Shikshangram Shelter in India

Shikshangram is a shelter that cares for 120 children. They feed, provide health checks, education and most of all a home. Many of these children are picked up from Railway stations in India and many have HIV. Yogita and Satish Moon, alongside many volunteers make a difference in these children's lives.
This email was sent to me by a volunteer, Shazar. She has been working in this shelter for many years.

Here is what she wrote:

"Its hard not to cry as I write these words - But what this is about:

I am so mad at the moment - my passion is to get water together for the impoverished Indian farmers.. I keep looking "over there" trying to work out how it is that I can raise the money for creating some more water harvesting structures and right under my nose, every day there is a problem here just getting water to our kids here at the Shelter.

For four days this week I have had no water in my bathroom. That’s meant it has been difficult for me to wash my clothes - to flush the toilet and even some mornings to get water to brush my teeth. But that’s not really the problem. 'My' tank also supplies the water filter for our 70 boys so they haven’t had any filtered water for four days either.
Last night I discovered that also the girls hostel had no filtered water.. the pipe that supplies their bathroom is broken so even though we have managed to get water to the top tank, it isn’t reaching down to their washing room or the new water filter that was given to them two weeks ago.

The pipes from the spring where we get our supply of water have daily been broken.. cows walking on them? disgruntled neighbours giving us a hard time? who knows but constant repairing and patching is needed.
The stream and spring is still flowing well.. but our hoses are so patched and joined that by the time they get half way to the tanks much of the precious water is lost to leakage.

There is much more to this story but I shall get to the point.

Its not rosy in the world this morning here at Shikshangram. Its one of the intensely challenging times that we find ourselves in.

Its a crunch time. and yes there are always those times with 120 kids to feed - and my work here is not only about their daily needs - it is also about helping people to see and understand how to build a sustainable model to keep this place and other organisations like it afloat and effective.

That’s what I am faced with .. that’s the big job here.. the work of discovering how best to communicate to assist those who are running the show to allocate their time and funds and resources in the most effective way to become sustainable. Sometimes I feel intensely like "what the hell am I doing here?”... and just chucking it all in and running away.

But that is not what I have to do today!

We have to get this water supply here back on an even keel. We have to get water to the girls' bathroom. We have to get the filters working so the kids don’t come down with an epidemic of diarrhoea.

You know I don’t do this too often. but could you please do me a very big personal favour and give us a hand with this. And now that there is a crisis it is a good time for me to be able to really tell them how I see it .. and give some real value in sorting the systems out. Can you give me a hand while I do that?

Its not just the water.. but that is the biggest issue in front of my mind. and right now - I am asking you for some help in putting out this particular flash fire."