Hi Lovely Friends!
I recently spent time at our projects in India and Nepal, and then after a week home, visited our newer projects in Kenya. Although the back to back trips were intense (maybe not my best idea ever 😜), it’s always energizing to spend time in person with the staff and partners, and most especially the girls!
Roots in the grassroots: Our work has expanded in the past 3 years, and we now serve 2000 girls each year. Our strategy is investing in – and working alongside – local solutions and dedicated grassroots leaders. I was reminded time and again on this trip that ‘Small is Beautiful’. Projects that are extremely personal and individualized work best for those healing from extreme trauma or overcoming generational abuse. As we look forward, we are committed to maintaining a high level of individualized care. Rather than adding more girls, we are focusing on deepening the work and making each project as holistic as possible.
INDIA
KOLKATA LEARNING CENTER I’m beyond grateful that we now have our own space – the HFC Learning Center – as a base of operations in Kolkata. The Learning Center is located in Sonagachi, the city’s largest red light area. It serves as our headquarters, a space for programs and events, and is Kolkata’s first nonprofit co-working space.
The Learning Center is just a magical place to be! It was lovingly and intentionally designed (Thank you Danielle Hartley) to be a respite for women and girls who face poverty, fear or violence in their daily lives. The Center opened in early 2022. We’ve had our share of challenges . It took time to build trust in the red light community, which is very insular. We had a major staff transition, when our Country Director Nafiza resigned. The Learning Center is now managed by John Das, who comes with 13 years of experience in the red light community. All rooms are now full, and buzzing with activity. Monthly bake sales and outreach events have helped to bring in women right off the streets outside – the people we most need to reach. I’m excited about the community cafe opening this spring in the building, staffed by survivors and operated by our partners at Lamprini Bakery.
From right to left: computer training, latest computer training program graduates, mental health workshop led by Tish
Currently in the Learning Center: the bakery training program, jewelry studio, computer training, education programs and mental health programs, together serving 200+ women and youth each week. Our landlord wants to sell the building, and while we aren’t in a position to buy it, we are working with a partner who is hoping to buy the building and rent space to HFC.
JALPAIGURI SHELTER A very special part of my trip was a visit to Jalpaiguri Shelter, which HFC built in 2015. Women’s Interlink Foundation, one of our oldest partners, asked us to build this shelter because there was no other shelter home in the district for rescued girls. It is in a small rural city, near the borders of Bangladesh and Nepal. Girls are trafficked across the borders, or they come willingly looking for work and are vulnerable because they are alone and unaware of the dangers.
Jalpaiguri Shelter has always been a place of healing, love and joy. Perhaps because it is in a remote area, there is a special feeling – a fierce sisterhood, undistracted focus, and wild joy. Together with Maura, HFC’s Education Program Director, we offered two days of art projects, games and songs. We read stories, danced, and taught English classes from morning to night. It was like summer camp, and I loved it so much! We used the theme of footsteps – forging a new path in life, walking in other people’s footsteps as a metaphor for compassion.
On our last day, we sat in a circle with the older girls who have grown up at the shelter. They delighted us by listing the names of every volunteer and staff member that we have brought to Jalpaiguri in 10 years – over 20 people. They remembered each one, their personalities, which projects they led: Susie’s sign language, Sarah and Jim’s photography, John’s carpentry, Jill’s dance classes, Todd spreading his arms and shouting ‘Helloooo’. And all the workshops Maura and I led over the 10 years – they listed those too. We have had the priceless gift of being part of these girls’ childhood, as their extended family. Thanks to all who donated to build and support the shelter, these girls got to have a childhood.
While in Jalpaiguri, I got a text from Richa* (name changed), who grew up at the shelter and is now in college. Richa’s mother was sold into circus slavery with Richa when Richa was a baby. The circus was a kind of traveling brothel. Years later, the pair were rescued and brought to Jalpaiguri shelter. Sadly, Richa’s mother died from an illness incurred while she was enslaved. Despite this great loss and a traumatic early childhood, Richa excelled in our sponsorship program. When she reached 18, she left the shelter to pursue a nursing degree, sponsored by HFC. She is now in her final year. Her mother would be so proud of her, and I surely am too!
From right to left: English class and reminiscing, Forging a New Path workshop, a career high: being depicted as a Manga!
There are 90 girls currently living in the shelter – 75 rescued in the last year and 15 who have grown up there. In the last 5 years, the situation has changed a lot, as the government is now pushing for rapid reintegration of survivors. In the past, we would have girls for at least 3 years, and sometimes more. These days, that is the exception. Most girls stay only 12-18 months. It’s enough time to deal with physical injuries and to begin addressing trauma, but not enough time to make up for years of lost education. Neither we nor our partners are happy with the new policy, but it’s a government directive that we have no control over. We are exploring new strategies for our girls in shelters, as well as prevention programs for high risk girls so that they don’t need shelter care. One such prevention strategy is the red light area Resource Centers…
RESOURCE CENTERS Over the past 7 years, HFC has been investing heavily in programs for kids growing up in red light areas. We have 5 such programs in 3 red light areas of Kolkata, serving over 500 kids and moms. These programs provide education, safe space, food, counseling, job training, and love. At the Resource Centers, you are accepted and loved just as you are, whether you are a child who is always dirty because you literally sleep on the street, or a mother who has somehow managed to drop off her child at the Center after a long night of sexual violence.
Whatever has happened in the past, or that very morning, all are welcome here. There are people ready to help – caring for toddlers while their moms work the streets, counseling moms about different options, tutoring teens as they prepare for exams. Building a new life in mainstream society can feel like leaving your mom and siblings behind. It’s not so easy to do. It takes years of care and guidance for people to break the chains of intergenerational trafficking.
Our newest Resource Center is in the Kidderpore red light area. This is the first place that HFC worked in India, in 2006, and it remains dear to our hearts. We opened Kidderpore Center in early 2024, with the first program being a thrift store. Maura gets clothing and home goods donated, and community women run the shop. This gives local people the dignity of being able to choose and purchase clothes at a very low price. Plus, it keeps unwanted items out of landfills. The Kidderpore Center also serves as a meeting place for our school sponsored children and for non-school going children (including children who work as ‘ragpickers’ – going through garbage in search of sellable items).
The day I visited, we offered one of our classic arts workshops – Art for Healing. We showed a powerpoint on artists who used their art to express personal pain (Frida Kahlo) or social justice issues (Shepherd Fairey, Faith Ringgold, and Nepali environmental activist Asha Dangol). The kids voted on their favorite artist and then made their own issue-based art. Many of the kids chose to make art about climate change and gender equality.
From right to left: Issue-based art by Shepherd Fairey, kids sharing their own Art for Healing
NEXT GENERATION LEADERSHIP: The greatest satisfaction for me is when young people who grew up in HFC programs step into their power and use their leadership skills and the education and values they have received to help and inspire younger kids. This happened in a special way on this trip, when two former beneficiaries – Anu (now an MSW student) and Sonali (the girls who interviewed Mrs. Michelle Obama – now a college student) – joined Maura and I to co-lead a day of workshops at NIjoloy shelter. It was heart-lifting to see the way the girls at the shelter related to these young leaders. Anu grew up at that same shelter, so she gave a talk on her experience and how she is moving forward in her life. We did a panel discussion with both young women on the challenges facing girls in India, and what we can all do to move us all forward.
As always, I am deeply grateful for HFC to play its part, and grateful to you – our incredible community of love – for making it possible. As we enter our 20th year, there is so much to celebrate!
To be continued….