For more information on this
project, please go to:
www.projects.danaforsberg.com
Student Photos will be up from Dec 4, 2009 for the month of December
at:
Open Space Yoga's new Gallery
1111 Nuuanu Ave., Suite #211
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
(next to Indigo Restaurant & upstairs)
Chinatown - Get
Map
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 Current Projects 1. Photo Project - "India through Girls' Eyes: Empowering Village Girls with Cameras"  Village students with Paula Allestorfer, treasurer of our foundation This is a project that will allow the girls to have an opportunity to learn an artistic skill. Our hope is that this will provide rural girls the chance to showcase their unique vision and experiences. The project aspires to build self-esteem, and facilitate problem-solving skills, and expand the girls' abilities and potential for employment. We hope to inspire families & the community to value educational opportunities education for their daughters. We envision this project as a way for girls to reflect on their lives, create dialog about their experiences, and communicate their hopes and dreams. Project Benefits · To give young people a chance to learn a skill and gain self-esteem. · Provide the unique educational opportunity that visual arts provide. · To allow rural girls the chance to share a perspective that has otherwise been excluded from the voices heard from India today. · To give the students skills that may benefit themselves and their families economically. · Showcase to rural communities the value of education for girls and show their parents and others in the village that educating girls can be a valuable thing to do. Project Details Photographer Dana Forsberg will teach 20 girls camera skill and learning to see with a camera. The photographers will participate in 3 weeks of half-day and several field instructional sessions. In addition to learning technical skills and fundamental principles of the visual language, the girls will be encouraged to discover their distinctive view of the world. They will be provided camera, a photo printer set up to use to print their photos as well as set up a site where they can post there images. The students will be from various villages, and we are hoping that at least several of them will be able to market their newly acquired skills within their village. Currently, the demand for photos of family, friends, and marriages is tremendous. Yet, most villages in the region have no photographer for hire. We see this as a great opportunity for the students. The following photos are from the 3 week course taught by Dana Forberg with the help of Paula Allestorfer during their trip to the village in May-June 2009. Click on image
to enlarge
2. Education Since statehood, the Chhattisgarh government has instituted several programs to help Scheduled Caste girls who attend school up through tenth grade. Although it is an extremely positive step on the part of the government, for many families the aid is not sufficient to overcome the burden of sending their daughters to school. Girls who are not in school assist in the fields and at home. Additionally, those in school have less desire to get married early, and this means continued financial obligation on the part of the family. Sahayog is working to help at this point by providing necessary monetary assistance for educational needs such as tuition, books, school uniforms (required in all government schools), and bicycles for transportation to school. When feasible and necessary, Sahayog also provides direct economic assistance to families of some of the girls as well. While the majority of economic support is directed at girls, some boys from poor families are being helped as well. The Foundation regularly monitors the performance of all the youth who receive assistance, stressing the need for them to study and show through their performance in school that they are making positive use of the help they receive. Thus, efforts are being made to insure that whatever is provided goes to those who are using it to better their educational abilities. Currently, Sahayog is providing economic assistance to more than 80 students, many of whom would not be in school without the support. Additionally, several families have received milk cows to help provide nutrition to their school age children. Sahayog is also helping several local schools by providing monetary assistance for them to meet some of the basic supply needs they currently lack. These include such necessities as work tables, writing materials, maps and other geographic materials, microscopes for high school biology classes, and sports equipment to promote physical education. We also plan to help refurbish and repaint the walls of many of the classrooms because of their degraded and chipping paint, some of which contains lead. The photos below are of students from a government girls primary school we are helping to support: Click on image to enlarge
3. Guidance Counseling Guidance counseling within the communities to expand awareness of the importance of female access to education, both academic and technical, is vital. In the process, Sahayog is working on initiatives to help families overcome the damage to self-confidence and self-awareness that is the result of poverty, lack of opportunity, and continued existence at the bottom of the social system. 4. Health Assistance Health care in rural India is a mixture of traditional practices and limited access to Western style medicine. Although many of the traditional health care methods are sound and effective, unfortunately many are not passed on to subsequent generations, and much of this valuable knowledge has been lost. Sahayog recognizes the importance of these traditions but also believes that access to Western-style approaches to health care have an important role to play as well. We try to promote traditional health practices while also providing access to contemporary health care when necessary. Two recent examples of our assistance: 1. In early 2007, a 12-year-old girl was diagnosed with an eye disease that affects her vision and may lead to blindness. Sahayog provided her medicine to allay the progression of the illness while we arrange for her treatment at a hospital. Since the requisite facilities are not available in any of the cities nearby, we are arranging for her to travel to one of the major cities, where such treatment is available. 2. Also in early 2007, a 14-year-old boy named Hem Kumar was diagnosed with a failing heart valve. His family was told that the boy had less than a year to live if he did not have the surgery to replace the faulty valve. After much searching, the family was able to secure financial assistance from the government to cover the surgery, while Sahayog provided the financial assistance for the boy and his family to travel to Mumbai for the surgery as well as for the post-operative care. The operation occurred on April 24, 2007, and the boy is back home recovering. Doctors have told his family that his prognosis is good, and the Foundation is continuing to provide support for the family as he recuperates. 
 Hem Kumar in April 2007 and one year later in April 2008 Long Term Projects Educational Center Sahayog is undertaking a long-term project to build a free school and a health and education center in the village of Matiya, District Raipur. Our school will specifically target needy and qualified youth and will provide both academic and technical training. Initially, we plan to offer grades nine through twelve, since most rural government schools have first through the eighth grades. Eventually, we plan to have grades one through eight as well, if a need exists. Efforts to secure the necessary land will hopefully bear fruit during early 2008. Once this is accomplished, construction will begin shortly thereafter. Among the plans being considered for the school building are solar electricity, solar hot water production, and use of recycled or recyclable materials wherever possible. In addition to academic education, we plan to offer be technical training so students can learn practical skills to be used in their everyday lives. These include such abilities as, sewing, making incense, making crafts, etc. We also plan to promote both the teaching and performance of traditional cultural practices at the school that foster self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-awareness, physical well-being, and community cooperation. In supporting the latter two, we also plan to have an athletic field where villagers, both youth and adults, can participate in various sports, such as soccer, cricket, volleyball, and basketball. Health Center As a part of the our school and education center, Sahayog is planning to build and run a health center as well. The center will work in conjunction with the Village Health and Sanitation Committee, a government-sponsored organization, to supplement the health care needs of the local rural poor. It will serve several functions. First, it will be a rural health sub-centre (government designation) that will provide basic care and care facilities. Second, it will serve as a diagnostic center where villagers can receive health-care counseling, diagnosis, and referral. For this purpose, Sahayog plans to maintain contact with both government and private hospitals within the state, and in other states, where more seriously ill villagers can be referred for treatment. Third, the center will host health-care workers from India and abroad who wish to volunteer their services for the betterment of the rural population. Once the center is near completion, we will begin the process of accepting volunteers for this work. |
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