The famous quote by Helen Keller reads, ‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much’’ stands very apt with respect to Asha’s work in the slums of Delhi. Thirty years back when Dr Kiran Martin witnessed the pathetic living conditions in the slums, she realized that there was a great need of a collective action to bring about the long-term sustainable changes in the lives of these people.
While treading the path, Asha found friends and supporters from across the globe who believed in this noteworthy cause.
One such supporter worth mentioning is Methodist College Belfast from Northern Ireland with whom Asha shares an association of almost two decades. Every eighteen months, a volunteer team of teachers and students visits Asha’s Kalkaji slum community to conduct a range of activities.
While children of Kalkaji community love every bit of their interactions with the teams, learning and experiencing new things, the teams have formed an everlasting bond with the members of this community. They have witnessed first-hand the challenges children and student living in slums face on a day-to-day basis which has inspired them to do things out of the box for a better future of the children of this slum.
The thoughtful Methodist teams have gone beyond their usual volunteering work and initiated changes that would help the children and students reach their potential. One such example of it is their initiative to introduce desktops in the Kalkaji centre over sixteen years ago. Keeping in mind the overall development of the slum children, they made sure that the children of Asha have access to computer knowledge in this fast-changing technological world. This has helped to quench the knowledge thirst of all our talented and enthusiastic bunch of children who wish to delve into the intricacies of education.
Their commitment to this cause shows in the way they have upgraded this initiative by donating brand new laptops this year to our Kalkaji centre. Our youngsters were ecstatic to receive them and are making full use of these wonderful gifts.
Asha is grateful to the Methodist College for their commitment and support towards Asha’s cause and hopes that through their noble work they continue to inspire people around them.
