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

In Delhi: first day working in the slum community centre

Mayapuri slum, where we are based, is immediately beside the main railway line heading west out of Delhi 

After a little time to adjust and familiarise ourselves with our surroundings, and to get to know our hosts, we started our formal schedule this morning.

There are three aspects to our work:

First, we spend the mornings working in the ASHA community centre: it has become a little run down in recent years, and the walls need to be painted: to add a note of extra brightness, we are painting a mural of Noah's Ark in the children's room. You can see the photos below.

Second, in the afternoons, we spend time teaching children - both specifically teaching them English, and also doing crafts activities. Today we made face masks with them, decorated with feathers, stickers, fake jewels etc. Again, a few pics below.

And third, we just interact with folk here. Our presence makes them feel less like "forgotten people", and they enjoy talking with us, playing with us and  just being together. It is difficult to explain the value of this - you really need to be here to understand.

One of us - Pete - is also doing a specific project - carrying out a questionnaire survey of street dogs and rabies here. You can read his separate blogs on this by clicking here.

It's busy - the days fly in - and it's an intense experience. More later!

Joyce getting started

Ella drawing around the notice board 

Mike, Emma and Gwen drawing the outline of Noah and his Ark

Linzi painting ducks

Joyce's tree is taking shape

One of the clinic walls that needs redecorated

Joanne and her English class

Rachel and Joyce teaching crafts

Mike has stripped back the wall already

A few of the many street dogs in the slum

We've arrived in Delhi: an update of the background to ASHA

You can read plenty more about ASHA elsewhere, but to help readers of this blog briefly understand the background, here's a brief summary of the charity that we're volunteering for. The Greystones group of volunteers is pictured below with Dr Kira Martin, the founder of the organisation.

The story is an inspiring tale: Dr Martin, was sent to the slums to treat an outbreak of cholera back in 1988, as a young paediatrician. She set up a treatment table under the shade of a tree in the slum, and she soon realised that much more help was needed than just medical care. She noticed that the women were not allowed out and about: they stayed indoors, while the men went to work. She decided to meet some of these women, and then she set about empowering them as active members of their community. She chose several women from each laneway, and they had to check in on all the other families along their street every day, and then to report any problems to ASHA. She taught these “lane volunteers” about basic health care and diet, and they then went on to educate the other women in their area. The lane volunteers began meet regularly as a group called the “Mahila Mandal”(Women's Association), which over time became a recognised voice speaking on behalf of the slum residents, negotiating with the slum lord (the de facto boss of the slums) and government officials, working to improve intrastructure such as drains, power and road surfaces.

Dr Martin also realised that finances were a challenge for slum dwellers, so she negotiated with local banks to allow them to open “zero” bank accounts without the usual need for identification, utility bills, credit record etc. This allowed the women to save in small amounts, and to take out loans and to set up small businesses: the “lane volunteers” kept an eye on repayment schedules to ensure that people didn't fall behind, and to date, the repayment record of ASHA loans is dramatically better than the national average in India.

Dr Martin could also see that slum dwellers saw no possibility of ever escaping their circumstances: to change that, she started to set up educational support schemes for the children in the slum. The Indian government does offer free primary school education nearby, but ASHA follows this up with homework-club type post-school classes, as well as supporting them financially through secondary school, and in recent years, even through university. Thanks to ASHA, since 2008, 600 slum children have passed through university, and many are now working in white-collar jobs – a situation that was previously unimaginable.

Dr Martin started in one slum, but was so successful that ASHA now runs similar schemes in 55 slum colonies, serving 400000 people (around 10% of the total slum population in Delhi.) The organisation is ambitious and successful, with the focussed aim of bringing about lasting improvements in the lives of slum dwellers.

We've now arrived in Delhi and are settled in: watch this space for regular blogs about how we get on.

The team from Greystones has arrived in Delhi

We left Bray at 8am Friday morning..... It was 8am Sunday morning by the time we reassembled as a team in Delhi. A long 48 hours.
Our planned flight on Friday was cancelled so we had to reschedule.... For 5 of us, that meant flying to Istanbul on Friday, staying in a hotel overnight,  spending Saturday touring Istanbul, then leaving on Saturday evening on a flight to Delhi. For one lucky individual, the route was shorter and sweeter - there was just one seat left direct to Delhi on Friday, and it included a free upgrade to first class. Such a shame they didn't have 5 more seats!
So today was acclimatisation to India..... Snoozing till lunchtime, then a tuktuk across town to buy appropriate Indian style dress for the girls and ladies in our group. And then a team meeting, with all nine of us, followed by dinner in a New Delhi eatery.
We took time out for a live Skype conversation with Greystones Presbyterian church during their Sunday service, saying thanks to all who have supported this trip.
We are up early tomorrow morning to head to ASHA headquarters and then on to the slum for our first day of activities......

Rabies in Delhi slums - one of our projects with ASHA

Rabies is a global problem that causes the deaths of thousands of people and dogs. In India alone, every two seconds someone is bitten by a dog, around 24 people a day suffer an excruciating death from rabies:over half of them are children. India is the country with the biggest rabies problem, with 20000 people dying every year. So-called "street dogs" are part of the urban culture. They play an important role in the ecosystem by helping to deal with garbage: in areas where dogs have been forcibly removed, the urban rat population has become a major problem. But street dogs also carry rabies. Pete Wedderburn, also known as "Pete the Vet" in Ireland, is travelling out to India next week with the Irish contingent to visit ASHA. He will be visiting the Mayapuri slum in Delhi. His aim is to carry out a dog census and rabies review of the area, using observation and a questionnaire. We hope that his efforts may be the first step to dogs in the Mayapuri slum eventually being vaccinated, and in due course, when a boy or girl is bitten by a dog, they will not be infected with rabies. That one child may seem insignificant in the statistics, but to them, the difference will be massive. And if other people take action to help to work towards the eradication of rabies in India, tens of thousands of other children will also be protected against this terrible disease. If you want to support Pete's work in this, click on the donate button on the top right of this page