A girl from Argentina found her passion in coming to Varanasi to give the service of love and education to families in need. With the help of other travelers, a school was developed in a public, touristy area to teach the children how to read and write, and the mothers how to make crafts to sell instead of beg for money. The school became a project of love, trust, teamwork and financial responsibility. After years of Jesu's dedication, it has finally began to come to fruition close to the way she originally hoped.
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| The lovely Latin Lady herself! |
THE LONG VERSION
THE DREAM
It all started with a dream. Literally, a dream.
Jesumiel (Jesu) is a devout catholic who has devoted her life to the serving of others. Like many people, she was waiting to find exactly the right place for her to give her love. One night in a very vivid dream she saw a place called "Samne Ghat" written on a sign, and she met a little girl whose face was vivdly imprinted in her memory.
After doing some research on the trusty world wide web, she came to discover that Samne Ghat was was a real slum in the holy city of Varanasi (Benares). And she later discovered that the face of the girl she met in her dream was the real face of a child named Birshu.
If there was any doubt before, seeing her dream as a reality in these ways further secured the passion for her mission.
FROM DREAM TO REALITY
While the school and store are still very young, Jesu's work started as soon as she realized what her dream meant. She spent 3 years gaining the trust and affections of the families in Samne Ghat, trying to pass the hurdle of apprehension and often times aggression she met from the families. She persisted with giving medicine, food, and love. After a great deal of time she was finally revered as a valuable member of the community.
Her attempts during this time to begin her school in the way she wanted were falling short, due to the large number of children and only herself to control them. She knew she needed to get attention from people who could help.
A RAPID DEVELOPEMENT
When I met Jesu at the Mother Theresa house in Varanasi, I jumped on board. At first I accompanied her to the slum and attempted to occupy the crowds of people with games and pointless antics while Jesu tried to organize learning activities for smaller groups of children. Even when more travelers joined to help it became very clear very quickly that it was impossible to make progress. Working in the slum, it could never be more than a practice of compassion; certainly lacking the ability to make a bigger difference.
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| Max from Italy occupying the kids in the slum with macrame. Or possibly just being a human jungle gym. Either one is possible at any given time ;) |
In an attempt to go in a better direction, we started to hold the classes on the ghats, which are the area of steps that lead down to the Ganges (Ganga) river. Here we attracted a great deal of attention from passing tourists, who often times stopped to help, and often for more substantial periods of time.
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| Max and I teaching our first core group on the ghats. |
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| We always bathed the kids in the holy Ganga after school. Now with so many more children, we start each day with washing their hands and faces. |
Jesu spent the hours on the ghats teaching the rambuncious yet more manageable number of children how to read and write, while the mothers sat near by with their cups out for tourists. Looking for some way to contribute, a group of travelers got involved to occupy the mothers and older children with making handicrafts. We brought whatever we could to the table, including crochet, macrame, and beading necklaces.
THE STORE
Soon the products which were originally being made just to keep people busy started to receive an increased amount of attention from tourists who were interested in purchasing them. This caused a great deal of excitment and shed light on a new possibility.
With this new inspiration, attempts were started to develop a more visibly acceptable display. We scavenged the streets of Benares with the help from our trusty friend Khus and found a large piece of cloth and a partially broken piece of wood, and with this the store saw its humble beginning!
Things were starting to look up, but still there was no order whatsoever.
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| One of our adorable first stores. Note the impromptu cardboard sign in the back. It was our first humble attempt at becoming official! |
THE GROWTH
Jesu's brother and sister came up from Argentina to help things along, and Jesu's sister Jaqueline proved to be an invaluable asset. She took their previously developed skills of crochet and with her own expertise, turned the women into masters of creativity. As the sales of the products began to increase, so did the need for more organization. Things were getting serious!
The attitudes of the mothers and chidren were slowly improving as they saw the growth and began to take pride in their work. When before they made no attempts to look nice because they were aware of the down trodden image that earns more pity, they were now taking the time to bathe and wear their nicest saris and comb their hair and look their best. They began to see the need to work together, and many egos were pushed aside and more responsibility was taken for their newly developed craft and business.
AND NOW...
Now the organization of the store and school is greatly improved, and it has become a place where the mothers and children (and now some fathers, too) can come to feel safe, loved, and important. Issues involving personal conflict and money have slowly dissipated into minor scuffles instead of full on public brawls. The families have learned the value of working as a team and seen the success that is possible when love is put before anger, and you see the possibility of a bigger picture. The children have devoloped a new attentive behavior and a desire to learn and be successful.
What first started as a little cloth on the dirty ground with a few purses and necklaces has turned into a long line of handi crafts and smiling people looking and feeling their best, working away with excitement and silliness, and [mostly] peace (this will be perfected with time ;)
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| This is an example of how the store looks now. Notice the more appealing sign and designated working/selling space. A huge step up!! |
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| This is the view if you keep moving to the right of the picture above it. Total there are about 6 sections with different families' products. |
FOR OUR FUTURE
While the progress has been great, we still have a lot to do. Just 2 days ago we had a huge development where we secured a house to move the school inside. Today we are starting the cleaning process because it has been abandoned for 10 years! My next post will document the house's current state and progress.
We are getting the word out for help and support from family, friends and fellow travelers. Donations are starting to flood in and we are persisting day to day to improve the conditions and make our project more official!
MORE INFO
These are some of Jesu's already established sites if anyone is interested in reading more or donating.
cosmicommunity.org - Here in this website is a donation link and more info about when Jesu first arrived at Samne Ghat. The site is in Italian but on the upper right corner you can change it to English.
info@cosmicommunity.org
facebook: voluntariado en india - This is Jesu's facebook page. More pictures!
bank transfer: IBAN IT29M0326879530052763740520
Bic (swift code): SELBIT2BXXX
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