 
DSC00305  Learning about Holland, windmills              and wooden shoes 
DSCF8613  How we deal with competition on this                     side of the world.

 

 

Odisha

By | |
Comments Off on Odisha

ODISHA (a.k.a. Orissa) – Eastern Ghat mountains

Tunu on his way to open new Marudyan Learning Centres

 

xIn the heart of Odisha we find in the ‘Eastern Ghats’. These are virtually inaccessible mountains and jungles where we find the beautiful Tribal mountain people who live in scattered villages without any nearby education. The people speak Kui, which is a spoken language without script. In these localities we have started, since December 2013, ‘Marudyan Learning Centres’. Now the out-of-school children and adults are able to learn basic hygiene and get instruction in the crucial academic skills such as math, reading, writing and general knowledge. At present we have 78 Learning Centres with over 2000 children.

DSC00970 - Copy

Visiting the village of the father that spoke up. The children and parents were thrilled to learn and Satya is a inspired teacher. The schoolhouse is in the left hand corner.

orissa d

One of the 75 Learning Centres, counting 18 to 43 children

During the recent parent meeting this father stands up and says. “Sir, our village is Hindu and we are illiterate tribal people. We did not want our children to grow up like us. However we had lost all hope for an education for our children in our village. Then Satya, your teacher, came and he offered to teach our children. We could hardly believe it as we have been let down so much. We had a meeting with the elders and him. He started teaching and now our children can read and write. He travels every day seven kilometers to teach our children and we are so thankful that we made him a schoolhouse.”

DSCF7665

Are we thankful? You bet we are!

???????????????????????????????

The tribal women have their ears pierced with many earrings and have tatooed lines on their face

All the parents and teachers, without exception,  commented how the atmosphere has changed in their villages because of the schools. People that last year refused to talk to each other are now communicating. Numerous parents traveled more than 150 km to attend our parent teacher meeting and kept expressing their appreciation.

???????????????????????????????

Instructing the tribal ladies about the importance of adult literacy

 

Haryana

By | |
Comments Off on Haryana
DSCF3297 - Copy - Copy

CLICK ON PHOTO TO DOWNLOAD SHORT VIDEO-CLIP – 1:25 mins

HARYANA – GURGAON – DEVILAL COLONY

DSCF2450 - Copy

Our School- a Beehive of Activity

Devilal is a migrant area where 2/3 of the families are BPL (Below Poverty Line). Due to the incredible conditions that we saw there we decided to rent a house right around the corner and make it a school. Click here to see video of the school.

On July 1st 2010, we opened ‘Marudyan Learning Centre’ in Devilal Colony. Although we started with 15 children, within 5 weeks we passed the 100 mark. At present we have 234 children enrolled and 190 attending. The numbers vary from day to day as the children are from migrant, day-labour and rag-picking families that move around frequently. It is heartbreaking at times as the children leave quietly sometimes with tears in their eyes when they move on. We comfort ourselves with the thought that at least they learned to read and write.

DSCF5267 - Copy (2)

“I don’t know if I like getting against these diseases

banner2 (2)

Thankful that we can have uniforms like the rich children

Due to financial pressure we needed to close the school. However at the last moment it was designed above that we met members of the ADP (Architect Design Partners) management who came to our rescue with a monthly donation that covers around 60% of our operational expenses. ADP is a British company with a branch office in India and they make their monthly donation through Marudyan-UK. Thank You ADP for your active participation. www.adp-architecture.com

West Bengal

By | |
Comments Off on West Bengal
A - Copy

How we started in 1999

WEST BENGAL – DHANPOTA

Our project in Dhanpota, West Bengal started in 1999 in a rice-shed. It is now an educational institute with just below four hundred students. At present we have over 300 children attending and 80 adults receiving Vocational Training. Click here to watch a video of the school

C

Little by little it has grown into an Educational Institute

Ready to go home

DSCF8364

Class VII Students grown up in our Rural School

image004

More than 500 people passed through our Sewing Course

Due to our good friend Mr. Gianni Cainelli we made contact with APIBiMI, an Italian charity. Apibimi decided to make a group sponsorship for 100 children, which was recently upped to 120.

This along with help towards the cost of the vocational training programme covers 90 percent of the operational expenses of this project West Bengal project. Thank you dear friends in Italy, we count it an honour to have partnered with you these many years. Please visit their site. apibimi.org

DSCF4393

Yeah, it is lunch time. Let’s go!

Recent Activities

By | |
Comments Off on Recent Activities

January 2021  Christmas was very special this year. We had received sponsorship from ADP for this programme to have a Christmas dinner for a thousand children, the numbers went way over. The main Christmas event we celebrated in the heart of Calcutta at the grounds of the Loretto School for … Continue reading →

Building and Files

By | |
Comments Off on Building and Files

BUILDING THE SCHOOL IN WEST BENGAL – LITTLE BY LITTLE YEAR BY YEAR – FIRST WITH THE HELP OF B.H.C., THEN L.I.C., BUT ESPECIALLY APIBiMI WHO IS FAITHFUL TO SUPPORT THROUGH THE YEARS WHEELCHAIRS AND OTHER FILE PHOTOS

Adult Literacy / ID

By | |
Comments Off on Adult Literacy / ID

The tribal men and women from the Eastern Ghat mountains Odisha are learning to write their name, which is  a tremendous boost in their self esteem. As you can see the people are eager to learn, but they are extremely thankful and happy that their children are getting schooling and are … Continue reading →

Female Confidence / Seminars

By | |
Comments Off on Female Confidence / Seminars

Due to the dowry system in our Indian society, females are considered less welcome into our families as compared to their male counterparts. Parents have not only committed abortions of the females, but also female infanticide or the killing of baby girls after birth. Doctors have done sexual alterations so the … Continue reading →

Vocational Training

By | |
Comments Off on Vocational Training

As we started it became clear that we could not just educate the children while the family went hungry, so we started giving vocational training: first sewing classes, then woodwork classes. We expanded to motor mechanics and computer classes. Besides the school children, also hundreds of adults have passed through the … Continue reading →