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Filed under: Uncategorized on February 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »

Lotus Outreach staff member Nafees was invited to participate in a youth panel discussion on ending global poverty with former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. Nafees (front right) discusses our Lotus Education As A Right Network (LEARN) project, which works to increase access to public education for marginalized children — particularly girls — in rural Haryana.

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Filed under: Education, India, lotus outreach on November 16th, 2009 | No Comments »

Tith Kimsor was born in Battambang province and is the daughter of a poor farming family. Because of poverty, she decided to quit school and leave home to stay with her uncle in Banteay Meanchey province, so that she could cross the Prey Kob checking point to do labor work in Thailand on a daily basis. She was referred to Girls’ Access To Education (GATE ) program by another program, Safe Migration And Reduction of Trafficking (SMART), supported by Lotus Outreach to educate community people and migrant workers about safe migration.

At the age of 19, she is now a tenth grader staying at a residential care facility. She would have been wasting her youth working as a laborer in Thailand if she was not given an opportunity to join scholarship program in Banteay Meanchey. No one can tell what could have happened to her while working in Thailand on her own, or what her future would have been like.

“Life of a Little Bird” is a short story written and drawn by her to describe how she found her way back into school after dropping out for one year, and how much it means to her having stayed in scholarship program supported by Lotus Outreach.

This story was written after Penelope, a Lotus Outreach board member, visited a GATE program in Banteay Meanchey in mid-January, 2009. Penelope was interested to learn more about how families in the scholarship program live day by day, as well as hearing anything that GATE girls would like to share to a foreigner like her who knows little about the lives of underprivileged children in Cambodia. She encouraged our scholarship recipients to draw or write something about themselves and send to her. She told them not to care much about quality of the drawing and/or story as long as it tells their real story. Below is the full story translated from what Kimsor wrote.

There were a couple of birds who had seven children, and the living conditions for their family were miserable.

Seeing the difficult life of her family and feeling sympathy for her parents, the Little Bird who was the oldest child started to think a lot about how to help lighten this load. She thought that she might not be able to make her dream come true.

One day she questioned herself whether she should continue school or to help her family earn a living. She asked herself again and again many times. Eventually, she decided to drop out to work to support her family.

Then she asked her parents to leave the nest and flew a long way to the place where she thought she could earn income. But once she arrived at that place, she started to feel that she had made the wrong decision and it made her completely hopeless.

The Little Bird felt so lonely having to stay far from home and having no one who understood her. She told herself that she had to be strong and manage her own life by herself from that day on.

One day Little Bird met with an educator at the border she crossed to work everyday who was raising awareness about safe migration and informing people about referral services to formal education through scholarship programs, non-formal education, and skill training. Hearing that, the Little Bird rushed to talk to the educator to see if someone like her was qualified for the service. The educator who came from Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center (CWCC) interviewed her and then told her that she was eligible! She was so happy that she could continue school in 9th grade now.

On September 19th, 2008, it was the day the Little Bird had to sit in national exam to be able to go from lower secondary school to upper secondary school. She was very worried that she couldn’t pass because she had left school for one year to work.

The 17th of October, 2008, was the day that her exam result came out. The Little Bird successfully passed the national exam and was on her way to Upper Secondary School! She was excitedly delighted.

The little bird left the place where she was living on November 19th, 2008, to stay at a new place (residential home) where CWCC rented for students living far from school to stay. She was very happy that she could leave that lonely place and came to the new place she liked a lot. Since then, she told herself to do her best and study hard to achieve her goal and not to upset the donor (Lotus Outreach).

The Little Bird is very much grateful to the generous support of the donor and the hard work of CWCC.

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

Written by Glenn Fawcett – Executive Director, Field Operations
There is hardly a middle class family in India that doesn’t have someone to look after the children and the domestic chores. In Australia, where I grew up, only the very rich can afford a variety of full and part time nannies, house keepers, maids and cooks as they are paid relatively well and are not considered another class. At least, not by us ordinary folk.

In India, however, there is an unbridgeable divide between ‘servants’ and those hiring them. While I’ve somewhat adjusted to it in more than a decade of living in India, I’ve never really let go of my discomfort with the inequality of compensation for work that exists here.

It was interesting for me to find out that the first minimum wage laws were enacted in Australia and New Zealand in the 1890’s (followed by the USA in 1912) and aimed at setting a minimum hourly rate for labor. There were a lot of legal battles fought over almost one hundred years, and the advent of the Trade Unions to represent workers ensured the working class had a voice and received a salary a family could live on.

That’s precisely what has not happened in India. There is a minimum wage, but it is half what a family needs to live on. Most of the poor are living in the twilight of the ‘unregulated sector’ anyway, where workers most often get what they can, commonly about half the minimum wage — which is already half what a family needs to live on!

Which brings me to economics, fear and paradigms. At this point those reading may begin to get drowsy, but the reason that all this is so damn interesting is because this is an issue of social equality, justice and the right to a decent life for hundreds of millions of Indians working fourteen hour days and still relegated to a life of poverty.

Our ‘cook cum cleaning lady’  (I call all our staff ‘domestic assistants’ — my wife is of course Director of House Management and Minister for Domestic Affairs) wakes at five in the morning, prepares breakfast for her family, travels on a bus to her work area, cleans, cooks and scrubs for around six families, then heads home to the evening chores. For all of this, she manages to scrape out the actual minimum wage. Of course, families like hers cannot afford private schooling and tuition. They have no choice but to send their kids to dysfunctional Hindi medium government schools in a country where universities teach in English, thus perpetuating the class divide.

My idea –- which seems to me like good economics — is to double the minimum wage. This would effect a huge influx of capital from a group with an expendable income now able to buy a new fridge and washing machine. The impact on economic growth would be phenomenal and perhaps even some of the families could afford to give their children a chance at a university education! And it really is doable. Even middle class families could easily afford to pay twice what they now pay their ‘servants.’

Of course (surprise, surprise), most Indian families are not thinking along these lines and will work hard to ensure their ‘domestics’ don’t even imagine such lofty ideas. I sense that lurking behind all this is fear of the privileged that the ‘uneducated classes’ will overrun them, and most have not even glimpsed the possibility of benefits for all that could accrue from such a trade-off. Unfortunately, due to such fear and prejudice, to achieve what I am suggesting will take much more that forking out a decent salary to those that clean and scrub for us. What is needed is a paradigm shift, and this will not be found in the hallowed halls and libraries of economic rationalism and reductionism. Perhaps (ironically), compassion will provide the window through which we will see a brave new world where we pay our household assistants a dignified wage and the whole society benefits.

Filed under: Uncategorized, lotus outreach on January 19th, 2009 | No Comments »

Written by Suraj Kumar—Project Manager, India

For eighteen months, we have been working very closely with the people of Mewat in rural Haryana on improving schools and quality of education. In these areas, the literacy rate for women is around 4%. Many believe the problem lies in parents’ poor attitudes towards education. However, our experience is that most parents understand the value of education and encourage their children to go to school.

In a school playground at Jarali village, I recently stopped to talk with a school principal and some teachers as I was passing by. They told me how difficult it was to get students’ parents to cooperate with them to improve their children’s education experience. As an example, they told me about a parent that dumped leftover construction materials on school grounds. They claimed that they could not convince parents to cooperate in keeping the school areas rubbish-free. When I asked if we could meet with the parents, the principal and teachers agreed and immediately sent the children home.

Within five to ten minutes, no less than fifty parents arrived for an impromptu meeting! The first to arrive was a very elderly, totally blind man with his two grandchildren. I was totally unprepared for this sight! Here was a seventy-year-old man who has never been able to read due to his disability, coming to a meeting concerning the literacy of his grandchildren — a gift he never had!!

As usual, I found that all the parents were eager to state their case and give their comments. They expressed their views of the situation and complained about the difficulties they face sending their children to school in its current practice. We all mutually agreed upon the solution: parents and teachers need to meet more regularly to discuss their ideas and differences.

After this exchange, I reflected on how much was achieved by simply challenging the assumption that parents from rural and low-income communities are not interested in issues concerning their children’s education, or cooperative in communicating about it. We found yet again, these assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth!

Filed under: Education, Uncategorized, lotus outreach on January 8th, 2009 | No Comments »

Written by Suraj Kumar—Project Manager, India

On the invitation of a school’s headmaster, I participated in a meeting for teachers and parents called by a group of educators from our block last week. The purpose of the meeting was to motivate parents and teachers to interact regularly in order to improve their schools — a welcomed step after our previous intervention in schools. The two teachers who started the mission of holding these meetings are organizing these events in different schools in the district once a week.

The meeting was held at 2 pm, which is after school hours in Mohammad Baad School. More than 20 teachers from 10 different schools attended, along with 70 parents (including 10 women) participating. Women’s participation in meetings in Mewat villages is an unusual occurrence, and was greatly appreciated.

It was surprising that a headmaster accused of charging parents illegally (claiming the charges were to cover fees and books) started the meeting with a message that the teachers of schools should become models of honesty, and perform their duty sincerely.  Another headmaster spoke at length to motivate parents to visit the school at least twice a week to discuss their child’s performance. One teacher requested the parents teach good hygiene habits, such as teeth brushing, bathing and fingernail trimming. This same teacher also asked the parents to send their children to school only after checking their children’s school bags and diaries for homework. The homework diaries are not put into general practice in the area, but the teachers promised to start the practice soon.

I asked the participating parents — especially the women — to ask the teachers questions and even voice any complaints they had, as this was the best forum to raise their grievances. The parents were happy the teachers have at least begun to interact with the community. The village’s Sarpanch (leader) thanked White Lotus for encouraging teachers to face the community in person as a group, instead of addressing parent-teacher matters only on paper. The meeting participants were offered tea and snacks at the event’s conclusion.
The two teachers initiating these meetings have also thanked White Lotus for their participation, and in turn asked me to attend all of their future meetings for better group cooperation and mutual support. These teachers (Mr. Shamuddin and Mr. Mukut) also suggested that we organize a sports competition for girls-only from 10 primary schools of the block. This competition would come along with help from White Lotus sponsoring refreshments gifts to children as prizes, which will certainly encourage and boost the girls’ enrollment in schools in Mewat — a serious problem presently.

More pictures of the meeting can be viewed here.

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Filed under: Education on September 4th, 2008 | No Comments »

Written by Suraj Kumar—Project Manager, India

We have recently witnessed a lot of fanfare surrounding the high pass marks of Indian children sitting the 12-year board exams.  What most people do not realize is that 90% of India’s children are attending government “schools” that often consist of nothing more than a few children gathered for a short class.  By creating the appearance of a school, local teachers and education authorities are able to pocket the money allocated for education for their own use.

As a part of our ongoing drive to survey government schools across two districts in Haryana (neighboring the desert state of Rajasthan), we recently visited three schools to examine classroom conditions, enrollment levels and attendance rates.  Unfortunately, our findings were less than positive.  In one class 1-5 school, we found only 12 of 87 students present during the middle of the day.

We watched and photographed as children from the poorest village families trudged in one-by-one after crossing hot sandy roads in rubber flip-flops and scant clothing.  Their school consisted of nothing more than a two room concrete structure standing alone in the middle of a dry, dusty field.

As the children filed by us, the temperature outside reached 40 degrees Celsius. Their faces lacked expression and they avoided the camera as much as possible — a stark contrast to most children we meet in their age group. They then sat on the floor of the sweltering room without so much as a ceiling fan.  Ironically, the room contained a television connected to a Direct to Home (DTH) satellite — a result of a World Bank supported program.  Unfortunately, this positive development remains largely overshadowed by the fact that very few of these schools have the electricity necessary to power such devices.

We asked the school principal to continue with the class so we could observe. The class consisted of the children – still expressionless – staring at the TV screen. Meanwhile, an education program from their syllabus was very formally presented, as if the class was a management course for graduates. An uncomprehending teacher vacantly stood by with a stick in hand, making sure  the students did not talk to each other. I asked a child what she was watching and she smiled innocently, but gave no answer. I asked the same question of another child and she also gave a timid smile, but sat silent. After asking the teacher what was being taught, even they had no idea!

The school had no boundary wall, no playground, no trees and no gardens. With only one toilet on the premises, most children are forced to relieve themselves in the open. Altogether, it appeared to us that those in charge of the education of these children are inflating enrolment by 50% to 70%. They only open the doors for a couple of hours to justify the most of the expenditure…which is clearly not being spent to school children.

Follow-up News:

A copy of our original report, sent to the Department of Education, was recently forwarded to the local District Education Office (DEO) at Mewat with suggestions that immediate action be taken to remedy these problems.  In addition, the Education Minister ordered a half-page advertisement to be published in the prominent local newspaper on June 22nd, 2008, highlighting the incentives being given to the children in schools as suggested by Lotus Outreach through a letter to Chief Minister and copied to DEO.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Written by Vannakserey Raksmey Var – Partner and Project Liaison, Cambodia

It seems to be universally accepted that culture is an integral part—or “the heart”—of a society and that without it, a nation is incomplete. Despite their significant role in defining a society, cultural traditions often perpetuate inequality and gender discrimination. In many cultures, girls and boys are treated differently starting from infancy. In China, for example, a baby boy is considered a blessing whereas to a baby girl, her gender is a curse. Chinese government policy often reinforces gender discrimination. The one-child policy, for example, forces parents to opt for abortion once they learn the unborn fetus is a girl. Cultural tradition dictates that the boy will maintain the clan by passing on the family surname to the next generation. The girl, on the other hand, will take her husband’s surname. As a result of this tradition, boys are considered more valuable than girls and when a family is limited to only one child, the preferred gender is obvious.

The discrimination does not stop here. After birth, sons and daughters are treated differently and unfairly. Traditional gender roles dictate that a boy’s duty is to act as the breadwinner whereas a girl’s duty is to act as the homemaker and caretaker. Consequently, little emphasis is placed on girls’ education. These traditional roles also have an effect on the psychology of girls and women: many are conditioned to be dependent and lazy and just wait to be married off to a rich guy. In addition, many men prefer not to marry well-educated women as they don’t like their wife to be smarter than them. Girls are likewise discouraged, by society at large, from obtaining higher levels of education because well-educated and capable women are considered too proud and arrogant which leads to higher divorce rates. Thus there is not only a lack of incentive for educating girls, but female ignorance is often considered a virtue.

Is there any merit in these perspectives? Is it the case that well-educated women acquire a level of pride which exacerbates marital problems, or is it in fact the case that ill-educated women feel too powerless and dependent to stand up for themselves? Women who lack education, skills, or the capacity for self sufficiency are incapable of supporting themselves. They are voiceless. They have no choice but to remain patient, accept their arrangements, and even learn to live with domestic violence and abuse. Given their high level of dependency, to do otherwise is tantamount to suicide.

What’s more, the culture has a strong influence on girls’ perceptions of themselves. Because they are conditioned to feel less valuable than boys, they often themselves believe that their futures don’t deserve the same level of investment as their male counterparts. They accept subordination not only to their husbands and fathers, but to their male siblings, as girls often work so their brothers can attend school. In sum, they are not encouraged to become educated, self-reliant or pursue their dreams.

I asked a waitress at the Freedom Hotel restaurant where I stayed in Siem Reap why she quit school at grade 8. “Our family was poor” she replied, “and since daughter is not as important and valuable as son, I quit school to help my family eke out a living and to support my older brother’s education.” I really don’t like the perception that since the daughter is of less value, less or no education is suitable for her. And I have very little doubt that this mindset is strongly influenced by traditional culture.

What does it mean to preserve culture? If this culture is maintained, so is gender discrimination. We need to recognize that protecting human rights and protecting culture are often antithetical goals. To try and pursue both at the same time is to ignore the deep roots of gender inequality and to treat it as a superficial endeavor. We need to highlight gender issues and their sources…otherwise they will just be left behind, ignored, forgotten, faked, and fade into oblivion without question.

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Filed under: Education on May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

Written by Glenn Fawcett – Executive Director, Field Operations

It’s funny - when I think of ‘-ation’ words, I often remember a childhood rhyme that really cracked me up as a kid:

Dictation, dictation, dictation
Three sausages went to the station
One got squashed
One got lost
And one had a big operation

In this case the ‘-ation’ word is ‘inflation,’ and it’s no joke in Cambodia these days. You only have to look at the basic everyday commodities anywhere in the world to see the extent of prices rising, and the impact it will have on the people in the streets. The writing was on the wall (or at least the filling station neon signs) showing 4800 riel ($1.2) per litre as I passed during my taxi ride from the airport. A 20% increase since leaving Cambodia some 3 months earlier?! Does that mean inflation is 80% per year? Well, if it continues like that…I guess it does.

My first trip to Lucky’s Supermarket on Monivong Boulevard after arriving in Phnom Penh confirmed that first impression. As I thriftily shopped for the best value milk brand in a carton, I found that in the same time a liter of UHT milk had increased from $1.20 to $1.60 - a hefty 30% increase. Of course, that’s not going to stop me from buying milk. I even switched to fresh milk, as they were now the same price. However, for local Cambodians (Khmers) food inflation is deepening an already too tragic misery.

To cap it off? Rice (the staple of staples in Asia) has almost doubled in price. Even my relatively well-to-do landlord from the upwardly mobile Tonle Bassac Commune was shocked. The poorer Cambodians are the real losers in growth-driven inflation that rose to 10.8 percent in December 2007, compared with 2.8 percent at the end of 2006.

I’m not looking forward to getting the news first-hand as we travel out into the provinces to meet the poorest of the poor. Knowing that where we are working, poor Khmers are now selling their land in numbers - just so they can eat. Food infl ‘ation’ is pushing them over an already crowded edge.

This is bringing us back to those sausages at the station. All squashed and lost, and doing it very tough.

Filed under: Cambodia, Education, Healthcare, India, Trafficking on May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

Welcome to the new Lotus Outreach Blog – a place where our hard working and passionate people in the field bring you up close and personal with the living conditions in the countries where we work, the people we serve, and how our programs are impacting human lives.

Lotus Outreach is a secular, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the living conditions of vulnerable children and their communities through education and healthcare. We work in some of the most troubled and poverty-stricken parts of the world to protect children and help them build self-reliant and dignified lives.

Our primary aim is to prevent child labor and sexual trafficking. Our approach in combating these problems is multi-pronged, with a focus on prevention, rehabilitation, and long-term sustainability.

At present, we fund and manage projects in India and Cambodia. We work to increase school enrollment and improve education standards in rural communities in order to keep children out of quarries and brothels, and in school. We provide non-formal education and counseling to young women who are victims of the commercial sex trade, trafficking or rape. And we inform vulnerable migrant communities about the dangers of trafficking and provide safe places and rehabilitation for those who have already fallen into its tragic grip.

Our ‘bloggers’ include:

Glenn Fawcett – Executive Director, Field Operations

Glenn moved to India in 1996 and began directing White Lotus Charitable Trust with special emphasis on education, skills training and cultural preservation for Tibetan refugees. He has organized and implemented White Lotus projects in Tibetan settlements to improve school and community libraries, encourage the performing and literary arts, develop computer literacy, increased opportunities for employment and support for working parents. Glenn has spent 3 years living and working in Cambodia. He has traveled extensively in remote village areas meeting the poorest and most vulnerable and developing an understanding of the root causes (economic, political and cultural) of human trafficking, the sex-trade, and other forms of violence toward girls and women. He has identified partners at the local level and is helping to guide the implementation of projects that are designed to help young victims secure an education, shelter and employment skills. Glenn currently divides his time between Cambodia and India to monitor and expand Lotus Outreach projects, programs and partnerships.

Vannaksereyraksmey Var, Partners and Projects Liaison

Raksmey first started voluntary work in 2001 when she organized a group of secondary school children to participate in Environment Day. She went on to volunteer for a youth group that provided social services to poor children. She taught them about children’s rights and dental hygiene, and encouraged them to get involved in recreational games. At the same time, she was also a part-time teacher of English at a private school which allowed her to interact with young people and children every day. Raksmey loved working with children, but she wanted to do more to help them. Raksmey received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting in 2004 from National University of Management in Cambodia. She was also granted a Master’s Degree in Gender and Development Studies in 2007 from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, where she completed her thesis of “Gender Differentiated Issues in Balancing Work and Education for Working Children in the Context of the Tourist Boom: A Case Study of Angkor Park, Siem Reap, Cambodia”. Her areas of interest include children’s education, children and youth’s mobility and employment, livelihood development, child labor, trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Suraj Kumar—Project Manager, India

Suraj is a Delhi native who started working with Lotus Outreach as a member of the Social Jurists of Delhi in 2005 as a part of the Right to Education Task Force (RETF). Following the success of RETF, Suraj was invited to join Lotus Outreach as Project Manager for our new Lotus Education as a Right Network (LEARN) program, which is applying the lessons learned from the highly successful RETF to the rural state of Haryana. As RETF program manager, Suraj was responsible for surveying the conditions of Delhi schools, mobilizing local volunteers, managing a help line and coordinating with a myriad of government and Municipal departments. Suraj’s previous work involved collaborating with local and international NGOs to build Children’s Right Networks as well as providing computer training to children in slums and urban villages.

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Filed under: Cambodia on May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »