You can give your children direction, but they must find their own way.
Anon
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Volunteer Update!
At the end of July, we had another Australian join us for volunteering. On her way to England from China (what a traveler!), May Hishmeh decided to stop into Mumbai and spend some time with our children. She had a heart of gold and was often in tears—touched by the happiness of the chidren despite their lackings.
Lense Gebre-Mariam (from the USA) was equally as enthusiastic. She was only in Mumbai for a short four weeks but she worked to make the most of it. She was extremely hard-working and gave all of herself to the children.
Gregor Preac from Slovenia arrived at the beginning of September and will be with us until the end of November.
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Hard-Working Moms
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Great news! We have many mom’s who are really making a difference in their own lives—and thus the lives of their children.
Rekha has now worked for One! For over four years. She started out without work ethic or desire to do a good job. Her sole purpose was the money; no pride in the work.
As the years have gone on, she has slowly changed -one step at a time.
Now, the school is ‘her’ school. She works on her own without any persuasion. She thinks in advance about her holidays and communicates any problems that she has. Most importantly, she has realized that she feels great about herself when she has done a job well done. Rekha is now a confident, hard-working lady with great communication and understanding—all qualities that any woman aspires toward.
Kanchan used to be called the ‘dragon lady’. She didn’t put any effort into her appearance and even less effort into her interactions with others.
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The six years that she has been involved with One! have been quite the roller coaster. Just when we thought that we got somewhere and she reached some understanding—she would step in the opposite direction.
Over the past year, this has not happened. She has finally opened herself up to positive communication and is truthful and open in her communication with Vinita to deal with problems. Her daughter Manda has been very troublesome and the way in which Kanchan dealt with the issues has been admirable.
She has moved her family into permanent slum housing, and will even be working part-time with One! As the KinderKid mom.
Congratulations, keep up your hard work and striving toward making a difference.
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Ex-Pat Ladies
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We made contact with an old friend of One!’s at the beginning of September and the results of that meeting were phenomenal. In passing, it was mentioned that we were short-handed; she passed an email to her internet group and within a week we had four volunteers that wanted to come in to volunteer...WOW!!!
Lori from Canada was the first to come in. She has an amazing amount of energy and loves organizing—oh what an asset! Lori comes in every Monday.
Our next visitor was Ari from England. She seemed excited about our project immediately and surprised us all when she said she wanted to come in daily, AWESOME! Ari is also a Karate black belt and by odd coincidence is the exact same discipline of karate as our teacher Sushma. They now teach classes to the older half of students. Ari always has a positive attitude towards everything and never hesitates to help out in whatever way is needed.
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Sally was next to join the team, and started out by volunteering on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On her second visit she brought in homemade Play-Doh and will never be allowed to walk in the school without it—the KinderKids loved it and always ask for it. Sally is very resourceful and VERY loving.
Bryonie joined the team shortly after and now volunteers Wednesdays and Thursdays. She is willing to do absolutely anything and usually ends up getting stuck with tasks nobody wants to do—but she still smiles. A fun, fantastic lady!
Thank you ladies for supporting One! and making our work on the ground that much easier for our staff and volunteers!
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