21st May, 2010

JILL CAVENAGH

I am amazed when I hear about communities that are being transformed; the positive changes and progress made among challenges and hardships. It is difficult to imagine what it’s really like until you see, hear, smell and touch it first hand. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to three cities in India to see how the world is being changed, one person and one community at a time.

Under a partnership between World Vision Australia and the Black Stump Music Festival (held on the October long weekend each year in Sydney), I was one of 14 people from the Australian east coast who went on the trip. I was blown away by the commitment and dedication that it takes to create a sustainable change in communities. Issues which plague the areas I visited are wide and varied, ranging from lack of access to housing, jobs and health care to community attitudes to education, child labour, the family unit and the importance of proper nutrition.

Development itself provides challenges and results can be measured in different ways, some tangible and others not. Positive changes to communities such as water tanks and pumps, school buildings, healthcare facilities and access to sanitation can be easily quantified, however it is often the intangible transformation that is perhaps more powerful and empowering to those involved.

My previous travel experience had only taken me as far as holiday destinations in the Western world, leaving me to rely on group training and discussion for any clue on how I was going to be prepared for the culture shock which awaited when I stepped off the plane in 40 degree heat.

After spending some time in the nation’s capital New Delhi, acclimatising and visiting some of the projects World Vision is running there, we travelled south-east approximately 400 kilometres by plane and bus arriving in the city of Kanpur. In comparison to the capital, which has an official population of 12 million, Kanpur is considered a “small” city, having an official population of four million (although it's actually believed to be approximately eight million due to seasonal migration). Kanpur is not a major tourist destination due to its industrial origins, particularly leather, textiles and steel milling and lies close to the holiest river in the Hindu religion, the Ganges.

World Vision India aims to reach all people in need, regardless of race, religion or caste and achieves that in a way that is community based and people focused. It was here, in the northern area of Kanpur, where we visited a project which is addressing the issue of child labour in this community. There are no other NGO’s currently working in this region of the city as it has been identified as a ‘difficult’ area due to the living conditions and because some extremist religious groups are located there.

The reason we had travelled to Kanpur was to visit a project which helps children aged five and above who were previously in a child labour situation - be it in farming, textiles, handicrafts or leather tanneries. This project works on the basis of building relationships with people in the community in order to change community attitudes towards the need of education for children, as opposed to them being viewed as “another pair of hands to work”.

Prior to coming to India, I had never before considered that parents wouldn’t send their children to school. It seems so foreign when you are from a country which values education so highly, seeing it as the key to a brighter future for the country as a whole. The reason it has been so successful is due to the local people desiring change and working with World Vision who provide teacher training and resources. Despite cultural and religious differences, people work together because they believe that these children are important and deserve an education as a part of growing up.

This project acts as a ‘transition’ school, effectively transitioning children from a completely unschooled background and catching them up to where they should be for their age. It was amazing meeting the kids who were all at different stages in their journey, some only having joined the school recently while others had gone on to be enrolled in the local government schools which is a significant achievement considering the place they had come from.

Projects like these not only allow children to be educated but also give them a sense of being valued and empowered within the wider community. It gives them options and choices, rather than being bound to the occupations of their parents, which I found to be the most inspiring aspect of this project visit. To see these kids with such a zest for life even though they have come from painful and difficult circumstances beyond my own comprehension was truly moving.

As Christians, we are called to love God with all our heart, soul and mind whilst also loving our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22: 37-39). Our neighbours extend far beyond the geographical boundaries and include all of our brothers and sisters living overseas in these circumstances. Using the amazing resources we have generously, we should be looking for ways to serve these people who are surviving in such difficult situations and supporting organisations which can and do make things happen. It’s worth it and things are changing, but it requires a commitment on our behalf.

Sponsoring a child and participating in World Vision's 40 Hour Famine are great ways to make a difference to the lives of our brothers and sisters living in extreme poverty. For more information about the 40 Hour Famine, held on 20th to 22nd August, 2010, visit www.worldvision.com.au

The Black Stump Music Festival is a Christian teaching, music and arts festival held in Sydney each year on the October long weekend. For more information about the 2010 festival, ‘Four days closer to forever’, visit www.blackstump.org.au.

Jill Cavenagh is a radiation therapist at Wollongong Hospital Cancer Care Centre and also teaches swimming some Saturdays at an organisation called Special Olympics. She attends St John's Anglican in Beecroft, Sydney.

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