The Children of the Dil Se Campaign

We first had an opportunity to visit the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Dil Se Rainbow Home for girls. The building was donated by the Delhi government. As you will note from the pictures, this shelter is an old and dilapidated building. The home is being funded by a Dutch NGO which hopes to open as many as fifty Rainbow homes for homeless children in India. The Dil Se campaign is working with the Dutch group to manage and fill the home with homeless kids. We were moved during the ceremony to see homeless girls ranging from 2-15 years of age.

Later in the week, Adnan and I had the opportunity to visit one of the boy’s hostels run by the Dil Se campaign on a farm outside of Delhi. We went with the head of the campaign, Harsh Mander, whom the boys call Papa. When we arrived to the country property the boys ran up to us, opened our car doors with huge smiles and embraced Harsh with hugs as they continuously said, Namaste to Adnan, myself and the other volunteers. Their excitement was overwhelming and tears welled up in my eyes. We were their guests and they were busily preparing for us all morning.

The 20 boys live in one building on 5 acres of land that is sprinkled with trees and gardens. The building consists of one huge room where the boys sleep on blankets, eat lunch, do schoolwork and keep their few belongings. It is a minimal space that will eventually need to be expanded to house more boys coming to live at the hostel. The home will eventually house over 100 boys. The boys take care of themselves and their environment. A few nurturing adults have volunteered to live at the hostel and are there to assist. And other volunteers like us come in and out during the day to teach, play or counsel the boys. This is a free environment and the boys may leave whenever they want. The boys have courage and the will to survive through all the cruelty already shown to them in this lifetime. They are ready to move on and do something with their lives. They were abandoned, abused or sent away from their homes to find a better life. Some were orphaned and had no relatives to turn to. Adults were missing in their lives. And now things are changing for them.

From the minute I got out of the car, I had two to three boys at my side the rest of the day making sure I was cared for while I was in their new home. They joyfully took me for a walk on their land, showed me their gardens and orchards, danced with me, showed me their treasured paintings, performed martial arts, gave me peacock feathers and flowers, taught me Hindi and most importantly shared with me a sense of hope. Most of the children followed the adults around wanting to latch on and hug, silently asking for attention. What they crave most is love and positive affection. They are already grown ups in many ways including the way they take care of themselves but they are little boys on the inside wanting a hug from their non existent parents. The boys continuously came up to Adnan and hugged him. It would not be appropriate for them to hug me, a woman.

Everyday the boys cook for themselves. Today they made us lunch, a special dish of rice, roti and aloo ghobi (potatoes and cauliflower) for the visiting volunteers. A group of boys served all the guests first, making sure we were all full before the kids served themselves. While I was sparsely eating lunch the boys actually insisted that I eat more. They would not leave me alone until I had 3 helpings of food. And remember this is before they ate themselves. I did not want to eat their food because it is precious to them. They were making me indulge in their greatest treasure. The boys looked to us as honored guests and if we were satisfied, they were satisfied. I was there to care for them, but they were the ones caring for me.

During introductions Harsh asked what the boys wanted to learn more than anything. They all shouted at the same time, ENGLISH!!! In India, English speaking skills are the way out of poverty. This is exactly the gift I can give back to them. During my work with the campaign in India I will be creating a conversational English program for all the Dil Se Campaign homes. I am developing the program for volunteers so it can actually scale. I am developing the program to teach the volunteers who in turn will teach the kids. Teaching the volunteers how to teach the children English is best way I believe that I can leverage my teaching and professional development background. I am honored and proud to be helping the kids in some small way.

I have taught in some heart wrenching situations with abused children but not even that prepared me for the emotions I felt meeting these kids. Meeting the boys was one of the most moving days of my life. These kids have a courage I have not encountered. The love, compassion and caring they showed brought a sense of perspective to my own life. I asked myself; how can children that have experienced the cruelty of the world at such a young age still dance, sing, smile and play. Watching the boys interact helped me to see the resiliency of the human spirit. Of course, there were two or three boys who had forgotten how to smile or play. These few boys wandered away and wanted to be left alone, which was sad to see. And my prayer for them is that their smile returns from the work the Dil Se Campaign is doing for them. The world shut their eyes on these kids and here in this environment they are learning to trust adults again.

As we drove away the smiles left their faces and they asked when we would be back. Soon I promised.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the Salaam Balak Trust and the Aman Biradari Dil Se Campaign boys and girls homes. Click on the link below to see the pictures.

Volunteer Role