acceptance is the key ...
Thanks for all the encouraging comments on this experiment (BTW, we have decided to call the experiment as Project Reach Out). Well, the corn-selling experiment was not quite successful (at least not the way we expected it to be...)...the boys were not able to sell roasted corn for more than a few days...there were varied reasons - the first and foremost was the lack of perseverance and hard work...and to top it all, the local police didn't support us...the image of these children was too strong for the police to believe that they genuinely wanted to sell corn and not ask for alms. So where ever they went in sector 17, the police chased them out (i also talked to the SHO of the area but he refused to support us and his reasons were simple - selling anything on the street is illegal). i suggested that the boys move their road side shop to a new sector but the gang was not ready for that and they gave it up too easily.
i won't call the corn-selling experiment a complete failure even though i was utterly disappointed in the beginning and felt that these people were good for nothing and there is nothing i can do to change their attitude. Like all experiments this one also revealed quite a few things to me - the most important thing was that i was trying to bring about a change in these people too soon...i wanted them to leave begging and instead of cribbing about their existing conditions, start thinking of alternatives. But what i didn’t understand was that the circumstances that they were brought up in taught them nothing else except to beg ...even if they polish shoes they generally ask the person to give more money than they deserve and people did give them and that is how they and their families sustained themselves...life on the street had really hardened them and nobody had ever talked to them about right or wrong, good or bad. ..they only learnt about survival and begging is what survived them and so that is what they did.
i understood that an inner change is a must for them to be able to adapt themselves to any kind of work and if anybody wants to start some work of their own then the initiative or the desire has to come from them. And i have to bring more acceptance for the way they are and that includes their laziness, their lack of initiatives, their unhygienic habits, lying etc and take each day as it comes. So now we meet everyday and study for an hour or so and then we do prayer and meditation for a few minutes followed by a circle of sharing where i talk to each person about something or the other and request the others to listen (this is mainly done to increase their attention span and also to teach them to listen to each other) and then we play games that help them concentrate or to listen or team work. The first week of meditation/prayer and circle of sharing was really tough....none of the children was ready to sit for so long or was ready to close their eyes...they kept laughing or throwing grass at each other or moved around the group that was sitting but Jaspreet (a very dedicated volunteer who recently joined our effort) and i didn't lose heart...the sign that we took as very positive was the fact that most of the children/adults did show up everyday and so we assumed that the prayer etc had touched a chord with them. But for the past few days, the prayer/meditation has been much better… (Some of the kids actually told me that they like this part of the day) and there is quite some change in their concentration levels.
i am not saying that everything is going perfect...infact, sometimes their rowdy behavior really disappoints but the only thing that i am sure is the fact they love to come to our little "pathshala" :-) And that is what matters…after all; i started this experiment without any agendas!
i won't call the corn-selling experiment a complete failure even though i was utterly disappointed in the beginning and felt that these people were good for nothing and there is nothing i can do to change their attitude. Like all experiments this one also revealed quite a few things to me - the most important thing was that i was trying to bring about a change in these people too soon...i wanted them to leave begging and instead of cribbing about their existing conditions, start thinking of alternatives. But what i didn’t understand was that the circumstances that they were brought up in taught them nothing else except to beg ...even if they polish shoes they generally ask the person to give more money than they deserve and people did give them and that is how they and their families sustained themselves...life on the street had really hardened them and nobody had ever talked to them about right or wrong, good or bad. ..they only learnt about survival and begging is what survived them and so that is what they did.
i understood that an inner change is a must for them to be able to adapt themselves to any kind of work and if anybody wants to start some work of their own then the initiative or the desire has to come from them. And i have to bring more acceptance for the way they are and that includes their laziness, their lack of initiatives, their unhygienic habits, lying etc and take each day as it comes. So now we meet everyday and study for an hour or so and then we do prayer and meditation for a few minutes followed by a circle of sharing where i talk to each person about something or the other and request the others to listen (this is mainly done to increase their attention span and also to teach them to listen to each other) and then we play games that help them concentrate or to listen or team work. The first week of meditation/prayer and circle of sharing was really tough....none of the children was ready to sit for so long or was ready to close their eyes...they kept laughing or throwing grass at each other or moved around the group that was sitting but Jaspreet (a very dedicated volunteer who recently joined our effort) and i didn't lose heart...the sign that we took as very positive was the fact that most of the children/adults did show up everyday and so we assumed that the prayer etc had touched a chord with them. But for the past few days, the prayer/meditation has been much better… (Some of the kids actually told me that they like this part of the day) and there is quite some change in their concentration levels.
i am not saying that everything is going perfect...infact, sometimes their rowdy behavior really disappoints but the only thing that i am sure is the fact they love to come to our little "pathshala" :-) And that is what matters…after all; i started this experiment without any agendas!
PS: the good news is that out of 15 boys who started to learn stitching and tailoring, 5 are regular and are doing pretty good...they are learning to stitch bags/purses and we are soon planning to stitch bags for selling.
posted by Gagan (Liza) Chawla at 6:22 AM
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