Day 9: Salaam Baalak Trust and Saluting the Child

On Thursday morning, we were greeted by Iqbal and Satender as we began Salaam Baalak Trust's City Walk. Needing to split us into two groups, Satender sported a mischievous smile and urged us to pick the guide we found most handsome. We set out on the tour with our guide, Iqbal (sorry Satender), a former street child himself. Iqbal led us through Paharganj - the neighborhood abutting the New Delhi train station where Delhi's railway children reside. As we walked, Iqbal narrated what we were seeing - a recycling wallah's small shop where kids sell plastic scraps - across the narrow alley, a small room housing a video game system where kids spend the few rupees they earn, an alley where residents combated public urination by installing tiles depicting Hindu gods and Jesus (genius, by the way). Iqbal was an excellent guide - serious but goodnatured, always happy to answer our questions. It was mind blowing to think that at 19, it was just a short time ago that Iqbal had run away from an abusive father and fought to survive on streets like the ones he was guiding us through. That combination of indomitable spirit with a dash of luck is usually the stuff of Hollywood and Dickensian novels. But here Iqbal was - determined to educate himself and make his way in the world.

The City Walk is a truly ingenious way to generate unrestricted funds - the most precious kind of funds for non-profits. For just about $4, walkers are treated to background information about Delhi's street children, Salaam Baalak Trust's work, a tour of Paharganj and a brief visit to one of SBTs temporary short-term shelters. It's the most worthwhile $4 I've ever spent, that's for sure.

At the short-term shelter, we were able to spend some time with boys - some of whom were new arrivals - who were congregated in the modest concrete foyer and doing some drawing. Seeing these children, who we know live such a difficult life, engaging in the basic and universal childhood pastime of drawing produced some major cognitive dissonance. Looking closer, I noticed that two of the boys were drawing homes. I felt that one in my gut.

Meeting with one of the Trust's management team members, I was reminded about the fickleness of funding and the constant need for local organizations to fundraise to carry out their missions. The Trust was a sub-grantee to FHI under a USAID-funded project for four years - but that funding had just ended. For many small NGOs, we ask their employees to be excellent at implementation as well as marketing/selling their ideas to secure more funding. How much time is taken away from running excellent programs in the scramble to secure additional funding? Reflecting on this, the need for income generating arms that support social programs seems even more apparent!