Photographs of shelters for homeless can be seen at:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.325315274163369.96611.108162199212012&type=1

Keep checking for constant updates :)

"He is named Laat Sahib!"

Note: The names of all the children in this post have been changed in order to protect their identity.


Akram is very excited today. He can't stop beaming. When I ask him the reason for his happiness, he says that he has grown full one inch in the past week. "Now I am 4 feet tall!" he exclaims.
I am in Umeed Aman Ghar (Aman Biradari's) shelter for boys near Mehrauli in New Delhi. Built out of red bricks and stone, the cohesiveness of this building is not the cement that binds the bricks, but its the love and compassion between the different young boys that transforms this 'building' to a 'home'.  
As I get ready to click some pictures, everyone clamours to get in the front unless I frown and threaten not to click any, after which everyone stands erect as if having been doused with ice cold water. These children do not mind talking to a stranger, as the children from many prosperous families would, because they have been taught that the only stranger in their life is hatred and ill will.
Its another normal day out here as the children get ready to take their morning classes in English and Mathematics. But Saket, Sachin and Rahul just can't stop quibbling. Sachin is upset because he thinks that Saket and Rahul have schemed against him. When I ask whats the matter, he explains: " I was going to be the hero of our movie. But now Saket and Rahul are saying that I will not play the hero. Ye toh cheating hai!" On being asked about the details of the movie, he informs me (and adds that this information is being provided to me exclusively) that they all are planning to make a movie. "Saket will be the director and Rahul will be the producer." I ask Saket and Rahul about the same and they retort " Sachin will not be in the movie. Yesterday, all that he was doing was to shout 'Packup!' Aise movie thodi na banti hai."
Quarrels aside, they unanimously agree that they will name their movie as "MAAR DHAAD". Another round of negotiations and suggestions start for deciding the tagline.
But Rajeev seems to be quite aloof from all these plans. "I want to become a big man someday", he says in crisp and precise English, as one is almost taken aback by the intensity of determination oozing out of his eyes. "I will learn how to properly read and write and become successful in my life." I remark that his boots seem to be the cleanest of all and he smiles and says "I polished them last night!"
Nicknames abound as the children pull each others leg. Rajiv tells me that the big burly boy standing near the tree is named 'Kalicharan' and the small black one tying his laces is named 'African Babua'. Apparently 'African Babua' overhears his name and informs me that Rajiv is nick named 'Laat Sahib'.
It is bstrange that for all the misery that has been associated with their past, these children only have optimism and high hopes for their future.
"When I first came here, I did not like it. I had no manners to talk to anyone or even my elders and indulged in fights often." says 15 year old Abdul. " I used to shout a lot and throw a lot of tantrums. But gradually I begun to like the place. These people taught me how to read and write and made me clever. Above all, they taught me manners and etiquette." Naveen, who is standing nearby, retorts, "but he still doesn't talk to me properly", as we all burst out laughing.
As I prepare to leave the home, some children tug at my coat and ask, when are they getting their pictures? Ummm.....I'll try to take out a print, I assure them.

"One last question. What have you named me?"
"Bangali Baabu!"
"Bengali Baabu? But I am from Madhya Pradesh..."
"Then Diggi Raja!"

Suits me fine. :)       

Delhi Winter Campaign for the Homeless

Every winter, homeless children, women and men battle for their lives in the bitter night cold, and many die lonely deaths each year.

For many years, caring young staff and volunteers of Aman Biradari and Koshish have attempted to reach out support for dignified survival to homeless people, for whom Delhi’s fierce winter threatens those with no roof over their heads every year. Each year, we learn from the last, and try to improve our out-reach interventions for egalitarian caring.

Planned interventions this winter

1. Aman Homeless Winter Shelters:

Day-Night Shelters, Community Kitchens and Health Centers

1. We observed in past years that a big limitation of the program to distribute blankets is that homeless people have no place where they can store this the next morning, and the blanket at best serves them a single night. We experimented last winter with 2 fixed distribution points, where staff and volunteers will distribute blankets and mats free every night, and collect these again the next morning, and store it at a room nearby. We propose to augment our services by establishing day-night shelters itself in homeless concentration locations of Hazrat Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid and Yamuna Pushta.

2. Homeless people die in winter not just because they are homeless, but also often because they are poorly nourished. Research has established that people exposed to extreme cold need more calories simply to maintain their body temperature. Therefore we resolved this year to serve a hot cooked meal in the night at each of these fixed sites. Here a hot nutritious meal would go a long way in ensuring body warmth, and this coupled with blankets could effectively combat the winter deaths. Hence we propose that at the fixed distribution sites, we will also distribute a free hot cooked meal each night to the homeless from the blanket distribution site itself.

3. At these locations we will also store medicines and provide basic first aid if so required.

In summary, for the high-density homeless concentration areas of Hazrat Nizamuddin, Jama Masjid and Yamuna Pushta, we will establish 3 Aman Winter Homeless Shelters, in which staff and volunteers will provide the following services:

Ø Dignified place to sleep with blankets and mattresses provided every night

Ø Hot cooked nutritious meals

Ø Primary Health and Referral Services

2. Mobile Blanket Distribution and Health Rescue Services:

There are some scattered single homeless persons, who are the most vulnerable (including those who are mentally ill). They cannot be reached by the fixed blanket distribution points. For them, we will propose 2 mobile units. In these equipped vehicles, teams of 3 or 4 volunteers plus one staff member will travel around the city through each night, and distribute sheet and warm cover to all in need. Dr Amod Kumar and others have found that the best alternative is bubble plastic sheets, both for base and cover. These are very warm because they keep out the damp and cold, and are cheap and light. It is especially valuable as homeless people can carry these around easily during the daytime. The mobile units will also provide basic first aid if so required and also carry out rescue operations which includes taking the needy to hospitals and homeless shelters as the situation demands.

Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/pages/Aman-Biradari/108162199212012

Winter Campaign Link: http://www.facebook.com/events/188113774615396/

Aman Saathi-A volunteer programme of Aman Biradari and Centre for Equity Studies

                                            AMAN SAATHI

        Volunteers and Interns for Justice, Caring and Peace

         A volunteer programme of Aman Biradari and Centre for Equity Studies

Be the change you want to see in the world.

-          Mahatma Gandhi

-          Darkness can never drive out darkness. Only light can do that.

-          Martin Luther King Jr.

-          The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference

-          Elie Weisel

As we witness the values of equality, justice, peace and secular democracy in siege and collapse all around us, people of all ages, gender and backgrounds, especially young people,  need to join hands to defend and reclaim the dream of a more just and humane world.

                  

But young people are growing up in difficult and troubled times. There is a crumbling of political certainties, a climate vitiated by the poisonous politics of manufactured hatred, growing inequalities, and the synthetic gloss of globalised consumerist dreams.

In the bewildering cynicism of these times, there are people everywhere searching often alone for alternate ways to relate with the world around them, to understand, combat and hopefully reverse its injustice, inequality, inhumanity, despair and hatred.

It is for people like these that Aman Saathi, a programme of volunteers for peace, caring and justice, has been constructed. It seeks to draw in young people from schools and colleges, but also those excluded from educational institutions because of economic or social barriers. It includes working people, and those in search of work, retired senior citizens and home-makers. It has dispossessed and impoverished people working shoulder to shoulder with their more privileged brothers and sisters. It aims at the widest diversity of religions, faiths, gender, class, caste, language and region. It strives to help bind them closer by an active commitment to the universal values of humanism, justice, peace and truth (insaniyat, insaaf, aman, sachai).

Aman Saathis are part of a larger Aman Biradari or community of peace, bound by shared belief in the idea of a pluralist, humane, secular India and world and linked mainly by active opposition to communalism, dalit, gender and class inequities. The internships and volunteer opportunities are in the Centre for Equity Studies, which aims at public policy, law and civic action which is equitable, humane and just.               

Agenda for Aman Saathis

There can be many levels and modes of engagement of Aman Saathis in diverse issues of hunger and homelessness, exclusion and discrimination:

-          Part time but long term volunteering along with studies and work

-          Internships

-          Long term whole time engagement

-          Vacation volunteer programmes

The volunteers will select not only their specific areas of interest and time commitment, but also the preferred nature of their involvement, whether it is direct grassroots work, research, analysis or advocacy. Volunteers would be invited to consider joining the fight against homelessness, hunger, exclusion, discrimination and hate:

We offer a range of volunteer and internship activities, based on skillset and interest:

a)      Research (policy reform, right to food, communal, caste and sectarian conflict etc);

b)      Teaching and youth-care (English, computers, life skills, arts etc); and

c)      Direct community engagement (urban homeless shelters, feeding programs, conflict survivors etc).     

These are elaborated theme-wise below:

Ø  Dil Se: A campaign for responsible caring citizenship, focussed on the rights and protection of urban homeless children (in Delhi, and Hyderabad); volunteers to teach children curricular subjects, English, computers, sports, music, theatre, dancing, the arts; health care, child documentation; managing of community hostels; foster care to young children; mobilising volunteers and resources in cash or kind; working with homeless children on streets, and research and documentation.

Ø  Work with the urban homeless, for shelters, feeding programmes, health care and legal entitlements, de-addiction services, legal support to those charged with begging, and support on the streets   

Ø  Research support for policy and law reform proposals around issues such as of tribal and dalit rights, urban poverty, child rights, minorities and social protection, and bonded labour.

Ø  Participatory research and caring citizen support for the right to food and people living with hunger and social exclusion

Ø  Research support for Supreme Court Commissioners in the Right to Food case

Ø  Nyayagrah: A campaign for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of the carnage in Gujarat 2002, and with  survivors of communal pogroms and riots in Delhi (1984), Nellie (1983), and Bhagalpur (1989) and those affected by the cycles of violence in Kashmir. The work would include staying with survivors, assessing the challenges that remain for them to rebuild their lives and social relations; working with or helping establish and supporting local units for legal justice and reconciliation; internships for legal justice, research, documentation and peace building work; and long term work with these units for legal justice or reconciliation

Inviting National and International Students: In the diversity of volunteers and interns in the Aman Saathi programme, we welcome also international interns, who spend time with us for periods ranging from one month to one or two years. We welcome both Indian and international students, from universities and schools, and offer them all the opportunities of engagement with research, teaching and youth-care, and community engagement described above.

Ethical Rules: Since a great part of the work of the Centre for Equity Studies centres on direct engagement with very marginalised children, women and men, disadvantaged by hunger, homelessness, caste, communal and gender-based discrimination, the Aman Saathi programme is founded on a range of ethical rules – to ensure respectful, egalitarian, responsible and non-extractive engagement.

Aman Saathi Declaration

I believe in a country and a world in which all human beings can live with their heads held high, with peace, dignity, mutual understanding and respect, and without fear. I am convinced that every human being should enjoy equal rights in every way, regardless of whether they are women or men, which god they worship, their colour, caste, class, ability, language or region.

I am deeply disturbed by ideologies of hatred that seek to divide our people. I am anguished that amidst the abundance of wealth and weapons in our country and the world, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, disease, war, strife, discrimination and despair abound. We will counter these ideologies of hatred by understanding and celebrating, variety, difference and our plural lives, and regarding injustice to anyone as injustice to me.

I wish to join hands with people of peace everywhere in an ever-growing Aman Biradari or community of peace, and to join millions in the centuries old journey to create a more just and humane society. My active solidarity is with all democratic, non-violent struggles for justice and peace, and my active commitment is to the universal values of humanism, justice and truth (insaniyat, insaaf aur sachai).

For any further information, please contact:

Aman Saathi- A volunteer programme of Aman Biradari and Centre for Equity Studies

 105/6A ,Opp.Cafe Coffee Day,Adhchini,New Delhi-17

Email: volunteerdilse@gmail.com

Mobile: 9891121333

Aman Biradari Volunteer Protocol

Need for Volunteers in Aman Biradari

During the first week of the month, Aman Biradari will post the details of the volunteer requirements on its website, blog and will advertise the positions in colleges and institutions.

Date: 1^st – 7^th of every month

Application

Candidates who are interested can apply for the open positions throughout the month.

Application would be accepted only in the format as suggested by Aman Biradari. The template of the application can be downloaded from the following URL:

 

Date: Throughout the month

Group Discussion/Personal Interview

Shortlisted candidate would be asked to appear for a round of group discussion/Personal Interview (depending on the volume of shortlisted applicants). The schedule for this discussion/Personal Interview would be on every 2^nd Monday of the month after 2 PM.

The details of the interview schedule would be communicated to the candidate over phone or /and email.

Date: 2^nd Monday and 2^nd Tuesday of every month.

Selection Procedure

·        Candidate should show significant level of commitment and dedication for the cause of Aman Biradari in the GD/PI

·        Candidate should be aligned with the values of Aman Biradari

·        Candidates would not be preferred on the basis of cast, creed, religion and gender.

Orientation/Induction

·        Candidates selected for the volunteer program at Aman Biradari would be notified within two working days after the candidate had appeared for the GD/PI.

·        Candidate selected would be joining the program on 3^rd Monday of the month.

·        Candidates joining would undergo a Orientation/Induction process for two days

                                                                                                               

Supervisor

·        Volunteers would be paired with a supervisor to whom the volunteer would report.

·        Volunteer would escalate any problems that they face to the supervisors

·        Supervisor will provide with all the necessary arrangements to the volunteers for their work

·        Supervisor will also give monthly feedback to the volunteer about his areas of strength and areas of improvement.

·        Supervisors would  be always approachable by the volunteers

Evaluation

·        Volunteer would be evaluated monthly on the basis of work he has done and the amount of commitment he has shown.

·        Volunteers would be also evaluated on the basis of completion of task within schedule.

·        Feedback from supervisors would be considered during  evaluation

Final Feedback/Exit Interview

·        Final feedback would be provided to the volunteer at the time of completion of the volunteer program.

·        Volunteer would be required to fill an exit feedback document

·        Certificate of appreciation would be awarded to the volunteers who have successfully completed the program.

Volunteer Package

Volunteer will receive the following documents at the time of orientation:

·        Brochure

·        Latest Newsletter

·        Code of Conduct

·        Contact details of management team

·        Identity Card

Note: Volunteers who are working has to commit for 4 hours weekly for minimum duration of one year and non working volunteers has to commit 8 hours weekly for a minimum duration of one year.

Delhi Winter Campaign For the Homeless

Aman Biradari

Delhi Winter Campaign for the Homeless

Every winter, homeless children, women and men battle for their lives in the bitter night cold, and many die lonely deaths each year.

For many years, caring young staff and volunteers of Aman Biradari and Koshish have attempted to reach out support for dignified survival to homeless people, for whom Delhi’s fierce winter threatens those with no roof over their heads every year. Each year, we learn from the last, and try to improve our out-reach interventions for egalitarian caring.

Planned interventions this winter

1. Aman Homeless Winter Support Centres:

Blanket Distribution, Community Kitchens and Health Centres

1.       We observed in past years that a big limitation of the program to distribute blankets is that homeless people have no place where they can store this the next morning, and the blanket at best serves them a single night. We experimented last winter with 2 fixed distribution points, where staff and volunteers will distribute blankets and mats free every night, and collect these again the next morning, and store it at a room nearby. We propose to continue with the blanket distribution sites in homeless concentration locations of Hazrat Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid.

2.       Homeless people die in winter not just because they are homeless, but also often because they are poorly nourished. Research has established that people exposed to extreme cold need more calories simply to maintain their body temperature. Therefore we resolved this year to serve a hot cooked meal in the night at each of these fixed sites. Here a hot nutritious meal would go a long way in ensuring body warmth, and this coupled with blankets could effectively combat the winter deaths. Hence we propose that at the fixed distribution sites, we will also distribute a free hot cooked meal each night to the homeless from the blanket distribution site itself.

3.       At these locations we will also store medicines and provide basic first aid if so required.

In summary, we will establish for the high-density homeless concentration areas of  Hazrat Nizamuddin and Jama Masjid,  we will establish 2 Aman Homeless Winter Support Centres, in which staff and volunteers will provide the following services:

Ø  Blankets and mattresses every night

Ø  Hot cooked nutritious meals

Ø  Primary Health and Referral Services

2.       Mobile Blanket Distribution and Health Rescue Services:

There are some scattered single homeless persons, who are the most vulnerable (including those who are mentally ill). They cannot be reached by the fixed blanket distribution points. For them, we will start 2 mobile units. In these equipped vehicles, teams of 3 or 4 volunteers plus one staff member will travel around the city through each night, and distribute sheet and warm cover to all in need. Dr Amod Kumar and others have found that the best alternative is bubble plastic sheets, both for base and cover. These are very warm because they keep out the damp and cold, and are cheap and light. It is especially valuable as homeless people can carry these around easily during the daytime. The mobile units will also provide basic first aid if so required and also carry out rescue operations which includes taking the needy to hospitals and homeless shelters as the situation demands.

Implementation Plan

·         We will start the interventions from the 14th of December 2011 through till 28^th of February 2012

·         For this purpose we will hire a space on rent at both the locations, or establish these in tented structures, where the blankets (both for fixed units and mobile units) will be stored, decontaminated, re-packaged and food will also be prepared. In addition the location will also maintain a stock of commonly used medicines for first aid. We will term these spaces as “Resource Points 1 & 2”

·         The two mobile units will be allocated apiece to one or the other fixed point and the fixed points will act as their starting point as well as a focal point for meeting of volunteers, staff and other support personnel.

·         The “Resource points 1 & 2” will be manned by 2 personnel who are envisaged to be from the community itself and will be paid a stipend for the duration of the campaign. They will be working full time at the resource points. The resource persons at the two points will work in tandem to undertake the following functions:

o   Cook food for the warm food distribution in the evening

o   Store blankets for the fixed as well as mobile units

o   Issue blankets to the homeless during the night

o   Recollect the blankets in the morning

o   De-contaminate and repackage the returned blankets

o   Stock the mobile units with blankets, bubble wraps and medicines

o   Provide first aid and basic medical assistance wherever required

·         Each team i.e. mobile or fixed will have a health worker at all times to provide basic medical assistance

·         The fixed points will distribute blankets and food from 7 p.m. to about 11 p.m. and collect the same between 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the morning.

·         The mobile units will operate daily between 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the night

To get latest updates about our campaign follow us on twitter @amanbiradari and Join us on Facebook by visiting the following link (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aman-Biradari/108162199212012)

Lakeside School Visits Dil Se

When I entered Dil Se's home for girls outside of Delhi, I was totally unprepared for what was about to hit me. Instead of the shyness and trepidation from the girls that I had anticipated, I was met with a near avalanche of "hello" and "how are you?" from the vivacious girls that live in the home. I was totally overwhelmed by the kindness and happy interest that they displayed, perhaps more so than anywhere else during my stay in India.

As background, I was traveling with a group of other American high school students and had been staying in a small village in the Himalayan foothills with a host family. We were nearing the end of our journey in India and were missing our cozy village life, and the sense of community that that life offered us.

One of the most wonderful things about our short visit to the home was that for a few hours we were able to recapture that community and sense of cooperation that was omnipresent in village life. I was stuck by the fact that Dil Se has been able to recapture what is great about the Indian village community while adapting to the demands and opportunities that are available in a big city.

After my group and I arrived and we were nearly attacked by all of the girls who were so excited to see and meet us, we met with many of the people responsible for creating such a haven in the middle of the city. While the unflaggingly friendly girls brought around drinks, we learned more about why Dil Se is such an important and impressive organization I was especially amazed by the amount of passion that all of the Dil Se worker's clearly display for the service they are able to provide to these lively children.

We spent the rest of our regrettably short visit telling the girls about our trip in India, answering questions about the US, teaching them how to make friendship bracelets, sharing American and Indian songs, and getting caught up inadvertently in a massive hair braiding project where the girls took it upon themselves to fix the hair of each of the girl members of our group. When I left the home later that night, my hair neatly braided, I felt a deep sense of gratitude; for the adults who have the passion to create and sustain such a challenging operation, but moreover for the girls who are courageous enough to overcome the odds of poverty and who have the strength to retain their lively spirits and to share themselves with my group.

The rainbows of Khushi :)

I started going to Khushi in late June 2011; i was supposed to be teaching the girls there a little bit of computers. I can say for sure now that im the one who has learnt much more, from them. And they didn’t have to teach me a single thing.

Initially, we had the rush of the summer vacation homework, so i couldn’t really start the computer classes – instead i got a first-hand experience of how tough the homework is for some of the elder students. Writing page loads about medieval forts (about which there’s maybe one paragraph in the textbook), places of heritage they HAD to visit, random freedom fighters – all that any other kid would copy off the internet. That’s unfair, but that’s that.

Reshma and Yasmin, 'posing' for me :P

The elder girls that i interacted with are very responsible and hardworking and at the same time very concerned about the younger ones. So after we finished as much as we could, they had a trip to Kashmir which they were mighty excited about.

Initially, my ‘students’ (although i loved being a bhaiyya to them) were pretty much hooked to Paint, but weren’t we too, at their age? Only after the first few days, after they had the assurance that every class they attended would not be their last, were they ready to move on to newer things like MS Word. But many of them are pretty fast at grasping new things, and in a few days I was having trouble keeping them engaged as many of them had got a hold over most of the things I had told them, and were getting bored.

I learnt a lot outside the classroom as well, where i got to spend time with the non-classroom girls also, as punishment (from their side; i enjoyed this the most!) for them not being allowed to learn computers. I’ll list a few incidents which shook me, and made me realise how much lesser i actually understood the girls than i thought i did, and how much each girl was different from another.

Once, i was reading out a few stories to the little ones, when 2 girls came running into the room. One of them tripped over a bag and toppled it,

Imrana , Mohini and Mehrun :)

spilling the lentils which were in it (supplies probably). Then after a little scolding (not by me; the news spread like, well, news, and reached mummy promptly) we got on to picking the fallen seeds. I was helping them, when a girl, all of maybe 7 i think, came to me and said “Hum kar lenge bhaiya, aap mat karo. Aap bade ghar ke ho na” (“We will do it bhaiyya, you need not help us; you’re from a good family”).

Another time i was chatting in a room when 2 girls came to all of us, little photos of flowers in their hands asking everyone which one they liked more. The girls i was speaking to chose their photo of liking and i did likewise. As soon as the 2 girls had left, one of the ones remaining remarked “Kya bhaiyya, uss ladki ka dil dukha diya. Bol nahi sakte the ki dono ache lage aapko?” (“Couldn’t you have told them you liked both; now see what you’ve done – you upset one of them”) and i, without a single word to utter as a reply, was made to realise what an imbecile i had been.

They say the sweetest and most poignant things in such simple words, that i usually don’t have fitting words to even continue the conversation, but they’re quick to judge my silence – they usually change the topic themselves.

I got a few cards as farewell gifts. In addition to the customary ‘Roses are red, sky is balu, oh my dear bhaiyya, i miss you’, in one of them i read this line – ‘ I like you because you like us’ – which i think can be extended to most of our relationships also.

I’d got a short haircut for the summer, so there were a lot of ‘takle bhaiyya’ (bald bhaiyya) jokes. Although i used to find it endearing, on one of my last day, one girl casually said,

Saroj has her fun while Reshma (not in pic)

tries to remove the lice she saw in my head,

it's a really painful procedure :)

“Bhaiyya aapko bahut bura lagta hoga na jab hum aapko takla-takla bolte hein…aapke chehre se dikhta hai” (“You must be feeling very hurt when we call you names…i can see it in your expression.”)

The view from the outside maybe wrongly construed, of a place where little girls reside, with all the basic necessities with the able guidance of a dedicated team of staff and volunteers. All first timers will be overwhelmed by the ecstatic response they get. Only if you ‘stand and stare’ for a while do you begin to realise how complex the world of each girl can get – how each girl is temperamentally different (which is often shaped by their environment at home both now and before), how dynamic the relationships between the girls, and between the girls and the staff are, how her feelings towards home and school can subtly change – and you would find yourself in a pretty challenging environment.

Discipline issues always exist and the staff (consisting of 4 house mothers ably supported by the coordinator, health worker and other support staff) does a wonderful job of handling them both sternly as well as sensitively. One mention of mummy and all the chaos preceding it stops instantly.

All things said, the girls are much more mature than most of us (certainly including me) were at that age, owing to their exposure, and perhaps even as mature as a few of us are now. And they give you so much importance in their lives so soon, and so much more love than what we give to most of the people we know (we would think a hundred times before telling someone that we love them, and they showered love throughout their cards!) as we are socially trained to be that way perhaps. My day used to be lit up when i went and met the girls, irrespective of how it had transpired till then; people at home had never seen me smile so consistently, when i returned. It’s certainly a thing to learn from them; how cheerful they make each day of theirs, and how by just being themselves, they manage to make people around them happier too.

Asmina helps me tally the students' marks!