In November 2008, I was asked by Saurabh Malhotra of Nijaat to help find foster homes for a group of 6-8 boys, aged between 6 and 12, from the Bindal slum.

Giriballa Juyal of Manurbhav had already started to gather the younger children for a small afternoon tutorial session as they found many of the children not attending any type of school at all. They camped on the roof of a deserted building project, fully exposed to the winds and coming winter.

They then noticed some of the children acting strangely. They called upon Nijaat to observe the children. They had been sniffing glue. More investigation showed many of these children came from backgrounds where there was parental addiction in the home. Moving these children to a safer environment was a suggestion and needed to be explored.

As head of a youth project at Latika Roy Foundation, I had been in touch with Nijaat previously to run an addiction awareness campaign with and for the children of my project. Being involved with children from an economically deprived background and aware of the issues, I was asked to help.

In turn, I spoke to G.K. Swamy of Purkal to see if we could organise fostering in smaller villages in the hills surrounding Dehradun. The logistics of this solution started to multiply and eventually we all agreed we had to find a solution within the Bindal community itself.
It is an established fact that parental and community involvement is beneficial to the stability of the developing child. We have worked towards the upliftment of the community as a whole.

As many people had pooled together to find a solution to a specific problem, we found we had a common base to work together for a larger cause.

In the year and half that we have been working in Bindal, we have faced many problems and obstacles; from caste issues, to long standing family feuds; from alcoholism to drug abuse… the list is long and varied …and challenging!

It has taken perseverance and hard work but we have created an excellent rapport with the community. It has been a privilege to work with these people. They are suspicious of outsiders and wary of empty promises.

Shaila Brijnath