Ladli

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My desire to do voluntary work in India brought me back to Jaipur, where I had arranged to spend one month teaching English at Ladli.

I arrived back in the city on 27 December after an 18 hour train journey from Varanasi. I did not know what to expect from the next month and did not even know where I was going to stay beyond the rather grotty and overpriced guesthouse I had initially booked myself into.

Things all went well from the start. That day a phone call from Prabhakar Goswami, husband of Abha Goswami who founded i-india, phoned to tell me that three Americans were going to be starting volunteering at the same time as me, that he had found them a house to rent where I could live too if I wished and that they happened to be currently staying in the same guesthouse as me! Armed with that exciting news I went upstairs to meet them.

Anna (21), Mike (25) and Jacob (18) are wonderful, friendly people who are full of life. All previously employed at the same pre-school in Seattle they had come to India to volunteer for around five months and ended up in the same place as me. Mike and Jacob were brothers and in mid-January Anna's older sister Emily also arrived to join us.

The next day we moved into our new home, however, I will leave details of my life in Jaipur to the next entry and tell you about i-india and Ladli.

i-india is an NGO based in Jaipur. It's primary focus is to tackle the city's growing problem of increasing numbers of street children. i-india has set up several girls and boys homes and vocational training centres (the Ladli's) and runs street schools, a school on wheels programme and a shower bus. In addition it runs AIDS awareness and breast feeding campaigns to promote good health amongst Jaipur's poor populations.

Ladli means sweetheart. There are two separate Ladlis for girls and one for boys. Half of the attendees live at one of i-india's childrens homes and come during the day to learn jewellery making skills, the other half come from families who live in one of Jaipur's slums. I passed examples of these everyday as I walked to and from my local bus stops, entire families living in tent like structures at the side of the road. These children come to Ladli to learn jewellery making and earn some money from it since the jewellery is exhibited and sold to visiting tourists, producing a fully reinvested income for i-india and a percentage for the girls. In addition, Ladli has a class room where girls are taught Hindi, maths, English and art. At the first girls Ladli, where I was volunteering, most tuition is given to the girls who come from outside families since many Ganga girls (the name of the main girls home) go to academic school in the morning and come to Ladli to learn skills in the afternoon.

At Ladli I was never spoken to about any of the girls backgrounds, the only insight I had into this was from i-india's publication. The following two examples examples can be found on www.i-indiaonline.com.

Anita: 15 "Before Ladli I felt really sad. My parents wanted to sell me for prostitution. I ran away and came to Ladli. Now I feel very good and happy.”

Manju: 17 is deaf and mute. Her parents were murdered and she survived only by fleeing via the rooftop. It is not known if her disability was caused by the shock. She now lives at Ganga and communicates through symbolic language. She enjoys cooking and puppet-making, but has truly blossomed since the Ladli vocational centre opened. She has an amazing gift for jewellery-making and the other girls look up to her.

I got to know both these girls, especially Anita, and they were warm, lovely people.

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Anna, Emily and I would get most teaching done in the morning. This was with the girls who came in by an arranged bus in the morning and did not go to school, so it was very basic English teaching. Anna masterminded these lessons with her many hand made educational colouring sheets and hands on lesson plans, and I helped out or helped with a random maths lesson that one girl might be taking. At first, I tutored some of the older girls invidually in the afternoon in more complex English when they wanted to learn. However, after a while most of them lost enthusiasm and my only regular tutee was Rukeia, a lovely 17 girl, talented at dancing but not as good at English as some of the other girls her age. Twice a week I caught the number 29 bus to Bhangrota and then walked to Ganga girls home to teach her English for one hour. It all sounded like an ideal plan in principle, however, in practice my lack of experience in teaching English as a foreign language and inability to speak Hindi made it very challenging. For instance, if she did not know a particular English word and I had forgotten to bring the English-Hindi dictionary, then my only way of explaining it was through the use of comparable English words, which she might not understand either, or actions!!

Twice a week a dance teacher visited Ladli in the afternoons. I was surprised to find that the lessons were not always popular and that many girls were nervous about dancing, in constrast to the few who absolutely loved it! When I got the chance I joined in to try and pick up a few moves!

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Let me tell you about some of the girls. During my time at Ladli I got to know some far better than others since lessons were not compulsory and tended to be frequented by the same girls, whilst others always remained in the jewellery making room.

Kumlesh: The teacher. I was surprised to learn that she was only 18 since she acted with more authority than one might expect from her years, however, she revealed her girl-like side occasionally when playing games. (Head, shoulders, knees and toes, along with the Hokey Cokey - or Pokey according to the Americans - were particular favourites of the girls). She was sweet but had a wonderful teachers tone that was rarely disobeyed by the younger girls (in contrast to their testings of us!)

Afsana I, Afsana II, Heena and Meena...the troublesome four. These 11 - 13 year old girls who came in from outside families and were the most regular pupils of morning classes. They were as bickering as they were nice and could be a bit of a handful...watch out for their cheating if you're playing games with them. They kept things lively!

Shabanum...a little cutie who was also a bit of a minx...I reckon she'll go far in life...well within Indian style life for a woman I suppose...the only girl amongst brothers her cheekiness was a good accompaniment to her beauty. When Anna and I first arrived she loved us and always wanted us to sit with her, though after a few days she shunned us, I think perhaps because we were less popular with her older friends. Towards the end of my time at Ladli my efforts to comfort her tears one day made her my new friend again, though I still had to watch out for the influence Shabanum's friends had upon her.

Pushpa - A little cutie who loved to be my friend, rarely caused any trouble and adored playing Anna's immensely popular pairs game, made to teach the girls English names for fruit! She was one you wish you could take home!

Anita, as above. One of the sweetest most lively people I have ever met. A real pleasure to know and as beautiful in appearance as in personality.

Suman. Like Anita, a real gentle sweetheart who was easy to adore.

Tulsi. The oldest of 5 sisters who all live at Ganga. Beautiful, full of life, with a passion and talent for dancing and good English.

Raika. A real cheeky monkey who was fun to know. She spent all her time at Ladli making Jewellery, except when something such as nail polish brought in by us tempted her out.


Ladli was run by a group of ladies and one man, who were all incredibly friendly.

One of the best things about my time at Ladli was that I got to know some India girls and women. On the tourist trail you see women but very rarely meet them since hotels, restaurants and shops are run by men.

At lunch time all the girls would sit on mats in the outside area and eat from metal thai trays placed upon small stools. The menu of rice, chapati and one or two curries (almost always including daal) would be served by aunty and another lady. Aunty was a gem, cooking lunch every day and serving chai to volunteers and staff.

By the time I left Ladli I was ready to go since my heart was pulling me home, however, it was a fantastic experience and an eye opener when I thought about the backgrounds and current situations of many of the lively and friendly girls that I met. I really admire i-india and the people who are involved in it, and I admire the strength of many of the girls that I met during my time at Ladli.

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Photos

Hula Hooping
Anna made these from piping bought at a hardware shop. The girls from the left are Tulsi, Neelu and Kanchan

Kite tree by Child Inn (the boys home)
Children's kites often get stuck in trees, leaving them decorated!

Hula Hooping at Kite festival day 2
The girl in the foreground is Seema, a ganga girl, the girls behind are all attendees of Ladli 2 but had come to Ladli 1 to celebrate the public holiday

Camilla with Ladli 2 girls
Camilla was a volunteer from France, she was with her friend Emilie