Dirty Wall Project

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October 15^th, 2009 Jaipur, Rajasthan

The Dirty Wall Project (DWP) teamed up with Dr. Hitesh Gupta again to work on the “Truckers Project”.

The project works with the long distance truckers of India, educating them on safe sexual practices. The Melinda Gates Foundation of America funds the overall project. Seventeen clinics have been set up across India on the major highways and stopping points for truckers. Due to long distances on the road and the high stress of driving on Indian highways, coupled with prolonged time away from their families, truckers are a high-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases.

The aim of the clinics are to not only encourage these men to be tested for STDs and HIV, but to educate and counsel them about safe sex practices.

Dr. Gupta is in charge of the Jaipur clinics and has added several new programs that are only offered here and not on the national program. Yoga and meditation have been introduced with positive results.

With Diwali, Jaipur’s biggest festival, only days away, I came up with the idea of a gift for the truckers.

In India, personal appearance is very important. In the streets of India you are hard pressed to find an Indian man who isn’t in a collared, button-front shirt. Rich or poor, rural or city dweller, the collared shirt is the common denominator. Diwali is the Festival of Light and in the days leading up to the festival people clean their homes and buy new clothing.

I met with a wholesale shirt merchant and struck a deal to buy sixty shirts. I was given a very good deal and was able to buy good quality shirts that can be worn by the truckers for the festival and for other special events in their lives. I wanted to not only give a gift for Diwali, but for it to serve a purpose. The only way for a trucker to get one of the new shirts was to be tested and to see one of the clinic’s doctors.

I met with Dr.Gupta and we drove to the first clinic, our car packed to the roof with the new shirts. I was introduced to the clinic’s staff and shown around. They explained how the clinic operates and gave me statistics on the current goals and aims of the project. We then headed outside to where one of the clinics “street plays” was in progress.

The staff at the clinic have collaborated with a local group of actors that perform four times a month where the truckers gather. The actors put on an animated play about the life of the truckers, and include a message about safe sex practices. The performance is full of comedic flare.  Forty truckers stood and sat watching the play amidst bursts of laughter and smiles. It was obvious to me, even without translation, that the play was reaching its’ audience. When the play concluded, a handful of nurses from the clinic answered questions and signed the men up to the clinic’s services.

Along with the permanent clinic in Jaipur, they also have an extension clinic that changes location every six months to places where the truckers congregate. As we brought the shirts into the extension clinic, word started to spread. I handed out the first shirt of the day to a man who was excited but humble as he accepted his gift of a new shirt. He shook my hand vigorously. I watched him head to his truck with a smile so big it could be seen from behind. Men started to appear in numbers to register for the clinic. We left the extension clinic in the capable hands of the staff and headed back to the main clinic.

Men filled the waiting room of the main clinic and I was able to watch the excitement in each man’s eyes as he was handed his Diwali gift. On what was thought to be a slow day at the clinic due to the looming festival was now bringing in record numbers of truckers eager to be tested and receive a new shirt.

DWP wishes all the men a happy Diwali….

Dirty Wall Project bought sixty shirts for 14,500 INR ($330 CAD)

Kane Ryan

dirtywallproject@gmail.com

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October 16th, 2009  Jaipur, Rajasthan

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

(Paul Coelho, The Alchemist, 1988)

This has certainly been true for the Dirty Wall Project since I arrived in India eight weeks ago.

Through Vatsalya’s (The Children’s Village, Udayan) connection, Cara (see previous post) and I were introduced to Priety, an Indian woman who helps youth in the slums with vocational training. She was eager to hold a health and hygiene camp in one of the slum areas but lacked the funds. I wanted to offer help in the slums but I lacked the connections to get in.

Together a beautiful relationship was forged.

The Dirty Wall Project hired one gynecologist and one pediatrician and together with Priety’s team, our health camp was becoming a reality. This would be Priety’s and the Dirty Wall Project’s first health and hygiene camp. It was to be a learning experience for us all.

On the morning of the camp we all assembled at the Nehru Public School. Eight of us all piled onto three motorbikes and set out for the slum. Cara and I had the rare opportunity to be the first westerners to enter this particular area and this was also the first time a health camp was brought to the area.

As we rode into the slum, conversations stopped mid-sentence and eyes became transfixed at the sight of two westerners riding through the streets. Kids began to follow us and the word spread quickly. A few of Priety’s team had arrived earlier and set up a tent structure for us to hold the camp in.  We set up tables and chairs for our doctors and the support team. Cara and my job were to keep the kids under control. Sixty kids had come to the tent and were very interested in the weird foreigners that had appeared. The first hour was spent shaking hands and being shown around by the children. It had become quite a frenzied atmosphere.

Men and women lined up at the first table to speak to the nurses. Children had their nails trimmed and were given medical advice. For more serious ailments, people were sent to our doctors. In the first two hours over two hundred people had come through our camp.

The hygiene part of the camp was the next phase. We had hired a tanker of water to wash the children. Daily baths are not common in these areas as there just isn’t enough water. Lice and other hygiene conditions are very prevalent in the children here.

As Cara and I walked up the hill to where the tanker would be coming we were each flanked by forty children. The children were very excited about the tanker and several had already stripped down as our parade moved through the slum. The water tanker was driven in by tractor and met with raucous applause as children lined the road. We handed out lice medication and soap. The sight of fifty kids lathered and covered in soap with smiles and laughter echoing through the area was truly a memorable experience. Something so routine by western standards had brought such joy and happiness to so many.

The hose was attached to the tanker and to the delight of the children, fired over the soapy crowd. Children danced and sang as the adults watched with curious smiles. After an hour of soapy fun more than fifty kids had been cleaned. We then held up mirrors for the children to see themselves all clean.

The Doctors and the rest of the team were eager to get to their families for Diwali celebrations so we shook hands and said our goodbyes.

Cara and I hopped on our motorbike to head back to the Nehru Public School, surrounded by fifty new friends and our pockets full of thank yous. Everybody was waving, smiling from ear to ear. The children chased our motorbike as we rode away.

Once back at Nehru, over chai and samosas, we discussed how the day went. Priety’s team was very happy and proud of what was achieved in one day.  The first camp was a success.

Dirty Wall Project spent 5000 INR ($113 CAD) for the expenses of the Health and Hygiene Camp.

• Doctors were 2000 INR. ($44 CAD)
• Tanker of water plus driver and tractor 500 INR. ($11CAD)
• The remaining 2500 INR (55$ CAD) was spent on medicines and the set up.

It’s truly amazing how far money can go and the people I am able to reach even with a little money. Never in my life has it been so apparent that one person can make a difference.

Dirty Wall Project donated a further 7000 INR ($160 CAD) to Priety’s team to hold two more health camps in the coming weeks.

Thank you,

Kane Ryan

&

Cara Christie

dirtywallproject@gmail.com

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October 14, 2009, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Cara Christie has joined me in India. Cara is a friend of mine who raised funds for the Dirty Wall Project in Sydney, Australia. Through Cara’s involvement the Dirty Wall Project was introduced to Jaimila Hitesh and her husband Dr. Hitesh Gupta in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Dr. Hitesh Gupta and Jaimila Hitesh had an extraordinary dream. After working several years in the public health sector, they quit and founded Vatsalya. Vatsalya is a Jaipur based NGO working for the rehabilitation of orphaned and abandoned children and community development.

Vatsalya’s crown jewel is Udayan, a children’s village 35 kms from Jaipur. The children’s village sits on a few acres of farmland reached by a rutted dirt road off the main highway. Children who are orphaned, abandoned, runaways and those from dire situations find their lost childhood here and a chance of a brighter future.

Inside the village there are several single level buildings that house schoolrooms, a kitchen, dining halls and dormitories. In between are cricket pitches, playgrounds and ample space in which to play. Currently Udayan survives on donations from overseas and locally, but is striving for self-sufficiency. Udayan’s water source comes from ground water. Farming and raising livestock help to reduce costs and environmental impact.

One of Vatsalya’s new projects is organizing poor rural women and training them in making handmade products of semiprecious stones, traditional sarees and other handicrafts. This project is also breaking caste barriers and the traditional role of women. The first official store opened two weeks ago near the Amber Fort in Jaipur. This is a big step forward in creating income for rural women and Udayan.

This is also where Cara Christie and the Dirty Wall Project have become involved. Through contacts in Australia, we are planning on promoting and distributing the women’s jewelry. Cara has been working with the women on new designs and new projects geared towards the Australian market. In the coming months we hope to have a channel set up where the Dirty Wall Project will sponsor the sending of packages overseas where Cara will then distribute them to retail locations in Australia. We hope to secure a lasting relationship between the rural women of Rajasthan who make jewelry and other products and the Dirty Wall Project.

Cara and I are also staying here in Udayan. The most frustrating and greatest part of being here is the freedom for the volunteers. We have free reign to observe or participate in anything that goes on. This sounds great, but can also leave us wondering where to help. Language does build some barriers but both Cara and I have found different ways around the this problem. I have had the opportunity to play endless amounts of sports with the children. We play cricket in the mornings and I have been busy gardening and keeping the village tidy. Cara has enjoyed one-on-one time with the children and she has helped in the classrooms. Together we have helped clean the property in preparation for Diwali, the festival of light.

It’s hard to believe, when you watch the children playing and interacting with each other with such ease, what atrocities they have not only seen, but also lived through. In saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul there are definite flashes of deep pain that those big beautiful smiles cannot hide. The children have come from such extreme circumstances and we think it’s important to understand where they come from.

These stories are just a few of the 56 children currently in Udayan.

Sangita was barely five years old when she was found living under the steps of a famous temple in Jaipur. During the day she begged for sweets from vendors, devotees and tourists to feed herself. At night her life changed dramatically. The “babas”, rickshaw pullers and other beggars in the vicinity were regularly sexually abusing her. Under the guise of protecting her these men taught her to “play” sex with them. Being five years old and living on the street, she soon learned how to use the sex games as a means to survive. Sangita has now lived at Udayan for 5 years and although she has grown to learn what is right and wrong, she is still learning to trust.

Sohan was four years old when he was found living alone in the woods around Udayan. With jackals and other animals in the area it’s amazing that a child of four could survive in the woods. His mother had died and his father is a drunkard that would beat him when he asked for food. He decided to run away. Sohan claims his uncle killed his mother. She was beaten and thrown down a well in front of him. The uncle’s story and the “official” story speak of suicide. When Sohan first came to live at the village his dream was to become a “goonda” (meaning villain) so that he could kill his uncle. Now he wants to become a police officer so that he can put men like his uncle in prison. This is the life mission of Sohan who is now nine.

Maheshi is fifteen and lived with his parents in Ajmer. His father died and he had to leave school to help the family survive by farming and working with cattle. One day he heard a scream in the field and went to look. He found a man molesting a young girl. The man turned around, captured Maheshi and threatened to kill him. Protecting himself he struck the man and the man died instantly. The relatives of the dead man burned Maheshi’s family home to the ground and forced his mother to leave the village. Maheshi was then charged with raping the young girl.

The stories are endless and varied but all speak of unthinkable things done to those that need protection the most…children.

The Dirty Wall Project has donated 10,000 INR ($230 CAD) to help with the day-to-day costs of operating Udayan. Vatsalya also has several other short-term programs focused on enhancing the health and social status of the people living in rural communities as well as people of low economic status all over Rajasthan. DWP is currently working with Vatsalya on two of these projects, which will be announced shortly.

Kane Ryan

&

Cara Christie.

dirtywallproject@gmail.com

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