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OSI - India |
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Pune Program - Photos - Events - Our Personnel - The Community - Geography
In "Janata
Vasahat," an impoverished slum in Pune in central India, OSI sponsorship
provides a better present and a more promising future for girls,
with a focus
on fostering their education to improve their future prospects and
remove them from the cycle of abuse and neglect
In the "Janata
Vasahat" slum of Pune,
as in many parts of India, girls and young women from the lowest levels of
society have little or no educational or vocational opportunities.
Financial straits force children out of school and into labor at an early age, and their
lack of prospects means that girls are married prematurely, often without
choice, becoming virtual slaves to their circumstances, if not to their
new family. Severe abuse, bride-burning,
Since
1993, a local resident of Pune, Minal Dani, has worked
tirelessly to change the plight of girls and young women in the Pune
slums. With minimal funding or support, Minal
has been inexhaustible in her efforts to engage volunteers and resources
to provide counseling, education & tutoring, vocational training, legal
assistance, and general advocacy for girls in the Pune slums, to improve
their prospects and alter their destinies.
OSI sponsorship has taken Minal's concept a
quantum-leap forward by providing a consistent and substantial means of
support for many individual girls in the community.
With a focus on education, OSI-Pune works directly with the children and
their families to keep the younger children in school, to re-enroll the
older children, or to
Most of our smiling Pune children...
Gathering for our weekly Saturday meeting and lunch in the little
temple grounds of Janata Vasahat...
A favourite hobby
for most of us, which brings us happiness...
A day out for us at Sanskruti Culture Park
Our Neighborhood (see "The Community" below for
description) Ancient Parvati Temple on top, with a sliver of our Janata
Vasahat community visible at the bottom
As viewed from the temple atop Parvati Hill, Pune city in the
background...
Running along the canal, at the bottom of Janata Vasahat...
Looking up at Janata Vasahat from the main road
View of Pune City from the upper part of the neighborhood...
Scene from one of Janata Vasahat's many narrow alleyways
Pooja D. shows us her neighborhood...
Pooja D. and family near their home...
Our Homes
Sonu's home is typical, -one small room, masonry construction,
registered with the municipality...
Built in desperation with scraps of tin on a rare open spot,
unregistered and without any infrastructure (electricity, water,
sanitation) Satyawa's family invites us to their home
Satyawa's family in their one-room home...
Seated on the floor in
our home...
Shabana and Mother...
Events
- Special events and excursions
provided for our Pune children:
Educational day trip to numerous historical and cultural sites in
Pune
Fun and educational
day-trip...
Cinema, restaurant, and a walk in the park...
Video of CCC's grand excursion for our girls
OSI Program Site
Sponsor
OSI
Program Liaison
Lynette's Blog - Read Lynette's impressions after her February 2010
visit to Pune...
Thanks also to the Edina
Community Lutheran Church Mission Endowment Fund and the Lutheran
Community Foundation for their August 2009 grant of $500 towards the operation of our
Pune program!
The "original" or "legal" homes are very simple masonry, tin-roofed
constructions of one or two rooms, registered with the Pune Municipality,
and provided with a water tap, electricity, and a "ration card" (which
provides food grains at a concession rate). However, a large number
of the homes in Janata Vasahat are "illegal" shanties, simple constructions of tin
or other materials, prone to conflicts with the municipality, and without
the infrastructure benefits of the "legal" homes. This is the result
of a growing number of migrants to the community, destitute of the means
for legal housing. The community has public toilets, though these
are highly inadequate in number.
Most men in the community work in simple skilled jobs
or as labourers, while women work mostly as domestic servants.
Employment/income is unstable and minimal, with family incomes typically
ranging between US $20 - US $120 /month. Most young children
study in the local Marathi language at the government elementary school 2-3km from Janata Vasahat.
A few of our Muslim children who have migrated from other regions study
in Urdu language schools.
Beyond elementary school, schools for the higher grades are quite distant,
and this too is a need/expense that OSI sponsorship provides for. Janata Vasahat has it's own charity-run hospital as well as private
physicians. Conversely,
desperation of many residents means that there are also some anti-social
elements in Janata Vasahat, -gang fighting, gambling, production/selling
of black-market liquor, domestic violence, early marriage, child labour,
etc.
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female infanticide, and
suicide are too often the end-result for these girls who in age are
still children. And in the best cases, their poverty and lack of
education yet provides no prospects, and assures the cycle of neglect will
continue.
provide outside tutoring for those not qualified for
school enrollment, so that they may take the proficiency exam and earn a
diploma. OSI-Pune attempts to address every barrier, from
providing financial support to free a child from labor so that she can focus
on education, to providing parental assistance for the many children with
single-parents, to group and individual classes, counseling, and tutoring
to help the children's schoolwork as well as to teach general life skills and to foster their self-esteem and general happiness level.
In addition to the educational focus, OSI sponsorship also provides for
the child's other needs, physical and emotional, -hygiene, clothing,
medical, etc., and the child's communication with their sponsor assures
that they feel truly cared about individually.
Pune
- Pune
(pronounced poo-nay) is located about 160 km southeast of Mumbai (Bombay),
in Maharashtra state. With a population of over 5 million, Pune is the 8th most populous city in
India. Pune's nine universities and many more academic institutes
provide an education that feeds the city's growing industrial and IT
sectors. Pune is important culturally as well, as the recognized
center of Murathi, the primary language in the region. Many temples and
structures outline Pune's important historical role, from ancient times to
British Raj to the struggle for Indian independence.
Pune is a hilly city, and at an elevation of 560 meters the climate is
mild.