I want to begin everyday with this. I believe it makes a very real difference how you begin your day and the intentions you wake up with.
It is a privilege to be here in India working with New Light. Very grateful I get to wake up each morning and begin my day working with children at New Light’s home base-the Creche Cum shelter.
I want to take time to recognize this each morning and focus all my energy on being in the present moment, on each child I get the chance to work with, each project I’m beginning and simply on opening myself up to each experience.
The creche cum shelter is located in a permanent structure above a temple situated deep inside the Kalighat red light district. What began as a crèche or day care center for 9 children in two rooms in a dark alley of Kalighat, fourteen years ago, has evolved into a 24/7 program for more than 250 kids today. They offer comprehensive care and support to children, from three months to eighteen years. This was the first crèche operating in a red light area that started with children as young as three months old.
I was also able to speak with the director of the Creche Cum shelter and volunteer coordinator more in depth this afternoon. We were discussing the prevalence of domestic violence in India. Since India is a patriarchal society men grow up with the belief they can treat their wife, their partner however they want with no repercussions. If a woman’s husband is unfaithful or abuses his wife the in laws and extended family will many times encourage the woman to stay in the relationship. They care more about appearances than the well being of the woman. And in the culture here, single mothers are considered bad mothers. And most of the women, especially in this area of Kolkata, are uneducated and have no way of providing for their children if they were to leave. Which is where the sex industry comes in. Many times, this is all they can do to provide for their children if their husband leaves them or they decide to leave their husband.
These children grow up in this environment where they see men treating women with complete disregard for their wellbeing. Especially in the red light district, it is a transaction and the women in the sex industry are viewed as property.
These children are growing up in this incredibly harsh environment, which is why New Light is so vital. They’ve established trust with the surrounding community and are able to provide the mothers in the sex industry a place where their children will be safe and cared for and where positive interactions between the children, and the children and adults can be reinforced.
And the young girls, they’re encouraged to spend the night, because they’re at increased risk of being drawn into prostitution. And for many of the children whose mothers don’t have any permanent residence, the crèche cum shelter is the only place they can call their own.
These children simply aren’t able to receive all the love and attention they need where they’re from.
Children require safety and security, an environment where they feel nurtured. This is essential in creating positive self-esteem. A child who is treated with respect and love tends to internalize the feeling and to believe they are lovable and that they can trust themselves.
Love can be conveyed through verbal expressions, through touch and hugs and through joy in the sheer fact of the child’s being.
So to be able to spend time with these children, see the same faces day to day, get to know their names, their stories and simply hug them is a complete joy.
My hope is that the yoga classes I’ll be teaching the children will be a positive way to channel the children’s energy and a way to reinforce positive actions and interactions between the children. A way for me to show them they are valued.
At the beginning of each class I plan on knowing each student’s name. I believe it’s one small way to show the child that you really care about them. And each class will include a smaller group of students so I can give each student more individual attention.
I was able to teach a mini yoga session with the children this afternoon and it was amazing to see how much they took to it. I started with sun salutations, balancing poses and airplane pose. The kids absolutely loved pretending to fly then falling out of the pose. I always like to follow the children’s lead and I’ll make sure to spend more time on what they seem to enjoy doing the most. So we spent awhile flying and falling and moving into warrior 2 and dancers pose. One young girl especially loved dancers pose, so before leaving we all formed a circle, joined hands and tried holding dancers pose together and ended up falling in a pile on the floor which all the children thought was absolutely hilarious. I think we did that at least five more times before I left:) Even though I know I’ll see the same children the next day it’s always hard to leave.
From creche cum I was scheduled to visit New Light’s boys home, Khela-Ghar, which is its most recently established shelter. It’s for boys between the age of 4 and 18 and is a part of New Light’s efforts to provide the sons of women who are in prostitution the opportunity to grow up in a safe and secure environment.
The boys home was created to help remove the male children from the violence filled environment of Kalighat and to provide them with safe shelter, formal and remedial education, counseling and comprehensive healthcare.
We were able to spend a few hours here, simply talking with the boys, helping them with some of their schoolwork and playing twister. One game went on for an hour, as the boys were absolutely set on being the last one standing. I visited the home with a few other volunteers. And the boys absolutely loved seeing one of the volunteers Zack trying to twist himself into impossible positions.
With a couple of the other volunteers, Emmy and Zack, we're hoping to come back and lead a discussion on gender discrimination and self esteem. Especially with the environment these boys grow up in, where you'll see men treat women with little regard for their feelings, their opinion, their well-being we want to encourage these boys to treat women with respect. And discuss with them what this means and what this looks like.