Change

While in Kolkata, the overwhelming feeling was helplessness. Everything we saw seemed to be beyond our help. What could we do to contribute? The scariest thing about Kolkata was that there was no visible change occurring. However, here in Delhi we were lucky enough to spend an hour or so at the Asha organisation, or more specifically, with the children involved in Asha. These are all children that have grown up in the slums and are now making active change in their lives, and the lives of the others in their communities. Kids of around 12 (the target age of our Socials) are in charge of whole lanes in the slum. The are entrusted with cleanliness of the lane and monitoring the health care of the occupants and do this all while attending school and maintaining high marks at school - if they get below 90% they have to do a "bad" degree like a Bachelor of Arts. Hard to compare to us back at home, where at the same age we were moaning about Intermediate School. 

Asha was started 25 years ago by a lady that wanted to make a difference in her community. From small beginnings something magnificent has grown and it is clearly changing the lives of so many people. It's exciting as it forces us to ask what can we achieve with our time? It's exciting as it shows is that we can make a difference.

Jonty