There are those rare days in life, when you come home with a guilt in your heart...the guilt of having so much in life, but still not being content whereas, there are so many people out there, with so little and yet so happy! The last Sunday was one of those days for me.
While driving down to Sarthak Seva Sangh, little did I know of what I was about to experience there. Sarthak Seva Sangh Orphanage is an initiative started by Dr. Anil Kudia to help make a difference to the lives of unfortunate street children. Some of these children are motherless and orphans and some are newborn babies who are absolutely directionless.The place currently hosts around 60 children. As a part of Mozilla's and Mile's initiative, we were to go there and teach basics of computer and internet to the kids.
When we reached there, we were welcomed by the manager of the place (sorry for not remembering his name). He took us around the entire place, showing us the current infrastructure as well as explaining us all the future plans they have for Sarthak. A new building is under construction and once thats done, Sarthak can host around 200 children under its roof. From libraries to counseling rooms, from guest rooms to computer labs, their new building is going to have them all. This will definitely be way more than just a shelter for street kids....its going to be filled with all the facilities required to turn these kids into awesome human beings of tomorrow's world.
After the quick tour, we started interacting with the kids. I was amazed when every kid introduced himself (or herself) in English...proper, correct English. We then started talking about computers. Again, it was not very surprising this time that almost all the kids knew what computers were. A few even knew to work on a computer...doing simple things like creating spreadsheets or writing documents or even painting. Next we tried explaining them what the internet is. What all things we can do on the internet and why it is such an important resource for us today. We even got two laptops out and made them do simple things like type their names on a document or do some simple painting on gimp.
These kids had so much life...so much enthusiasm...so much energy. They laughed out loud...ran across the building...played with all of us...enjoyed the treat of chocolate...as if they lacked nothing in life. Some had horrible pasts, some didn't have a family at all...but none of these could reduce the sparkle in each tiny eyes. Each of them had a dream, a dream to be a someone when they grew up. Some wanted to be a doctor, some a cricketer, some a boxer and some an engineer...but they all had dreams.
We laughed with them...we played with them...we taught them...we learnt from them...we ate with them...they brought back the kids in us and made us all relive our childhood.
Kudos to the people who put in so much effort in running the place, in taking such great care of these children. Dr. Anil is to be respected for all of these work, but one of his thought that totally shook me was when he pointed out that there was not a single religious items anywhere in the entire premise. He didn't want to give these children a religion. He wanted to create human beings. And the day these children got mature enough to judge for themselves, they could decide whether they would want to go to a temple, a church, a mosque or a gurudwara!
That evening, when I got back home, I was happy and sad at the same time. I was happy to have spent an awesome day. I was sad and guilty that I had so much in life...probably everything I could want from life and yet I had so many complaints against life...so much to be upset about. These children had so little but had no complaints at all.That day, these kids taught an important lesson of life....to LIVE!
While driving down to Sarthak Seva Sangh, little did I know of what I was about to experience there. Sarthak Seva Sangh Orphanage is an initiative started by Dr. Anil Kudia to help make a difference to the lives of unfortunate street children. Some of these children are motherless and orphans and some are newborn babies who are absolutely directionless.The place currently hosts around 60 children. As a part of Mozilla's and Mile's initiative, we were to go there and teach basics of computer and internet to the kids.
When we reached there, we were welcomed by the manager of the place (sorry for not remembering his name). He took us around the entire place, showing us the current infrastructure as well as explaining us all the future plans they have for Sarthak. A new building is under construction and once thats done, Sarthak can host around 200 children under its roof. From libraries to counseling rooms, from guest rooms to computer labs, their new building is going to have them all. This will definitely be way more than just a shelter for street kids....its going to be filled with all the facilities required to turn these kids into awesome human beings of tomorrow's world.
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| The new Sarthak building...under construction |
These kids had so much life...so much enthusiasm...so much energy. They laughed out loud...ran across the building...played with all of us...enjoyed the treat of chocolate...as if they lacked nothing in life. Some had horrible pasts, some didn't have a family at all...but none of these could reduce the sparkle in each tiny eyes. Each of them had a dream, a dream to be a someone when they grew up. Some wanted to be a doctor, some a cricketer, some a boxer and some an engineer...but they all had dreams.
We laughed with them...we played with them...we taught them...we learnt from them...we ate with them...they brought back the kids in us and made us all relive our childhood.
Kudos to the people who put in so much effort in running the place, in taking such great care of these children. Dr. Anil is to be respected for all of these work, but one of his thought that totally shook me was when he pointed out that there was not a single religious items anywhere in the entire premise. He didn't want to give these children a religion. He wanted to create human beings. And the day these children got mature enough to judge for themselves, they could decide whether they would want to go to a temple, a church, a mosque or a gurudwara!
That evening, when I got back home, I was happy and sad at the same time. I was happy to have spent an awesome day. I was sad and guilty that I had so much in life...probably everything I could want from life and yet I had so many complaints against life...so much to be upset about. These children had so little but had no complaints at all.That day, these kids taught an important lesson of life....to LIVE!
its a great intiative
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