Nahar Amrit Shakti

Mumbai Mobile Crèches In March I took a trip to Mumbai, India, my second trip to visit my daughter and her family. Her husband works for Deutsche  Bank was expecting a transfer to another post in Hong Kong. “Better come before we are transferred,” my daughter coaxed in her emails and Face Time communications. I jumped at the opportunity to visit them and to see the city. One day she took me to the school where she teaches children of construction workers English. The school is part of a Mumbai Mobile Crèches NPO program to provide the children left at home by parents working on construction site. https://www.facebook.com/MumbaiMobileCreches     http://mumbaimobilecreches.org/about-us My daughter had often mentioned in her correspondence to me that she did volunteer work at a school for the children of construction workers. The workers came from different villages and districts throughout India. With no place to stay, they moved into empty lots and built makeshift huts from whatever materials they could find. The huts are small, cramped and supplied with limited utilities. The children are left behind to fend for themselves while the parents go the construction sites. Seeing the need to provide a semblance of constructive activities for the children, the NPO Mumbai Mobile Crèches opened schools on the grounds. Indian and non-Indian teachers give the children a rudimentary education. My daughter teaches at the  school in the  Nahar Amrit Shakti development. On the day she took me to the school, I was amazed and inspired by what I observed. Makeshift huts ringed the perimeter of the development. In those ramshackle homes lived families whose numbers might have included five or six family members. The school building was in the center. The students ranged in age from preschool to fifth or sixth grade. They were bursting with energy and smiles. And they all looked as though they scrubbed behind their ears. Clean and neat. Were it not for the NPO, these children would be scavenging the streets for something to eat and for something to do to kill the time while waiting for their parents to return home. I took photos and videos of the site.  They hardly do justice to the joy, the enthusiasm and the energy I experienced on that hot day in that community located in a backroad of Mumbai. https://vimeo.com/128242178 Also check out my website for upcoming photo exhibitions. http://www.tmpcarol.com/new-works.html