Wicklow teenager reports on her trip to Mayapuri on local radio

On the Morning Show on East Coast FM this week, Ella Wedderburn talked about her trip with us with ASHA to Mayapuri slum - you can listen by clicking here

Some final images from our visit to Mayapuri slum in Delhi

Our time at the Mayapuri slum has come to an end. We could talk for many hours about our experiences there, but perhaps the most digestible way of passing on our story is to show a few photos with captions. To see any photo in more detail, just double click on it.

What have we learned? Perhaps the best way of summarising that is to list the ten ASHA values that underpin everything that this wonderful charity does:

1. Gratitude
2. Generosity
3. Compassion
4. Non-violence
5. Simplicity
6. Justice
7. Empowerment
8. Joy
9. Dignity
10. Optimism

The team from Greystones with some of their new friends outside the ASHA community centre

In front of the mural that we painted in the children's meeting room

Amar, the computer teacher, ASHA staff Videa and Thresi,with Gwen Montgomery 

Ella with new friends

Linzi with new friends

Linzi with Deepak, an ASHA university student who was our translator for the week

Rachel tying a friendship bracelet around a child's wrist

A final gathering in the ASHA centre before we said goodbye

Pete giving a presentation on rabies to Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) from two slums

Emma with one of her favourites

Ella wants to bring her home

One of the crafts sessions with the children

Emma helping a younger one make a crown

Decorating the centre with bunting that we'd brought out with us

Fixing and updating ASHA's bank of online computers for their young people

The CHV's made lunch for us on our last day

The ASHA mother-and-baby clinic in the Mayapuri slum

The ASHA staff who run the mother-and-baby clinic in Mayapuri

Joanna and Joyce with Rani and Thresi from ASHA at the mother and baby clinic

Thanks to ASHA, the Mayapuri babies are in good health

Each baby is regularly weighed to keep their growth chart up to date

After vaccinations, babies are sent home with a dose of anti-pyretic and a multivitamin tonic

Babies often have dark eyeliner, created with khola

Nobody likes having an injection

Apprayma giving a BCG vaccination

ASHA staff give health education classes to local women

Flash cards are used to give clear messages to the mothers

A selection of photos as we near the end of our visit to Mayapuri

Another day in Mayapuri slum

The Greystones team of niine volunteers are just back in from another busy day at the ASHA community centre in the Mayapuri slum..... the routine of painting in the mornings then engaging with the children in the afternoons continues..... the captions under each picture explain what's going on in each one.

Some of the Greystones volunteers - Linzi, Ella, Joanna, Rachel, Emma and Joyce - with ASHA children

This little girl does not attend ASHA - she's expected to work, and she has a magnet on a stick that she uses to rake through rubbish, trying to collect metal to sell. Children like her are allowed into the ASHA yard, where they play with everyone who's there, but their parents can't afford for them not to work, so they can't go to school 

These school children are regular attendees of the ASHA after-school classes

She's a non-ASHA girl who loves to dance... 

The express train travels at speed, just a few feet away from children playing

The "main street" of the slum is right on the railway tracks

This girl lives in a one room home with her family of six - she's proud of her school book

Here's Joanna, with two new friends

This lady had both her legs severed by the train when she was 8 years old

This dog had one back leg severed by the train and somehow survived with no veterinary intervention. There must be many deaths of humans and animals caused by the proximity of the trains

This is Pooja and her adoptive father. She is named after the Pooja Express, one of the fast trains that travels on these tracks. She was found on the rail tracks as a newborn baby who had been flushed down the train toilet. As a baby girlm she was not wanted. She somehow survived, and this man and his wife took her on, despite the fact that they could not afford her. ASHA has helped them financially and she's growing up as a bright, friendly girl.

Pooja - one of ASHA's miracles

Thick mud due to broken drains on the way into the slum

Pete is carrying out a survey into street dogs and rabies while hes here

The room painting is coming on well 

Meanwhile ASHA's community health work continues - this lady is having an antenatal blood pressure check

ASHA's computer classroom is one of the rooms that we don't need to decorate - it already looks good