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Shivani, our project manager, stumbled upon a 50 year old lady while doing field work in a village near Dehradun, called Rupa, who is homeless and had been living at the doorstep of various houses in her village for the last 2 years. All her worldly belongings are in the sack, which she caries on her head.
Her story is sad but the love for her village in which was married is beyond comparison. Her husband who worked in a local post office died 5 years ago and her son sold off the property and moved to Mussourie. Apparently this lady did not go with them and has since been living like this.
We tried to convince her to come with us and stay at the Saheli Shelter but she refused. She seems to be very happy staying there and also the villagers take good care of her. Last year her son had tried to take her with him, but she refuses to leave her village.
After talking to the local people we decided to leave her there and asked them to tell us if she fell ill or need some help.
We will be keeping a close eye on her.
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In an effort to raise funds for the Saheli Women's & Children's Shelter, Saheli Trust in association with Jingles India, a Dehradun based advertising company and UK07 Films, another Dehradun based film production company, organized a "Ride For Peace" along with Motorcycle Clubs in the region. The ride, in which pillion seats were for "sale" for INR 1000 each, started early morning from Dehradun and after visiting the Saheli Shelter, they went all the way to Mussorie, a hill station in the Himalayas, an hour drive away. Participants were treated to sumptuous food and a talk about Saheli in an adventure camp in the mountains. In the evening the event ended with a cultural show in Dehradun where the Saheli Movie was also shown and an interactive session on Saheli was held with the audience.
The event besides generating some funds for the shelter proved to be a good PR exercise as our Women's Helpline Number got widely disseminated among the participants and the audience and hopefully more women and children will now be able to access our help, should such a need arise.
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Of the three new cases which came to us this month, Laxmi's case was particularly disturbing. This 28 year old Nepali woman has two boys, 9 & 2 years old and she works as a domestic help in Rajpur area of Dehradun. She has a drunk husband who has not only married another lady but also insists on spending some days with her as and when he wishes and gets physically very aggressive. The ruckus he creates results in the lady's employers chucking her out and she invariably has to hunt for another house to stay and work in every few months.
Because of the frequent violence at home, her elder son shows symptoms of stress and is not good in studies. The present home where Laxmi is staying is of a retired very old Army Colonel and his wife, who live all by themselves. Not only does Laxmi's husband harass them but even the local police, who instead of acting on Laxmi's complaints of wife beating, harass her employers to chuck her out.
Laxmi's employers got in touch with us through the internet and our intervention made the difference. We warned the husband to stay away from the house where Laxmi stays and also visited the local police station to make them understand the situation. Since our two visits , the harassment has ceased.
Laxmi wants a divorce so that she can live and work peacefully and raise her two sons. Since the husband has anyways remarried, that should not be a problem. We will keep you updated on Laxmi's plight, as things unfold.
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Message from the Secretary
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Greetings from Saheli,
Continuing our campaign to enlighten as many women and children as possible on the rights guaranteed to them under the Indian Constitution, this month we visited an industrial area of Dehradun called Mohobewalla. The area is inhabited by mostly people working in the various factories in the region and is one of the most under developed parts of our city.
We tied up with a private nursery school in the area and got the parents of the students to attend. Despite being relatively well off, compared to the usual slums we visit, the level of ignorance regarding rights of women and issues connected with Domestic Violence were amazingly high. Ofcourse, many women who are very well educated, are equally unawares of their rights too.
We were lucky to have with us Melanie, a volunteer from UK, who stayed with the children in the Saheli Women's Shelter and taught them English. She is the fourth such volunteer to stay with the children and gradually, albeit slowly but definitely, the level of English in our children is increasing. Melanie stayed with us for a month and hopefully picked up a few Indian things herself.
A request i would like to make to everyone is to please forward this email to your friends and relatives, so that they could be aware of our work. More the people involved, more encouragement and ideas will we get and things would only get better. So, please do forward our newsletters to those in your address book.
Also I would like to appeal to everyone is to help us out with donations. You can "adopt" a child for Rs 3000/- per month, for as long as you like. You can stop the donations as and when you wish, no questions asked. This amount of Rs 3000/- includes Rs 800/- for studies, Rs 2000/- for food and Rs 200/- towards personal expenses. Details of ways to donate are here:
http://www.sahelitrust.com/donate.asp
Please remember, each rupee counts and please don't think that there are many "others" who will help us. Do help us yourself too. We now have 80G, so you get tax benefit too.
And finally, a big request to everyone is to please help us grow by giving us advice on the way forwards, by pointing out our mistakes and by suggesting new ideas to us. Please do not hesitate in criticizing anything you don't like. All you need to do is to reply to this newsletter. And if you live in Dehradun, or if you ever visit our city, my earnest appeal to you is to visit us. Do call me and I shall be honored to arrange a visit for you. My number is +91-9760371958.
With regards,
Shruti Kaushik,
Secretary, Saheli
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If you missed the back issues of our newsletter, please follow this link to see our past issues:
http://www.sahelitrust.com/newsletters.asp
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If you missed the back issues of our newsletter, please follow this link to see our past issues:
http://www.sahelitrust.com/newsletters.asp
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If you missed the back issues of our newsletter, please follow this link to see our past issues:
http://www.sahelitrust.com/newsletters.asp
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