[Reader-list] Volunteers Needed To Help 125 Riot-Affected Children

[Harsh Kapoor]

APPEAL FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP CHILDREN (VICTIMS OF THE GENOCIDE)
Monica Wahi
Dear Friends,
Please go through this attachment.
This is a programme for summer volunteering in Raigad, Maharashtra 
where 125 children from Vatwa & Naroda Patiya are studying at 
present. Volunteers need to go there for a minimum of 10 days.you can 
also put the 1st 2 pages on your office/college notice board.The 3rd 
to the 5th page explains the situation of children post riots in 
Gujarat.the last page talks about our experienc with the
Raigad School and further expectations from the project.
as mentioned in the document, food and staying expenses will be taken 
care of by the school. you'll just have to spend for your travel up 
to Raigad. In case you are interested you need to let me know asap, 
so that we can schedule the groups of volunteers. from the 1st to the 
15th a group of students and a professor from St. Xaviers College, 
Bombay are coming to the school. so now we require volunteers only 
after the 15th of April.
hope to hear from you
in peace and harmony
monica wahi
ps:
if you know of groups who would be interested in doing workshops 
(theatre, music, films etc) in Raigad this summer, please pass this 
on to them also and ask them to get in touch with us immediately.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP 125 RIOT-AFFECTED CHILDREN
required to teach & play with 125 riot- affected children between 
15th April to 30th May.
Victims of the Gujarat carnage, they are now studying in a boarding 
school in Maharashtra.
THE RAIGAD SCHOOL PROJECT:
A wonderful opportunity for riot affected kids to re-build their lives
Children directly affected by the communal carnage of 2002 in Gujarat 
were identified from 2 areas in Ahmedabad - Vatwa and Naroda-Patiya. 
They have been given free boarding and lodging in the hostel of a 
school situated in Raigad District, Maharashtra.
125 children have come to the school since October 2002 in three 
batches. These children have now settled down in the school. The 
ratio of girls to boys is around 2:3. The age group varies from 5 to 
15 years (majority is in the bracket of 8-12).
The school, known as Dr. A. R. Undre High School is fully equipped 
with classes from KG to XII Std.  It also runs a B.S.C college for 
girls. The school has around 1200 local students and is an English 
medium school. The school was set up over 20 years ago to provide 
quality education to rural students.
The school is run by a trust - Royal Education Society. The promoters 
are the Undre family who unhesitatingly opened their hearts to these 
kids and took them in. Zia Hajeebhoy (from Bombay) liasoned with the 
school and with Volunteers working in relief camps in Ahmedabad who 
identified, selected & brought these kids to the school.
STATUS - MARCH 2003
Boarding and Lodging:
The School has ensured that every child has a bed, clean sheets and 
pillows, a trunk to keep their belongings etc. Clothes, uniform, 
shoes & toiletries have been provided. Girls and the little boys stay 
in the Girls Hostel and the Older Boys in the Boys hostel. Additional 
help including an additional warden, cooks, cleaners etc have been 
hired to provide for the needs of these children. The hostel provides 
wholesome nutritious meals including milk, eggs and non - vegetarian 
dishes and fresh fruits which the kids enjoy.
Academic:
18 teachers and students went in the October holidays, voluntarily to 
give the children their first academic inputs. Their abilities and 
levels were assessed and they have now been assigned classes where 
they sit with the local students. 3 teachers have been appointed to 
give these children extra coaching after school hours.
Emotional & Psychological:
Mrs Undre, the staff at the school, the caretakers in the hostel, are 
wonderful and give tremendous affection and care.
Volunteers in their interaction and others with their thoughtful 
contributions (school kids from Bombay donated their toys, clothes 
etc) brought these children a lot of love, cheer and hope.
A group of counselors did a preliminary assessment of the emotional 
health of these children, which is being used as a valuable input in 
interaction with these children.
Financial:
Donations have come in from a variety of people in the form of one 
time contribution, long term financial commitments and resources in 
kind (clothes, shoes, games, books, food etc). Every little bit is 
helping, however the expenses exceed the donations and the gap is met 
by the school trust and personally by the Undres!
WHAT CAN U DO?
The immediate focus for the next two months [April and May]- when the 
school will shut down for holidays - is to help these kids catch up 
with their peers academically, especially in the sphere of English. 
Save a handful, most of these kids were previously studying in 
Gujarati medium, and a few in Urdu medium. Since the Raigad School is 
an English medium school, the children will suffer academically 
inspite of their intelligence and aptitude, if they do not get 
adequately familiar English.
Though the school will close for holidays, the children from Gujarat 
will stay in the hostel to attend coaching classes from 1st of April 
to 30th of May. After which they will be given a holiday for 10 days, 
to visit their homes in Ahmedabad, before the commencement of the 
next academic year.
We are looking for volunteers who will come to the Raigad School to 
teach English to the riot affected children and also play and spend 
time with them- for a minimum of 10 days.
It is very simple to teach. We do not require professionals to teach 
English (although if they are willing to come, so much the better). 
Only a couple of the 18 volunteers who came in October holidays to 
teach the kids were in anyway connected with education. They just 
came because of their motivation and enthusiasm  & they did a 
wonderful job!
The kids already know their alphabets. Linkages between alphabet & 
sound and between word & meaning has to be reinforced, reading and 
conversational skills have to be upgraded. A structured syllabus will 
be handed down, which anyone fluent in English can follow.
If you know of any kit / module meant for teaching English to 
vernacular students, you can get it along or inform us about it and 
we will make it available. The more inputs, the better.
It can be a lot of fun. Besides being a rewarding experience, 
interacting and playing with these children can itself be a lot of 
fun for some people. It will be even better if you are accompanying 
friends. Because the place that you will be visiting- Borli-Panchatan 
village, Raigad - is located between green hills and warm blue 
waters! It has a lovely unspoiled, and as yet uncommercialised beach. 
Volunteers will teach the kids in the morning, play with them till 
early evening and then they can be on their own - to trek on the 
hills or swim in the sea. And the temperature will be significantly 
lower than the cities we stay in. What more can one ask for in the 
summers
Besides the English classes, we have organised other activities. We 
are expecting theatre workshops, film screenings etc. Various groups 
from Delhi and Bombay will undertake these camps/ workshops. Meeting 
such a variety of people from various fields can itself be an 
interesting & exciting experience.
It will easy on your purse. We realise the size of each individual's 
purse will vary! Nevertheless volunteers will only have to spend for 
travelling up to Raigad and back. A bus ride from Bombay to Raigad is 
approximately Rs 100. If you are from outside Bombay you can add this 
to the expense for travelling to Bombay. The School will take care of 
the food and the accommodation of the volunteers.
When are volunteers required? from 15th of April to 30th of May
For how long? We would prefer volunteers to stay for at least 2 
weeks, but 10 days is the minimum.
How many volunteers at a time? On an average we would like to have 10 
to 15 volunteers at a time. So each volunteer can take care of 10 to 
12 kids.
How to reach? Busses ply to Borli, Raigad from Bombay (6 hrs); from 
Pune (5 hrs); from Goa (7 hrs).
In case you are interested please inform us in advance. You can get 
in touch with:
Monica Wahi: 
<mailto:monicawahi at rediffmail.com>monicawahi at rediffmail.com  ph: 
(0)9825412467
Zia Hajeebhoy: <mailto:hajeebhoyzia at yahoo.com>hajeebhoyzia at yahoo.com 
ph: (0)9820048509

Note: if you or your organisation are interested only in conducting 
workshops/ camps in the school during these two months, please write 
to us asap, so we can block the dates for you.

A brief backgrounder on why the Raigad School Project was undertaken:
Monica Wahi (a volunteer working with riot affected children in Ahmedabad)
THE POST CARNAGE GUJARAT SCENARIO:
vis-a-vis children
EDUCATIONAL CRISIS
(a) UNAFFORDABILITY
Even though I'm sure, you are aware of the post -carnage situation in 
Gujarat, I would like to give you a brief background.  This would 
reveal the variety and magnanimity of the problems vis-a-vis 
children. Let me first give you a glimpse of Vatwa, where most of the 
families come from. The Vatwa ward encompasses a huge area and is 
home both to the Hindu and the Muslim community. Within this area our 
work was restricted to the riot-affected urban village around the 
Qutb-e-alam Dargah which is inhabited predominantly by the Muslim 
populace.
Vatwa came under severe communal attack during the riots, and 
suffered huge destruction of life and property. As in most cases, the 
government was quick to pull out support from the three relief camps 
functioning in the area. When we had conducted a survey in June, 
almost 800 families were staying in the 3 camps. The last of these 
camps -Jehangir camp no.9 was functioning unofficially on NGO support 
until 9th February 2003!
The families who were still staying in these camps (almost a year 
after the riots!), were those who had nowhere to go to. They belong 
to pockets, which are predominantly Hindu - like Michdi Pir and 
Bandarvat Talav. The muslim residents of the area not only "perceive" 
threat but have literally been threatened against coming back. But 
these families were pushed out of relief camps as well and have since 
taken up accommodation on rent or are staying with relatives. Fearful 
and frustrated these families have little hope of permanent shelter 
and prospective livelihood. This despair is also true for residents 
who have returned to their re-constructed houses in the village.
The families who have gone back now to their inadequately repaired 
houses are also struggling in their own ways. In almost all cases the 
livelihoods were destroyed. They are either unemployed even after one 
year or have shifted to occupations which they are unfamiliar with 
and generate even less income than before. A number of the 
inhabitants worked in factories before the riots. The factories have 
either been affected by the riots and therefore in no condition to 
function, or the workers have been refused re-employment in the 
factories because they belong to a community whose "employment may 
prove unsafe/risky".  Little help has been extended to those who were 
self-employed- earned their livelihood through handcarts, corner 
shops etc. Their claims have either not been satisfied or in most 
cases not been recognised by the collector's office. A very insidious 
factor is the economic boycott that the community is facing. This is 
directed not only towards mill workers who have been fired, but 
towards a vast section of drivers, contractors and towards home based 
workers. The home based workers in spite of having the required 
skills and possessing required resources- (for example sewing machine 
for stitching) -are being refused work by traders in most cases by 
their own former 'Seths'. This has in turn lead to further reduction 
of the average purchasing power of the community which in turn 
affects the income of small time entrepreneurs who cater to the 
community in a (usually) ghettoised area. Besides, there are a host 
of casual labourers who inhabit the area whose situation has become 
worse than before.
The ability to sponsor a child's education has been greatly reduced. 
Parents not only have to earn to feed the mouths in the family but 
also have to build their home afresh. In all cases, they have lost 
household essentials.. They have to start saving gradually to 
purchase these all over again. The NGOs, mainly Islamic Organisations 
have merely reconstructed 4 walls. Loss of livelihood has undoubtedly 
affected their spending power on what are regarded as essentials in 
any functioning democracy- food, health and education.
Needless to say, the above situation is equally valid for 
Naroda-Patiya, where a substantial number of Raigad students come 
from. In fact another trend, which we witnessed in Patiya, is that 
many children previously studying in Private or English medium 
schools have now joined municipal schools because they simply cannot 
afford 'quality' education.
(b) FEAR PSYCHOSIS & ACTIVE STATE DISCRIMINATION
Children are still 'experiencing the riots' -only in less apparent 
ways.. More and more children from the minority community are being 
excluded or are choosing to leave main- stream schools, as a result 
of a fear psychosis of parents and the school management. Many 
schools including Xavier's Loyola Hall, Diwan Ballu Bhai and Ankur 
were asked to assist in a survey of their students. Some schools are 
reported to have asked parents to continue their children's education 
in their institutions at their own risk. There are many instances of 
minority children being roughed up by their seniors in school or by 
"hindus" on the way to school. This has created a fear psychosis in 
the community and they prefer then to go to schools in their area. 
But here they face other problems.
One, not many "good" schools are present in predominantly muslim 
localities. Even the municipal schools are few and are less efficient 
and lesser equipped than the ones present in the "Hindu" areas. It 
has also been seen that the municipal schools present in the minority 
areas stop at class VII. The reason provided of course is that they 
do not get enough students for studies beyond V or VII std. But talk 
with parents and children, has proven otherwise. Our own experience 
with Raigad also reveals that parents are equally concerned about 
their daughters completing high school along with their sons. In fact 
in some cases, parents decided in favour of sending their daughters 
to Raigad over their sons as they were unsure of sending their 
daughters to school in Ahmedabad after a certain age due to 
"security" reasons.
(c) RELOCATION TO ANOTHER AREA
The displacement or relocation of families from one area to another, 
has also posed a serious challenge.
-While the family is trying to come to terms with their immense loss 
and trying to familiarise themselves with new surroundings, getting 
children admitted to schools takes a backseat- at least for a while.
-Often affected families have been relocated in areas (though with 
good intentions by NGOs), in areas where access to quality education 
is not easy - as in the case of Arsh colony and Faizal Park in Vatwa 
where families have been relocated from Naroda-Patiya and other 
minority areas. Education can act as a tool for normalisation for 
children who have gone through a time of extraordinary crisis. It is 
really unfortunate that they are denied this process. 45 families 
identified as the worst affected (from Naroda-Patiya) have been 
relocated to Faizal park, Vatwa. All these families have lost someone 
or the other. 20 children studying in the Raigad school at present 
are from Faizal Park.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS
According to an estimate there were 50,000 children inhabiting relief 
camps at various points of time. All of them have gone through 
varying levels of trauma. Naroda Patiya as you might know was the 
worst affected place in Ahmedabad- so children from here have all 
either been subjected to or been witness to gruesome incidents of 
violence. - from seeing their family members butchered or burned to 
death to seeing their mothers, aunts, sisters getting raped and 
instruments injected in their private parts. What must have these 
children made out of all this barbarism? No doubt there is a serious 
psychological affect on these children. Some of the students in 
Raigad are not only witnesses but survivors themselves.
Even when children have not been subject directly to violence, they 
have in most cases been made to run/ hide for their lives. They have 
seen or heard "tolas" approaching their area. And they have heard 
numerous stories day in and day out of family & friends who have been 
killed, burnt, shot in the riots and their community as a whole which 
has been reduced to utter misery.
Children whose houses were looted or burnt have undergone trauma in 
their own way. Children get used to surroundings they grow up in- 
they have faith in the certainty of visible surroundings and objects 
there. Imagine if in one go, everything around them evaporates. Their 
houses, the toys they used to play with- even little things like 
their spoons and bowls they used to eat from. Unlike adults they 
cannot rationalise all this. They are even less certain on how to 
approach their future.
Also, every now and then the sense of security gets threatened. 
Hordes of families across Ahmedabad-including Naroda- went back to 
the camps after the Akshar-Dham incident, then again after Jaideep 
Patel was attacked in Naroda, again during the anniversary of the 
Godhra incident and Post-Godhra carnage, the day of the 
India-Pakistan cricket match and recently again when Haren Pandya was 
murdered. Violent incidents on an average erupt every 10 days in some 
part of the city or the other. To always live amid such fear and 
hostility must undoubtedly affect the psychological well being of the 
child..
We must remember that children are consumers also, they do not 
consume for utilitarian purposes but they like to possess things- 
which intrigue them, entertain and calm them. If their families could 
afford to buy them their little toys or candy, they simply cannot 
afford to do that now. Its certainly traumatising for a child.
for eg, children in my area were extremely distressed at not being 
able to go to the annual carnival of Shah Alam. Its an occasion 
looked forward to, by everyone from the community- a time for 
enjoyment & mingling. But because their parents "could not give them 
money" they could not go to the mela.
if we were to see it from a child's point of view, or even an adults 
point of view,- the denial of certain standard of living which one 
has been used to, for no fault of ones own is extremely distressing.
Disturbing behavior is noticeable among children who have experienced 
the carnage. This ranges from the psychological disorders that 
individual children suffer; to the "violent" or "communal" games that 
children have creatively integrated in their play; to the prejudices 
that the children have internalized about the other community. This 
brings us to our next concern.
SECULAR CRISIS
The responses of these children towards this carnage may be 
"personal" today but as they grow up these responses will turn 
political. Children, who have been subject to or have witnessed 
incidents of violence, have no recourse but towards anger, fear and 
despair. They have been made to suffer because they are Muslims. This 
singular definition of their identity only pushes them further to 
take refuge in its singularity.
When a friend had asked a group of riot-affected children about the 
attackers they said "the attackers were hindus in khaki chaddis". 
Hindu kaun ? (Hindus Who?) he asked further. "Those who believe in 
bhagwan".
What will prevent these children from generalizing all Hindus as 
violent beings? as enemies?
Here one must not forget that the carnage in Gujarat is not a 
one-time thing- ie; the feelings it generates is sustained through 
continuous discrimination by civil society. During the riots -Asmi 
High School in Vatwa where predominantly muslim children studied was 
burnt down by rioters lead by none other than the hindu principal of 
a nearby municipal school. What kind of values does this principal 
espouse? Similarly students talk of discrimination by their teachers, 
that they are taunted and failed purposely. Two brothers studying 
presently in Raigad were compelled to leave Pragati High School, 
Maninagar in similar circumstances.
The majority children are fed myths about the "other; the foreigner"; 
they absorb drawing room conversations justifying the carnage; they 
consume school text- books categorizing Muslims, Christians and 
Parsees as foreigners! Responses and reactions are usually shaped by 
what one absorbs from the family, school and media. So children 
automatically get indoctrinated into an intolerant world antithetical 
to diversity, without recognizing the communal idiom as such.
In view of all these problems faced by the children and their 
families, we felt that a well-meaning school outside Ahmedabad, 
committed to constructive progressive work with the students would 
address many of these predicaments.
Zia and I discovered each other in Ahmedabad at the end of August.  I 
had been working voluntarily since a few months in the relief camps 
of Vatwa. And Zia had taken time out of her busy schedule in Bombay 
and came to Ahmedabad with an earnest desire to do something, which 
could make a difference. We kept in close touch and soon Zia sought a 
school, which was willing to take a hundred children, and I already 
had a list of over 200 children who wanted to study outside 
Ahmedabad. (This list was prepared by various volunteers since the 
preceding 2-3 months).
Zia liasoned with the school, and I selected the students and 
accompanied the first batch of 60 students to their new school on 5th 
October 2002. Action Aid facilitated the process. Two more batches 
followed subsequently. The total number of Gujarati children studying 
at present in Raigad are 125.
About the-selection mechanism -we decided on Four over-riding 
Parameters of the most affected families:
(a) who have lost one or more members of family in this carnage
(b) who are still staying in camps (they have no shelter and most 
probably no source of income)
(c) who have lost their livelihood due to the carnage and who still 
have no source of income
(d) whose earning capacities have been greatly reduced due to the 
riots and therefore cannot afford their child's education any longer
We had certain expectations: towards education, towards healing & 
towards harmonising - which we felt the Raigad school will be ideal 
for
(a) towards Education:
-The school addresses the unaffordability of education by providing 
the children with free boarding and lodging
-Children are more likely to complete their high school & not drop 
out midway sheerly because there will be less (financial) strain-This 
is especially valid for girls, due to economic as well as security 
reasons.
-Also the Raigad School is able to provide the children with a better 
standard of education- in terms of teachers and facilities. A bulk of 
the children will never be otherwise exposed to such an education.
-Students who have been forced to leave main-stream English medium 
schools, because of their reduced financial budget get an opportunity 
to pursue the kind of education they had aspired for pre-carnage.
(b) towards Healing:
A major deciding factor for the school was the opportunity for the 
psychological healing of the students. Children may not show signs of 
trauma but they have residues of anger, pain, fear & confusion. It 
will be easier to address these outside their environment than in 
Ahmedabad where their families are fighting battles on various 
levels- to push through criminal cases, for compensations, for 
restoring livelihoods & in a lot of cases basic necessities like two 
square meal a day.
Unfortunately, there has been no concerted effort to conduct 
counseling sessions for the children in Ahmedabad. At best efforts 
have been ad-hoc and irregular. Organisations working here often 
blame this lacuna on lack of expertise, and also lack of enthusiasm 
on the part of the holders of this expertise, in Ahmedabad. 
Keeping this foremost in our mind, we had hoped that we could 
organise a team of counselors from Bombay to visit the children in 
the school on a regular basis. One such team was organised in 
October. In the coming months the "Dream - Catchers" interactive 
sessions prepared by Sonali Ojha and Sonali Vakil will be used with 
the children. Recently two social workers with a psychology 
background have been employed by the school to look into their needs 
(with a special emphasis on emotional needs). Smita Desai, an 
esteemed counselor from Bombay has assured us of her guidance.
Another plus point for Borli-Panchatan, the village where the school 
is situated- is the natural beauty of the place. By itself, the place 
is very calming.  It is lush, green - amid hills, on the sea shore- 
away from the noise & pollution of the cities- like a retreat. The 
very surroundings are able to provide the much- needed peace and 
solace to the children.
(c) towards Harmonising:
When there is an over-riding atmosphere of communalism, the Raigad 
experience has shown at least these sets of students that there are 
people (non-muslim, majority community) who are equally concerned 
about their well-being, about their future prospects; and there are 
spaces (the Borli-Panchatan village- with an almost equal no. of 
Hindu-Muslim populace) - where people from both the communities stay 
amicably next to each other, interact with each other not only on a 
professional but a personal basis, and share a common culture which 
they treasure above all else. This is a window of hope- which they 
would have been denied in their segregated and/ or ghettoised 
surroundings in Gujarat.
We also plan to actively promote discussions on various issues- not 
only about non-violence, secularism and diversity, but about caste, 
gender and development. This kind of an exposure will hopefully give 
a sane and progressive direction to their future. This is an area 
that both Zia and I are pursuing. Various organisations have shown 
interest in holding workshops with the children to engage them in 
such a dialogue. Some of these will take place this summer.
Our Experience with the Raigad School
I'd just like to add that the Raigad School has out-done our 
expectations.. I have already mentioned its advantages, regarding- 
healing and harmonising. Besides that there is a certain quality to 
the school. It is unlike the regimented, even beurocratic boarding 
schools that most of us have been exposed to.  Though the syllabi and 
the functioning of the school is as good or as bad as any normal 
middle class city school, we have been offered a lot of flexibility 
as regards our intended programmes in the school. This is not only 
due to Dr. Undre himself who is committed to "secularism" but also 
doe to the well-meaning Principal, the Wardens of the hostels, the 
workers attending to the children in the school as well as the 
hostel. The Undres have been very encouraging in their invitations 
and acceptance of various progressive groups to work with the 
children. They have given and thereafter received unimaginable 
compassion and trust. There is a lot of free space for us to make the 
project as imaginative as we can. And we are trying to do just that.
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