Children in Aman Ghars

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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 in the National Advisory Council, 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

 25/1 ,Adhchini,New Delhi-17

Email: volunteerdilse@gmail.com

Mobile: 9891121333






     

“Will, Warmth Dil Se(from the heart)”


Contributing your time : Have weekends free? Or afternoons where TV is a bore? You don’t need specialty to love and be with our children. You can teach, play, read, mentor or just pass hugs ( Volunteers should commit to giving regular time at least two or three times every weeks, for a minimum period of 6 months. It takes the time to build trust and love with children. :D )
- want to contribute, send an email to volunteerdilse@gmail.com or Contact us @ +91 9891121333
Contributing your abilities : Are you good at English, Computer, Painting, Dancing, Martial Arts and something else? Your skills can be shared valuably making children lives better.
- want to contribute, send an email to volunteerdilse@gmail.com or Contact us @ +91 9891121333

Contributing your gifts : Give your old intimate friends new meaningful lives. Your toys, books, clothes, furniture, utensils and etc. will meet our children who love them and be with them.
- want to contribute, send an email to volunteerdilse@gmail.com

Contributing your money : Looking to bring a smile on someone’s face? Looking to heal someone’s wound? Sponsor our children and Aman Health Clinic. Your money help children have bright future
- want to contribute, send an email to volunteerdilse@gmail.com
Contributing your company : If you want a diligent, hardworking and loyal worker, Provide our children the opportunities.
- want to contribute, send an email to volunteerdilse@gmail.com







Here are our Guidelines for Volunteers, which is required to be read previously for working better with our children.

Do's of Successful Volunteering
ü  Do attend orientation meetings. Keep in mind that these meetings will help you do the best job possible
ü  Do be flexible, persistent with the works, responsible for your works
ü  Be our children's generous and friendly Didi(sister) or Bhaiya(brother) when you struggle with our children
ü  Do open your heart to teach our kids. You might also learn valuable things from our kids
ü  Do wear proper clothes and Do speak appropriate language to our kids
ü  Do be careful and gentle to ask their privacies and backgrounds
           
Don'ts of Successful Volunteering
ü  Don’t underestimate the challenges that might be a part of your volunteer experience with challenges can come great growth!
ü  Don’t give your personal belongings like mobile phones, pricy things, money or personal gifts to children. If you want to give our children gifts, please give it to us for fair treatment! ;)
ü  Don’t smoke or chewing gum in public.
ü    If you discuss sensitive issues like communalism, terrorism, caste or gender – do try to do so inconformity with the values and beliefs of Aman Biradari

3 comments:

  1. These all cadets having a tremedus potential and energy in them we are here just to convert this enery from negetive or nutral form to positive and then divert it to right direction and we know

    "Together we can and we will make a diffrence"

    ReplyDelete
  2. would be visiting Qutab home of yours soon

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for share this post and keep share for Child Education NGO in Delhi. Its valuable and nice information .Thanks for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete