In January 2020 I arrived in Goa for the first time to volunteer for 4 weeks in El Shaddai. I don’t have children of my own. I never wanted them actually. In fact I don’t even like children very much if I’m honest.
In my corporate life I worked in Mumbai and Delhi a few times and seeing the street orphans changed me…fundamentally. I come from England where there is a LOT less poverty. I have never seen happier kids in my life than those on the road side and under bridges in India. They were often in nothing but a pair of knickers….but I never saw more smiles in my life. They seem to have a deep appreciation and enjoyment of life in a way that we don’t. They touched my soul.
My goal is to raise much needed funds for El Shaddai and be a small part in helping the beautiful children grow into confident, creative individuals who can have opportunities to excel and live with positive attitudes to succeed in life.
I’m not a teacher, or a medic, or a parent so I had no idea what I could do for El Shaddai. I was worried that they might ask me to take a class with the kids – honestly that would be more scary that presenting to 1000 employees for me!
On day 1 I met Matthew and Anita the 2 co-founders of El Shaddai. Realising that my corporate background was different they asked me to help with the challenges of the management team. It was agreed that I would shadow Anita everywhere she went for a month to look for ideas to improve/help out. As a result I was lucky to see around 90% of the operations of El Shaddai. It is a business truly run from the heart. The kids are the centre of everything. I witnessed 1000 more smiles than tears. I saw with my own eyes an unbelievably heart-warming business that can, incredibly, home, feed and educate a child for £1 a day.
Having run multi-million pound companies, I could dig into the books and study the accounts. Many people are concerned about the % of their charitable donations that find their way to the good causes for the charities they are supporting. I was amazed and delighted to discover that 92% of funds raised are spent on projects and programmes. Only 6% goes on admin and 2% on marketing and fund raising. Corporations could learn a lot from El Shaddai. I witnessed this first hand in the projects……. every pound and every square inch of space is used wisely and creatively.
My favourite project is called Little Acorns. With only 150 sqm of space they look after 135 children a day. 135!! The ‘adorables ‘ (as I call them) arrive first for playtime and social skills. After a few hours they sleep in another room when the junior school level children arrive for a class. The older children arrive in the afternoon to do their individual work. No one gets a seat or a table. Class sizes are double that of the UK but the level of joy, respect and progress I saw with my own eyes proves that love, care and attention is more powerful than ‘things.’
One day, Anita asked me to go to the slums to meet their outreach workers. Their job is to identify the most vulnerable children. Without support, the children are looking a life of poverty, forced labour and often abuse and prostitution. El Shaddai can break the circle by working with the parents to give the children an education, clothes and sometimes a home, until the parents can improve their situation.
I met a wonderful extended family with many children. El Shaddai was already housing and schooling 2 of the children who they get to see every couple of weeks. A year into this relationship with ES the parents were considering sending 2 more of the children to the school. I left the children with hope that El Shaddai may get the opportunity to do more for this lovely family in dreadful conditions who only had a broken tarpaulin to sleep and shelter under.
1 recorded my own experience on the slums and these 2 photos touched me the most. The joy of the smile from the little girl was so typical of what I see in India every day. She lives in the slum yet she can smile at life. The other was of two brothers from the extended family I met. I asked them if I could take their photo. They were shy – I guess that doesn’t happen very often! Unexpectedly these two boys went on to change my life…..as El Shaddai went on to change theirs.
About a week later I was working in the office near Anita (Mother Anita as everyone calls her – for obvious reasons!. I heard a squeal of excitement. Anita called me and I rushed outside. She had seen that 2 new boys had just arrived and wanted me to see the induction process. The boys had just had a shower and been given new clothes and I went out to meet them. I was really overcome to find it was the same 2 boys I had photographed on the slum. How could that be? It was obviously meant to be. I was stunned and so happy at the same time.
The boys had been brought in by their mother. The first thing that struck me was how calm and happy she looked. She was just about to leave 2 of her boys, not just to be schooled but to live in a rescue home. That must have been a huge wrench for her. I can’t go into the circumstances of her home situation to protect the privacy of the family but I can only imagine it was a huge relief to get her children off the slums. She also knew that the charity was doing amazing work with their extended family. What an amazing future lies ahead for these boys
El Shaddai homes are open to the public, sponsors and volunteers every day from 4.30 to 6.00. They have nothing to hide and the kids love the help and attention. For a few weeks both boys were put in the same home together. Neither child spoke a word of English or any Indian dialect spoken by the staff or children. Little Mischief, as I will call him, was very happy to see me and clung to me until I had to leave them to have their evening meal. With only 24 hours behind him he seemed to be doing really well. He was quiet but already connecting with his new friends.
It didn’t take long for ‘Mischief’ to settle into his new home.
El Shaddai’s largest School is behind the office so I regularly popped across to see if I could see how the boys were settling in. I was thrilled to see the 2 boys arrive on their first day of school in their new uniforms. I could already see their confidence building despite the speed of change in their lives. Cheeky chappies in the making!
Behind every door a new experience lay ahead for the boys in their first week. Now in school they had to learn a way of life living with 350 other children in a small space, no longer on the slum. Here they are queuing (no one queues in a slum!) ….to get into Bollywood dance class. They didn’t even know what Bollywood was……the power of dance to open a world of joy for children was the other side of the door.
Children can learn at the speed of lightning if given the right environment in which to flourish. Both boys (centre front and the taller one at the back) are fully ‘in the moment’ of a brand new wave of fun. It was such a beautiful moment to witness in their journey of their new life.
My volunteer journey in January 2020 was an emotional one. My days in the office, with the wonderful management team, were close to my corporate experience, although filled with a lot more heart spaced work than I was used to. I confessed to you that, when I arrived, I didn’t even like children very much but it was my time with the children that changed everything. Every moment in El Shaddai you witness that the route to true happiness comes not from ‘things’ but from the gifts of unconditional love and connections. All these children need is an opportunity and a fair shot in life.
I left with more than I brought to them. The children gave me a beautiful song in their assembly as my departing gift. I knew then that I would be back. I didn’t know it would be 4 years til I could return but that emotional connection stayed strong during difficult times of seperation.
