Dirty Wall Project

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Victoria B.C., Canada, July 2010

Between Two Worlds

After four months of hard work in the slums of Mumbai, India, I have arrived home, slightly tired, but very excited about re-connecting with family and friends and raising funds and awareness for DWP. The toughest part of being back at home is trying to explain how my trip was and how to sum up months of work in a slum in India. India is tough to describe for anyone.  Indian friends describe it best when they tell me, “anything you say about India, the opposite is equally true.” Or, “we live in a country of extreme contradictions”.

That  is how my trip was.  Confusing, amazing, frustrating, stressful, enlightening, sad and happy! DWP puts me in some very interesting and difficult situations, ones that I don’t always feel I belong in. But, I’m a human being and that is what this type of work demands. It’s about creating relationships with people and actually caring. Knocking down the walls of formality and listening to what people need. I know I will not always be in a position to help, but there is a lot to be said for just being interested in another human being’s struggle. DWP is a crazy adventure with no definitive direction other than to help people less fortunate than myself.

I run DWP in India, not like an organization, but as a person just trying to help. I have faced criticism for not going bigger and being more structured like other charitable organizations, but this is exactly why DWP works. One of my greatest accomplishments is that 90% of the people DWP helps in India have no idea that I am a charitable organization.  They just think I’m an eccentric white guy who enjoys learning about them and living in their culture, and who has money to help. Maybe they’re right and I’m OK with that.

DWP is small which enables me to help where other larger charity organizations can’t or don’t want to.  My mandate to” see a need and fill it ” enables me to meet people in need in various situations and to act immediately, without the need to call a board meeting or file paperwork. Whether it is a community or one person who needs help, I am able to give them help that day, on the spot, right now.

Less than a year ago, I travelled just to travel, to see other cultures and to see the possibilities the world had to offer.

Creating DWP has allowed me to change from a witness to someone with the ability to change, however small, the daily struggles of the poor. This is not rocket science and I started DWP with just the eagerness to get dirty and the ambition and energy to keep going.  What I want people to take from from DWP is that “you” can do this too. You just have to start.

This was my second working trip this year and I’m now just beginning my third fundraising drive. When DWP was just an idea, I received support from friends and strangers in my home city of Victoria, B.C. I was able to leave for India with $4000 of donors hard earned money with my promise to ‘see a need and fill it”.  I had no idea how I was going to make this happen but I knew I had too. Fast forward 10 months, DWP has been to India twice, helping thousands of people from Maharashtra to Rajasthan.

DWP and I survived the “not knowing” stage and I am now onto a very exciting future as a non-profit. The beautiful part of this whole adventure is that it is forever challenging and evolving, and 10 years from now things will still be changing. I really enjoy straddling two worlds and being the personal connection between countries and cultures. DWP’s work in India is incredibly challenging and one that demands an 80 work hour week, juggling field work and computer work, keeping the connection going between supporters and the community they’re helping.

Years of travel have made slipping into these two distinctly different worlds easier but never completely comfortable. As a Canadian, I’m always aware of how lucky I am to have been born in a free, democratic country with a high standard of living.  I do feel we can always assist those in the world who were not born in a developed country and struggle to make a meagre living. There are many ways to help and it doesn’t always mean giving up a comfortable life and paid work to live in a slum in India. Since starting DWP, people from around the world have offered donations, their time or their expertise in some way to help DWP fulfill the needs of the people I meet.  Every newspaper in the world is filled with stories about sadness, hate and oppression, but if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that the human spirit is amazing. Most people want to help one another and I’m forever being humbled by both the people who DWP helps and the people that make it possible.

So, to everyone who reads this blog and follows DWP’s adventures, I thank you, because without your help and support none of it would be possible.

Sincerely,

Kane Ryan

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July 2010, Munich, Germany

After an emotional departure from Mumbai, Dirty Wall Project was enroute to Munich, Germany to kick-start the fundraising drive.

Several months ago I was contacted by an old friend, Sammy Camas who I met 3 years ago in southern Argentina in the small mountain town of Bariloche.

Sammy lives in Munich, Germany and has been following DWP’s progress in India and wanted to help in any way he could. After a month or two of exchanging emails and badly connected phone calls, Sammy offered an exhibition of DWP’s photos to help raise awareness and funds to a new audience in Germany. While Sammy began spreading the word about DWP in Munich, my parents (Cindy & Todd Ryan) were busy framing new photographs for the exhibition while I was in a fierce battle with the BMC in the Saki Naka slum, trying to get permission to build a school in the community. Fast forward 2 months and the school is built, the framed photographs are in Germany and Sammy had organized a venue for the exhibition.

Arriving in Munich at six in the morning, walking through the sleek, shiny and modern airport which seemed deserted and ghostlike compared to the scene I had left only eight hours before, I couldn’t help but feel out of place.  All this changed when I saw Sammy walking towards me with a smile on his face. With hand shakes and hugs finished, we were on the train, speeding through the beautiful, lush, green countryside towards Munich.

Off the train and onto a beautifully restored racing bike of Sammy’s, we began cruising the quiet streets of Munich. After four hectic months working and commuting across Mumbai, even a busy city like Munich feels as though it is deserted. There’s no horns or cows to dodge, you just glide down the incredibly clean streets uninterrupted.

The exhibition was to be held at the cafe Hausmunik in Munich’s Rosenheimer Platz area.This funky urban cafe is run by two men, Wolfgang and Laufie. The cafe serves great coffee and has old and new vinyl records, plus beautiful creative shirts and merchandise made by independent designers from all over Munich, and now Canada. All of the groundwork and organizing for this exhibition has been done by Sammy, his lovely girlfriend Suzy, and a talented graphic designer Kirsten Langsdorf (www.kirsten-langsdorf.com). I was introduced to Wolfgang and Laufie, shown the space and given free reign to hang  DWP’s pictures. Besides the framed photographs and DWP collage pieces, Sammy, Suzy and Kirsten had been busy  producing t-shirts, bags and fliers for the opening on July 3rd.

A beautiful poster designed by Kirsten had been taped to windows in all over Munich, handed out in beer gardens and floated around the Universities in the city. It was amazing to see that people already knew about DWP’s endeavors  in Germany. T-shirts had been printed in several designs and colors in both men and women’s styles, along with cloth shopping bags. It was great to see the DWP logo in colour, and I’m excited to use the DWP image in some new and creative ways to help DWP raise funds and awareness.

The exhibition was set for July 3rd and there were several other events we had to compete with on that day. First and foremost was the German advance to the semifinal against Argentina in the World Cup. Football had completely taken over the city, black, gold and red flags hung from doorways, draped around necks and flew from speeding cars. The scene wasn’t complete  without the annoying vuvuzela beng trumpeted by spirited Germans covered in face paint. Second, was the beautiful and extremely hot weather Munich was experiencing, making a dip in the refreshing Eiser river a must for anyone with time, and even those without.

Suzy and her Swiss friend Tess, began the morning by cooking steaming pots of vegetable curry from the recipes gathered from the Saki Naka slum community.  Arriving at Hausmunik, Sammy and I set up the t-shirts, bags and photos and anxiously awaited interested people. Slowly but surely, people began to arrive  and wandered about with plates of curry and discussed DWP’s adventures. It was interesting to hear about DWP in the German language and sometimes I have to pinch myself  when I see people so interested in what DWP is doing. Despite football fever and the heat wave, over 50 people wandered through the exhibition throughout the day. For me, these days aren’t always about bringing in as much cash as possible but about spreading the word on what DWP is all about and what we’re trying to do in developing countries. Sammy was the man behind all of this and he could be heard speaking of DWP in German throughout the day. By 4 p.m. the television was turned on and the sound of vuvuzelas could be heard through the streets and on every available T.V. in Munich as the anticipation of the the day’s match grew to a feverous pitch.

During the match, I sat near the back of the room and watched as German adjectives were yelled at the T.V. As I looked at the walls of the cafe covered with photographs of DWP’s time in India, people milled about wearing DWP shirts and DWP bags hung over shoulders and sat beneath chairs I couldn’t help but smile. DWP was nothing but an idea in my head less than a year ago and to hear people speaking of it in a different language on the other side of the world is amazing and incredibly exciting for me.

The support for DWP over the last few months has been incredible and events like these inspire me and keep me energized to keep working. I want DWP to be an organization that anyone can feel that they can help. DWP relies on the help of others to continue to help people in difficult situations. I love being the personal connection between a slum in India and a community in Munich, Germany.  I want to pass on my most sincere thank you’s to Sammy, Suzy, Kirsten, Wolfgang and Laufie for their help in raising awarness and funds for DWP in Munich. Sammy has worked hard for DWP for months and it’s through his dedication and perseverence to DWP’s cause that this event was at all possible. It’s his belief in me and how he told DWP’s story to others that  brought DWP into the lives of many people in Germany.

My week in Munich served not only to help DWP but  to energize me as well. The last few months in Mumbai have been extremely stressful and this side trip has been like a mini vacation for me. Sammy and his friends welcomed me into their lives and I was able to feel at home immediately and I am cherishing the little time I spent in Munich.

There is nothing like flying into Vancouver, seeing the the snow covered mountains stained a beautiful orange from the setting sun, then the Pacific Ocean comes into view as the airplane passes over beautiful tree covered islands and beautiful B.C. welcomes me home. DWP has been a crazy adventure so far and I am so thankful that DWP allows me the chance to meet so many people. For all the discomfort and emotion that DWP encounters  while doing this type of work, there is also so much good in the world that it enables me to be a part of. People like Sammy and all the others who helped me here in Munich, all getting together to help strangers on the other side of the world is amazing…

Sincerely,

Kane Ryan

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