The Importance of Thank You

There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. Denis Waitley

My grandmother, who lived next door to me as I was growing up, taught me many valuable 'life lessons'.

One of the lessons she was a stickler about was the importance of saying "Thank You".
Grandma insisted that if someone did something for you, or gave you something, it was mandatory you acknowledge their action with a "Thank You".
If you forgot to do this - you heard about it.

My children were raised with the magic words of 'Please' and 'Thank You'. The grandchildren and the One! International children have been "raised" with the same magic words.

As Canadian Coordinator in charge of keeping track of donations and volunteers, I try to remember to say "Thank You". I'm sure my grandmother would find some way of letting me know if I forgot.

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Whenever a volunteer - who has given of their time and effort to help the children learn and grow - leaves Mumbai, the children make them a 'Thank You Poster', and sign all their names on it.

Our orphans Parvati and Malesh have been blessed with One! International's help, and of individual donors such as Angelica and her family.

Before Tania left India, Malesh and Parvati gave her their "Thank Yous" to pass on.

To Angelica Didi,
How are you? I miss you. Your baby is growing! Thank You for the help you gave us. My sister is doing very good. Your support was needed to make this happen. THANK YOU! We are both well and remember you so I wrote a letter. I'd like to meet you, we'll use a computer until your next trip. How is your husband?
From,
Malesh and Parvati

To Arie Didi,
I miss you. Thank you so much for all your support. It has been many years since we met, you should come visit. Do not worry about us - we are with Didi. We live with Didi and she takes care of our food. With Tania Didi we are well.
From
Malesh and Parvati

To Tania Didi,
I will miss you. Please do not worry about us. We are here and will be fine. Please take care of yourself and get better. When you are back it will be great - until then I'll wait. Be careful on your trip. Come on the computer so we can talk! You have given us so much - for living, for eating, - and for that I want to thank you. You have helped us so much. I will pray to God that your knee gets better. Say thanks to your mom and dad for us.
From
Malesh and Parvati

There really isn't anything else that needs saying.

One of My Favourite Recipes - Pakoras

Pakoras - Deep fried vegetable fritters

Ingredients:

3 cups besan
3 potatoes - chopped small
Handful baby spinach - roughly chopped
1 tablespoon red chilli powder
1 tablespoon cumin powder
2 tablespoons freshly chopped ginger or 1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon salt
Handful roughly chopped coriander leaves

In a bowl mix all of the above to make a thick batter.
Heat 4 cups of oil (canola or olive for less fat) in a small wok or frying pan.
Drop 1 heaped teaspoon of batter at a time into the oil.
Deap-fry in batches of 8 pakoras until they are brown all over.
Remove and drain on paper towels.
Serve hot with coriander chutney.
These taste good even without chutney.



Coriander Chutney

Ingredients:
1 bunch of coriander leaves
2 medium sized tomatoes
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3 green chillies roughly chopped
Salt to taste
Black pepper
Juice of half a lime

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender or a food processor.
If you want a milder chutney, stir in 2 tablespoons plain yogurt.

"Very Special" Children

Part A

Social Services of any type are limited in India - a country with the population of over 1.5 billion people.

Services for our One! families are even more limited as the large majority of them do not have any identification papers.
One! International gives the children a birthdate - as close as the parents can remember to the actual date - so the child can celebrate a birthday with the school community. This, of course, does not meet the official requirements.

Free early education is provided by the government - IF - official identification papers can be provided, and a uniform purchased. These requirements eliminate most of our children.

Free medical attention is provided, but hospitals for the poor are ill equiped and medicine must be purchased.

There are few services for the elderly, the abused, or the handicapped (physical or mental),for the general population. For our families they are almost non existent.

Many will remember the stories of Parvati, a young orphan who became extremely ill in the years following the death of her mother. Many will also remember how One! struggled to meet Parvati's medical needs.
Parvati would not likely be the happy healthy girl she is today without the kind and generous financial support of volunteer Anjelica and her family. This support allowed special services to be purchased for Parvati, within and outside of the medical community. We are quite sure these services saved Parvati's life.

Part B

Rohit, a 12 year old boy from Nallasoparo, is blind. He lost his sight when a young boy of about 5 years of age. He can see a little at a 2 inch distance. He has never received any "special" services for his condition.

Rohit can however learn.
He sits in classes and listens to the teachers.

Rohit has also learned discipline, and how to relate to both children and adults.

Rohit was able to go on a recent day long school trip with his class mates to a water park. Vijay Sir was his constant companion for the entire time at the park.

On the way home to the community Rohit was sitting with Vinita Didi, and told her he needed to talk to Vijay Sir. When Vinita asked him why he responded:

Vijay Sir spent the whole day with me Vinita Didi, and he helped me to have fun. I have to thank him.

Rohit was appreciative.
Vijay Sir, who over heard the conversation was proud.
Both had a great day.

One! International tries to meet the "special" needs of our "special" children as much as is possible.

VOLUNTEERS in India FANTASTIC

- but every once in awhile.......

I don’t know what One! International would do without our wonderful volunteers on both sides of the world.

All of the work done in Canada is done by volunteers. Volunteers in Canada help with a wide variety of functions, but primarily in the area of Fundraising and Marketing. Without a large group of committed people helping One! International we would not be able to put on our annual Gala which helps us raise almost ¼ of our yearly budget.

We have always had volunteers in India to help out at the two schools. Volunteers come from all over the world, for various periods of time – 2 weeks to 1 year. We have had volunteers from: UK, Australia, Holland, Sweden, Malaysia, Austria, Slovenia, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, France, Spain, Poland, India, United States and Canada – and more.

Volunteers help out at the school with: teaching, skill development, administration, sports, arts, loving “our” children, etcetera.

The international volunteer community is changing as more and more agencies are charging – in many cases – a great deal of money for the opportunity of volunteering with their organization. We are being told that many of the opportunities resemble more of a holiday with the volunteer experience being secondary.

Our philosophy has always been that if people are willing to commit to spending 8 hours a day working with “our children”, than we have some responsible for contributing to housing and food, depending on the situation.

We do not consider volunteering with One! International to be a holiday. Rather it is an opportunity to get to know a country, a city, a group of people who do not have social benefits or a way to better their circumstances. The main opportunity is to work with “slum” children, making a difference, and providing them with options for a better future.

The great majority of the volunteers we have had over the last nine years have been wonderful.
Our children in India look forward to meeting new people from all over the world who give them love and attention, and help them to learn the skills which give them more options for the future.

Many of the volunteers continue to assist One! International in their home countries by: monetary donations, connections with schools and organizations, promoting the volunteer experience, having mini fundraisers such as book drives and races, and generally giving moral support to the work being done in Mumbai.

But, every once in awhile…………

Before the volunteer goes to India we try to prepare them as best we can for the volunteer experience. We tell them that the accommodation is co-ed, and the meals that are provided are basic Indian vegetarian. We have an “always draft” volunteer manual which covers most of the things to take into account when volunteering in India. We expect that the volunteer will have done research on their own, and will not be expecting five star accommodations. After all – we are not charging them for the opportunity to work with our children.

Recently we had a volunteer from Canada who was scheduled to work with the children for one month. The individual had experience with India. After less than one week the individual declared that the “accommodation was inadequate” and left to visit family in other parts of India.

Fortunately this happens rarely.
It takes many hours to organize the volunteer requests so that – as far as it is possible – there are 4-5 volunteers to help out with the children at the schools on a regular basis. When something like this does happen, it disrupts the school schedule, limits the number of people available to work with the children; but more importantly, it means that another potential volunteer was unable to have a volunteer position at that time. The very selfish act resulted in a loss for the children, a loss for a potential volunteer who would have committed to the experience, and, of course, frustration for myself as Volunteer Coordinator.