6 days- Vivek Nagar Slum: Bangalore, India

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We've now been in Bangalore for 6 days and already I know I'm leaving a piece of my heart here with the girls in Vivek Nagar slum that are connected with Global Concerns Leadership India .

Alot of international workers will say "Once you've seen one slum, you seen them all." I've heard that many times since starting international humanitarian work in 2008. I bet though they have not been here or met Brinda Adige. Here in Vivek Nagar slum, imparticular the area where Brinda created the Global Concerns India office (a small 10x20 sqft room with a metal garbage pull down door), the energy and the people are a little different.

Groups of women meet each month and share their concerns about their community, their health, their wellness, and that of their children, especially their daughters. On a regular basis their daughters, their neices, and neighbour's daughters go missing.

On a weekly bases a woman dies or goes missing. Abuse and violence is ramped. These women though, do their best to find and hold jobs, they tend to their children, they tend to their often abusive or drunk husbands, they care about their neighbours, and come together to talk regularly about the issues of violence, poverty, and spousal abuse. They want change and they want to be involved in the process. Brinda the founder of Global Concerns makes sure they know their rights. She fights for their freedoms. Brinda and her staff go out and find the missing children and ensure their school fees are paid for. They have created an effective leadership program like I have never seen before. Tia, Robyn, Reem, and I have been blown away at the devastation these girls and women face yet are in awe of the powerful community that Brinda has created.

In order for the girls to be able to be part of our program, the mothers needed to agree and they needed to sign our film/photo release forms. Brinda called all the women together. The mothers were quite concerned about the material we were going to cover because they wouldnt know how to answer any of their daughter's questions. We held a discussion, asked alot of questions of them, and they of us. It was such a moving circle. The women all agreed and actually insisted that Brinda also learn the Elements Of Sucess coaching program, so she could also teach them. Brinda thanked me for creating more work for her. Before I leave I will be giving Maria and Zeena (Brinda's staff) a crash course on Passion Projects to add to their already amazing programs. I feel pretty honoured.

With the support of Maria and Zeena translating to the girls (most understand a basic English level) we have taught over 8 hours of Passion Project leadership training. We needed to break for Christmas holidays but will complete our training with an awesome art project that Tia created that ties into Passion Project leadership training (we'll post another blog before we leave). We will also provide the girls with a Pads4Girls kit and talk with them about honouring our bodies, our female energy, and hygiene. For maybe of you "honouring our female energy" might sound strange or airy fairy but the fact is that many girls here, when we asked them, would rather have been born a boy because it would have caused their families less troubles.

After all the interviews we have done, all the workshops, all the questions, all the observations I feel I could write another book (and perhaps I will after this documentary is completed). Until then we'll keep at it, with your support and energy.

Speaking of which we have 10 days left on our campaign for Vietnam and the Philippines . If we make our goal of $5000 and 40 unique donors we become a vested program that can grow and gain charitable support in the US.

There are a good number of you who read this blog and offer your support to us in many ways, today, we need your support to make this happen. For as little as the cost of a movie ticket you can make a difference.

Please support our journey to make this happen by clicking here NOW

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Photos

Tia and Loretta with some of our training group