Thursday 08.11.11
You won’t see these street kids dawning leather jackets, slicked back hair, and waving around shinny pocket blades while perfectly dancing in sync to MJ’s “Bad” song. Street kids in Delhi, India are nothing the way Hollywood would like to betray it.
These children are smart, crafty, strong, and persistent – findingways to survive in a world that has been sounfairly cruel to them. On Thursday, our last full day in Delhi and with our Social Entrepreneurship class, we had an incredible culminating experience. The class piled out of our huge spectacle-mobile (as I lovingly call it) onto some side road near the New Delhi train station. We then took what felt like 50 different rickshaws to a small alleyway where we were split into two groups and told to follow some Indian high schooler around. I had no freaking clue what was going on.
And then I met Iqbal. This 19 year old boy (young man) with an illuminating smile and a very calm disposition is a shining example of the perseverance of the human spirit and what difference one organization can truly make. We didn’t hear his story till later on, but Iqbal didn’t grow up like me. Iqbal was abandoned at age 5 in a marketplace near his home after going to buy fruit with his father. His dad just left him there. This five year old kid scavenged for food, living on the streets till a wealthy couple picked him up and took him in their house as a servant boy. They beat him continuously until he ran away from the house, forced to live once more on the streets. Iqbal eventually ended up in Delhi, led by the desire for easy money (through pickpocketing) and the hopes of becoming a Bollywood star. Eventually Iqbal was found by a Salaam Baalak Trust volunteer who led him to one of their many city-wide centers where he was given a second chance at having a healthy childhood.
Pretty incredible stuff: this 19 year old seems to have it more together than many twenty-something’s and older people I know. Salaam Baalak Trust is one organization that is making a real, tangible difference in India. It doesn’t matter if the data is collected and analyzed extensively to prove the effects of SBT’s work – you can see their success in the faces of the thousands of children they have helped over the last 20 years. SBT is an organization that provides everything from basic services such as medical attention and a meal to shelter housing and education for runaway and homeless children, many of whom come to Delhi via the train system. SBT services are crucial when considering that many of the male street children have the potential to end up drug addicts and the female street children are quickly pushed into prostitution (currently there are over 3500 girls forced into sex trafficking in Delhi – nauseating stuff). SBT has volunteers at the train station in Delhi as well as a collaborative with the local police to lead street children towards one of 15 of SBT’s centers in India versus leaving the children to fight for survival on the streets.
Some children want the help, others do not. That was what was so sobering about this site visit. No matter the persistence of SBT and the police, in the end, the decision belonged to the child on whether or not they accessed SBT’s services and shelters or stayed on the streets. Iqbal, a former street kid himself, lead us through the tiny, dirty alleyways near the Delhi train station to show aspects of the daily life of a street kid. Our group visited one of the centers for SBT, a preliminary facility for street children just arriving off of the trains or the streets, looking for medical aid and some food before going back on the street. It took me a while to realize that some of the children sitting in front me, who couldn’t have been more than 15 years old, were on drugs. This center was a facility to provide basic services to the kids who didn’t want to get off the streets; who preferred a life of quick money, haggling, drugs, and alcohol over the strict sobriety requirements of the SBT shelters.
What I appreciate about this organization is that it remains very realistic – they recognize that changing one kid’s life is still a measurable impact and that this change can be as miniscule as a free meal. This program has the means of a sustainable difference through their City Walk program, which charges a small fee to have some of the graduated street children lead small tours around the Delhi train station to show the different centers and facilities that SBT has – as we saw on Thursday. This organization also sells postcards made from photos taken by some of the children going through the various arts programs hosted by SBT – in particular the photography course (which you can donate old digital cameras to). I purchased some of the postcards, moved by the captured worldview of these children; one of the photos was actually by Iqbal! I also made sure to make a small donation to this organization, knowing the importance of unrestricted funds for nonprofits (keep that in mind next time you want to help out an organization J).
I was really moved by this organization and really impressed by the palpable impact in their target population. Salaam Baalak Trust has a well-established network and services that brought together all the elements of the social entrepreneurship course from the last two weeks. Even though the organization was not functioning solely on independent profits, they definitely had a social entrepreneurial element to them: focused on giving back to the community they serve in every possible way. By hosting City Walks lead by former street children, having annual reunion events that bring in successful former street children who were once part of the SBT program (there are Bollywood actors, fashion designers, photographers, and choreographers galore), and developing unique products to sell that share the message of renewed opportunity, Salaam Baalak Trust is a great example of how an organization can invest extensively in a community; perpetuating a cycle of investment by that very community to ensure its continued success for many many many years to come.
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