It
is market day in Pothnal. Along the road leading to the small temple, craftsmen
and farmers are laying out goods in the hope of earning some rupees. No
tourists here, neither hotels nor restaurants, no tarmaced roads, but only side
streets and narrow paths where trucks and rickshaws are stirring up clouds of
dust. Here, life is passing by the rhythm of the paddy and cotton fields, local
arts and crafts and bus stops. Here, tractors are running very fast to the
sound of a noisy music, motorbikes are weaving their way through imperturbable
cows, children like to have photographs taken, women are returning from the
market with big sacks filled with cereals on their heads. Old people are
staring at you insistently. Men of leisure, chewing betel, are
waiting for you, always sitting under a tree. Children are appearing from all
over the place, sometimes totally naked and with swollen bellies, but their
smiles are a real hymn to life. Here we are inhaling the perfume of a carefree attitude
and we are living in the present.
A good team
In this village with 1 500 inhabitants in the
north of Karnataka in India and in 14 villages around, we have chosen to
accompany an educational and health program conducted on the field by the Vimukti
association. This adventure came about
thanks to the special relationship with our Indian friends, Alwyn, Arun, Santa,
Satish, Victor and all the Capucin fathers of Karnataka who warmly recieve us
in their community as often we go there. « For me, Lily
Jattiot sponsor of « ensemble agissons » said, these princes with bare feet are the symbol of the India I met, true,
simple, sensitive, a magic place where the earth and the sky are joining and
talk together.»
Around us are gathered a team of educators who are living
in these villages. Even if they are Hindus or Christians, they all
show a real commitment to serving the deprived people whose lives they are sharing daily. Here women have a predominant place in education. They are the ferment
of developmenttand the driving force of
change.
When he took charge of Vimukti, Satish, the
current director, chose to be very close to this world to which he is a
servant. Whatever the difficulties he meets, he is always in good shape and he
carries all the members with him.
Because she is familiar with computing and
accounting, Mamatha is an indispensable and an invaluable assistant.
Because her family could not pay the dowry,
Malama’s husband abandoned her and a little boy who is 4. Thanks to her
experience with the children with behavioural problems and handicapped people,
she has a real place in the staff.
Married and the mother of a little girl who is
only a few months old, Yasintha radiates simplicity and kindness.
Like her friend Eramma Geetha would like to find
a good husband in the neighborhood.
A twinkle in his eye, Amaresh is always
open-minded, especially in children’s clubs.
Charly, the father of a little girl who is only
1, loves telling stories.
Keen on reading and theatre, Arogyapa is a
clever negotiator with the governing representatives.
With
5 children, Yayasheela is probably the most experienced. His joviality and his
talents in dance get all the votes.
Vimukti
Pothnal recruited 15 educational
assistants, men and women employed by contract by the local community to
strengthen the educational system in the distant villages. Despite the lack of
electricity, of an adapted place, and the omnipresence of mosquitoes nothing
can shake their enthusiasm even if they have to give rewards to motivate the
pupils. If schooling is a fundamental and compulsory right for millions of
Indian children, the government has to face up to the large resistance of the
families who prefer to send children to work in the fields and so have less
mouths to feed.
Children’s clubs
One of the guiding principles of Vimukti Pothnal
is the creation of children’s clubs in the villages. Children come there every
week to play, to have fun and express their talents.
800 children, split up into 34 clubs on each
side of the river, take part in activities which take place generally on
Saturday afternoon or Sunday on the schools premises, with the agreement of the
teachers. Some children have to ride 10 or 20 kilometers by rickshaw or by bike
to go to the meeting but their motivation measures up to the growing reputation
of these clubs and their pertinence in the education of the children. They
allow to create a direct relationship with families and to gain the confidence
of the parents.
Markumdini school
In February 2011 we were eagerly awaited at
Markumdini School. This school has been chosen to create an exchange with a
school in Brittany. We are the messengers during this trip and we are going to
the village by motorbike early in the day.
A few months before, in a small school in La
Guerche de Bretagne, 50 children of two classes, with their teachers
Anne-Sophie and Cécile, created a book with pictures and texts to present their
environment.
"In groups of 3 or 4, children chose a
theme and created a page in the album. They got to know the Indian
culture by reading tales, by conducted works on different topics (money,
languages, religions, the structures of the casts, etc.). They were very
impressed by the pictures showing the
people living on the poverty line. However, Anne-Sophie says, It was
difficult for them to imagine that people could live differently in another
country. They had many questions and they became aware of the differences.
Personally, I remember this moment of great emotion, when, with large opened
eyes, they touched the album for the last time".
We are invited to take part in class teaching.
The teacher asks the children questions, checks their learning process on the
blackboard, encourages them to speak. We are very impressed by their thirst for
knowledge, their vivacity and their ease in oral expression. We describe the
album to the children while the young boys and girls look with surprise and
enchanted eyes at another culture and another way of life.
In January 2012 we are back at Markumdini
School. With application and love, the children of the school have made an
album that we will bring to the children in France. This exchange took place
thanks to the will and the enthusiasm of the French and Indian teachers.
"Ensemble, agissons" and Vimukti made it possible. After the usual
speeches, there were songs and dances before an enchanted audience.
Feast day
We are Sunday. The sun is shining
warmly. They come on foot, by bike or rickshaw, on motorbikes, a lot of
people in lorries and tractors. After less than one hour, more than eight hundred children and adults coming
from the surroundings are gathered under the big rough canvas held up with
temporary pickets inside Vimukti Project. They wouldn’t miss this special meeting
where we are invited for the world: "The Footprints of Vimukti
children".
Loudspeakers give out an unbearable sound level.
When the Indians are celebrating, they like everyone to know, loudly and very
far away. Some children go on stage to tell stories, as others, stand back,
outline in pencil the more beautiful drawings and paintings created directly on
the ground with multicoloured powders in accordance with their inspiration. It
is difficult to decide between one or the other groups who has given the most
energy and talent to do their best.
Late in the afternoon, we are sitting among
local and regional representatives. When Arogyappa holds out a microphone,
Satish translates my speech into English:
« If you help a child,
you help a family ; if you help a family, you support a community ; if you support a
community, you support a territory .
Little by little, the Project is growing and our links are strengthening. Education is the path to
becoming free and you are the future of
India. Be confident in the future, keep your opened and smiling faces and build
together the paths of the heart. »
Why not with you?
Because a child needs education, opening and
exchange to grow, sponsorship represents a real and concrete assistance for a
child and his family. We have to struggle continuously against illiteracy,
unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, child abuse, girls infanticide, arranged
marriages and all the disparities. To accompany children on the path of
education, we have to change failure into success, to see faces lifting up and
smiling.
To act with generosity and humility, to help
poor people open the doors of our humanity. Becoming messengers of peace,
sharing and opening, we are able to create links which connect each other in
depths of life. 40 children from Pothnal are currently sponsored
by members of « Ensemble, agissons ». Others would like to get the
chance to enter into a relationship with a sponsor. Why not with you?...
Sponsoring a child is bringing him hope and
building a better future for him, a road to liberty.
Open your heart
We have in our heart, a project, an idea, a
journey. A lot of dreams which give sense to our lives. And as far as we look
afterwards, we can observe that nothing happens by chance, that Providence is
always doing its work and that it shows the way. India came to meet me. Not the
India with Maharajahs and palaces, not the India with colonies, but another
India, with poor and deprived people, the India which Gandhi was fond of and of
which the poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote the praises. Because travelling is not
only taking your bag and getting away to unknown, beautiful and far away
countries. Travelling is opening doors, to let oneself be transformed by the
country that welcomes you, meeting yourself, opening your heart and living here
and now the most beautiful journey, it’s probably the one each one of you will do
to approach the other, the others.
«Be
the change you want to see in the world»
(Gandhi)