NGO Trip

Last weekend I went to visit a NGO about an hour and a half outside of Hyderabad. This NGO works to eradicate child labor in Andhra Pradesh and get the children into school. We went to visit one of their bridge camps for girls. Basically, the idea is that the organization goes to the parents of the children who are not attending school becasue they are working and tries to convince them to send their children to school. If that doesn't work they go to the village panchayat, or the village elders, and secure their help. The problem is that even once the parents have been convinced to let the children stop working and attend school the children are really far behind in school. Some of the girls who are fifteen years old have never been to school. So, the NGO set up bridge camps where they send the children to catch them up to their grade level in between 6 months to 1 year. It is amazing that they can get 7th graders who have never gone to school on grade level in only 6-12 months. They send the kids to bridge camps outside of their home villages to ensure that their parents can not decide to take them out of school again. They have made great progress thus far in AP. Now they are focusing on children ages 0-16. From birth to 5 years old they concentrate on ensuring that the children are being properly cared for and fed. From 5-13 years old they concentrate on making sure the kids attend class every day. Starting at 13, they start giving advice on college and job fields the children may be interested in.

The camp that we visited is for girls. There are 120 girls currently living at the camp. We went and met with the head teacher of the camp and the people that run the NGO. Then we walked around the camp and went into the classrooms to meet the girls. We had translators with us so that we could speak with the girls - although some of them spoke English or Hindi, most only knew Telugu. The first little girl we met was three years old. She was adorable and friendly, bubbly, and happy. The camp director had her tell us her story and it broke my heart. The first thing that she said to us was that she doesn't have a family. Her parents are dead so she went to live with her uncle. But he didn't want her. So, he sold her to a rickshaw driver .... for 5,000 rupees. When the rickshaw driver decides he doesn't want her anymore, he sells her to a school teacher who brings her straight to the NGO where she now lives. Her uncle SOLD her. For the equivalent of 125 US dollars. Can you imagine? Can you imagine knowing, your entire life, that you were worth $125? That that was how much you were worth to your family? Nothing has ever hurt to hear as much as this little girl's story. It puts everything into perspective. If this little girl can be happy even though her family sold her, what right do any of us have to complain?

The rest of the trip to the NGO was similarly moving. We went into one of the classrooms for 7th grade girls. We played Hindi to English word games with them. Then they sang for us. We sang for them and taught them different dances - the hockey pokey, the electric slide, the macarena, etc. Then they taught us a Telugu folk dance. It was clear that they were thrilled that they were in school now and getting the chance to learn. They were so happy that we had come to visit. They gave us hugs and asked us our good names. After an excellently spicy lunch, we took a quick walk through the village to peer into the public school there. We asked the girls there what they wanted to be when they grow up. I am proud to report that two want to be doctors, one wants to be an engineer, and three want to be teachers.

I don't know how to describe everything that I learned at that NGO. It was an incredible experience. It was so sad to hear about the lives of these gorgeous little girls, however, it was heartening to see that someone is helping them. It's not enough though, it's not nearly enough...