How do you say good-bye?
Today was my last day with the children at Starfish and at the Dalit Center.
Just a little background, Starfish now cares for about 30 children from 2 to 6 years old. The primary objective is the welfare of toddlers and older out of school children whose needs are largely neglected. Most sex workers sleep late in to the morning and the children will wander the unsafe streets of Sonagachi uncared for and unsupervised.
The most vulnerable of these children are enrolled in Starfish, which focuses on providing basic schooling and on preparing the children to join the mainstream schools at the right age.
At Starfish, if you sit right next to them and start tickling them they’ll laugh and begin crawling all over you and climbing up your back. They’ll all try to squeeze in and sit in your lap and play with your hands.
Some of the children, boys and girls have bindi’s on their foreheads, the black dot on the forehead-it’s meant to protect the children from harm. These children will never be far from my thoughts. I simply hope they are always protected from harm and stay happy, as happy as they were this morning.
In previous weeks, I’ve always been able to tell the children, I’ll see you tomorrow or I will see you next week. But this week, I can’t say that anymore.
When Zack and Emmy were leaving one of the young girls, who likes to be called princess, kept tugging on Zack’s leg, telling him please don’t go. Zack promised he would be back next year and she let go of his leg and said, that’s what all the volunteers say. But they never come back.
I’m sure some of the volunteers have every intention of coming back but in the end, life happens, and they simply aren’t able to. And this leaves the children waiting for something that will never happen. I don’t want to do this to the children. I hope to be able to come back someday but it could take me another two, three years before I’m able to return.
Instead I want to be honest with them. I make sure to spend time with each of them. I tell them ami tomake bhalobashi and I’m going to miss you, I won’t ever forget you. I just wish I didn’t have to leave, I wish I could stay another month or two or three:)
One young girl at the Dalit Center just kept saying, I’m going to miss you, I’m going to miss you. And she apologized she didn’t have anything for me. So she looked through her bag and gave me her favorite blue pen. How do you leave a child like this?
My last night at the Dalit Center I was able to do yoga with the children and as always, there was lots of laughing. And that’s why I’m here. To make them laugh, to remind them they are valued, supported and that they have so much to offer this world, so much they’re capable of. Because even though the caste system has been abolished in India, they live in a world where the stigma associated with being in the lowest caste is alive and well - where they are labeled from birth as being an "untouchable". Where girls and boys grow up without high expectations and without the expectation that they'll finish school, which is why New Light is so vital. It's instilling in the children a drive to learn, to get an education and to believe they are valued and can pursue whatever dreams they may have.
Urmi Basu, explains the history of the caste system and the impact it still has on children today, in the Half the Sky documentary New Light was featured in.
I’m simply trying to soak up all the time I have left with these children and with the staff as well.
One of the teachers, Gupal walked with us to Starfish this morning. We were talking and I found out he travels 2 hours to get to New Light each day. He takes a train, a bus and walks everyday and each day it takes a total of 4 hours to get to and from New Light. And that’s only if the bus and train aren’t running late.
This is dedication. This is what helps take the edge off leaving the kids. Knowing they have teachers like this that genuinely care about them and are dedicated to their wellbeing and success.