LOOKING  INTO  THE  EMBERS  OF  A  FIRE  ON  NEW-YEAR'S  EVE


There has been so much hype about the New Millenium, that one wonders where the hype ends and the reality begins ? Are we really thinking about the next thousand years, or will it suffice to think about the next hundred ? Even the idea of a hundred is awesome. You wonder, will the organisation still exist a hundred years later, will there still be a need for the kind of services we provide ? FAMILIES NEEDING CHILDREN, CHILDREN NEEDING FAMILIES ; schools for underpriviledged children ; shelters for battered, abused women. May be Medical Science will have taken several leaps forward and conceiving a baby will not be so difficult. A country like India may have moved ahead from the " Developing " and " Third World " nomenclatures to " Developed " and " First World ". A country that provides opportunities for all its children. Good education, good nutrition and a health care system that ensures that children do not die of malnutrition, dehydration and a myriad diseases that stalk them today. This is UTOPIA. An age-filled with people- friendly beaurocrats and judges, who expedite cases ; think with concern about the " children" and do not get mired down with paper work. That organisations which serve people, are looked up to with respect.

I think of the children of Ashraya, going out into the world, who will go down in family geneology, as ancestors from a far-off land, adopted and loved by strangers in another country. Certainly a phenomenon of the last fifty years. What a sign post in the story of human-kind. A strange and significant migration of another character altogether. In a world torn with strife and violence, here is that thread that binds all human-kind together. Not Indian, or American, Swedish or Italian, but HUMAN.

But to come down to earth again, we must think not of a hundred years, but about tomorrow and the day after and the next year and the next ten years. What is our vision and hope, just for this short span of time ? We hope to provide better services to help children in need. To find loving homes for the most unwanted of children - the physically challenged ; older children who ask plaintively " Aunty when will you show me a photo of my Mummy and Daddy " ? That we can provide quality education for poor children and show by example that all that children need in life is a leg-up and an opportunity. The child on the street and the child growing up in a mansion should have the same platform in life. Even if we succeed in helping 200 children in our Neelbagh school, it will be like a beacon of light in a dark night. Replicate a " Neelbagh " a thousand-fold and a miracle would take place in this country. For our Women's Shelter, the best wish one could have that it would lie empty and unused. That there would be no women battered and abused by alcohol- crazed men. That the wards of Victoria Hospital would not be filled with the charred bodies of burnt women. That dowry would cease to be that dreaded word and that the girl child would be welcomed into the world with cries of joy and her mother treated like a princess and not thrown out on the streets to fend for herself. That it would be socially acceptable for an un-wed mother to keep the baby she loves. IT IS POSSIBLE. Think of America a hundred years ago ; Sweden a hundred years ago ; any country in Europe a hundred years ago. THEY WERE WHERE WE ARE TODAY.

A hundred years is a long span of time ; a thousand years is unthinkable. But think again, a hundred years is no time at all.

On this note of reflection and positive thoughts for our future, I wish all our friends and supporters all over the globe, all joy and happiness in this year 2000.

I end with a story about 4 people.

EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY AND NOBODY ----------------------------------------

There was an important job to be done ;
Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it


Somebody got angry about it ;
Because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it
But Nobody realised that
Everybody would NOT do it
It ended that Everybody blamed Somebody
When Nobody did what Anybody could have done


ANON

JOIN US IN BEING SOMEBODY !

Nomita Chandy.
07.01.2000.