Pallavi and Sumitra -- eight years later!

If you were with us in 2005 when we first started our work, you may remember Pallavi and Sumitra, two little girls we met on the streets of Mysore, where they lived with their moms. See how your support has helped change the lives of these two little street girls.

Before we met the girls in 2005, we ran into Sumitra one day in early 2004 -- her grannie was out begging with Sumirtra and, after we gave her a few rupees, she put Sumitra down on the sidewalk and scurried away for a few minutes.

Sumitra in 2004

Back in 2005, even when living on the street, Pallavi and Sumitra were happy little girls. They sure got dirty and were malnourished, but they smiled a lot and played with each other and were happy kids most of the time. They and their friends captured our hearts with their big smiles. 

Pallavi in 2005

Both Pallavi and Sumitra had tuberculosis as little girls. Sumitra was severely malnourished as a baby and got a viral infection that likely affected her brain. When they lived on the street, their moms struggled to feed them each day. They overcame their illnesses but the effects linger. Sumitra is small for her age and Pallavi suffered chronic ear infections. She recently needed to have both ears operated on. 

Pallavi and Sumitra in 2006

Back then, Pallavi and Sumitra were really good friends. They went everywhere together, played together, and slept on the same sidewalk at night. In 2008, they moved to our children's home together and, today, they remain good friends.

During the past five and a half years at KM, a lot has changed for Pallavi and Sumitra. After her ear operations, Pallavi's hearing noticeably improved and, with that, her performance in school. Both girls love karate and dancing classes at KM. They are a bit slower in school than our other kids, so they get one-on-two tutoring each day after school with their teacher, Chandrika Miss, who also talks to them about basic good habits like staying clean and neat and keeping their belongings tidy.

Pallavi in 2012

Sumitra in 2012

Sometimes we wonder what life would have been like for Pallavi and Sumitra had they not come to Karunya Mane to live--we can guess that life would have been difficult and they likely would not be in school right now. We're just happy for them that they are doing much better now. They also can't imagine going back to their lives on the street and tell us often that they like living at the "ashrama."

Sumitra and Pallavi with their tutor after school

We're pleased when their mothers refer other poor children to us because that tells us that they might be happy with how their girls are doing at Karunya Mane. Best of all, Pallavi and Sumitra get to be kids and are just enjoying their childhood, as all kids should.

The annual home visit!

Each year, during the school vacation (April and May), the kids at Karunya Mane go home for two or three days. They like their visits home, where they see friends and family and eat good food cooked by mom. They are also happy to return to Karunya Mane (whew!), and we are always glad to have them back.

This year, the kids were home from April 7-10. During that time, the parents were given the task to take their kids to get their Aadhaar card (new ID card in India), and open bank accounts for them so that they could begin to save money for their kids. Most of the parents did well with their assigned tasks.

Of course, the kids had homework to do when at home, and the parents ensured that they all completed their reading and writing! The kids also wrote a report for us on their home visits. Here are a few excerpts.

• Vinod (6th grade): "On 7/04/13 at 2.00 in the afternoon, my brother took me home. That day night we ate chicken. Later, I brushed my teeth. I woke up in the morning, brushed my teeth and took a bath. We went to the palace and other few temples. On 10/04/13, we came back to the ashram at 2.00 p.m. On 14/04/13, I went to summer camp."

• Swarana (2nd grade): "On Sunday at 3:00 p.m. I went home in an auto. There my brother gave me fruits. I ate fruits. Later, when my father came back from his work, he brought some snacks. We ate it. Later, I had supper at night, took a bath and slept. Morning, I brushed my teeth, took a bath and had meals. Later, I played with my younger brother and had my lunch at 1.00 p.m. Later, I wrote my homework. My father gave me some money and I bought some snacks from a shop and shared it with my brother. My mother prepared vada and meals for supper. I ate it and washed my plates and slept. Next day, my mother was not feeling well. My mother was vomiting. I and my brother went to a shop and bought Vicks for my mother. Later, I took a bath. My father prepared uppittu for us. We ate it. My mother was washing the plates and I went there and helped her. My father was painting our home at night. My younger brother was running around. Me and my elder brother went behind him and brought him back home. Netra and I helped them. In the morning, I took bath and dressed in new clothes. We were preparing for the death anniversary of our grandfather. Me, Lalita and my elder brother went to a shop and bought flowers, fruits, camphor and other things. Later, we kept vada and other foods for grandfather and after that, we had our lunch and came back to the ashram in an auto. Thank you."

Little brother Harish, mom Uma, Vinod, Lalita, Netra, Swarana, dad Raju

• Padmanabha (4th grade, who dod not go home because he just arrived at KM): "I came to Karunya Mane on 22/1/13. I like this place. Here everyone looks after me very well. I have committed two mistakes at school. I promised Banu Aunty that I will never commit such mistakes in the future. We all enjoyed here the day of Holi by applying colors on each other. I like the food serve here. I thank Tracy for sending me to the camp. I like the camp. My uncle was very happy after seeing me. He said to me now you are in good condition. My work here is to arrange the school bags. I will study well and bring good name to this orphanage."

Padmanabha and Uncle Suresh

• Sharath: "When we went to home from Ashram we ate ice cream. Later, we purchased clothes and we tried them out, and then we reached home. After a bath, I changed my dress. Later, I had food and then we went to see KRS. We saw the fountain dance and went boating. We went to a shop and ate watermelon and we purchased fish and went back to home. Later, we had food and slept. In the morning at 6.00 a.m. I woke up and brushed my teeth and took a bath. I had milk and a bun and ate some food. We went to get our Aadhaar cards, we took photos for it and went back to home at 10.00 a.m. At 3.00 p.m. we went to the bank. They asked for our Aadhaar card at the bank and my mother gave it to them. They asked for a photo. We took photos and went home. Mother prepared milk and I drank it and slept for some time. She woke me up. Later, I washed my hands, legs and face and had food. Again, I felt sleepy and slept. At 12:00 a.m. at night they woke me up. I asked “why?”, they said “to cut the cake”. That was my birthday! At night, I gave cake to everyone. After brushing my teeth, taking bath, wearing dress and arranging my clothes in a bag, I came back here on the scooter."

• Pavan (6th grade): "On April 7, at 2.00 p.m., I went to my native place along with my mother. My grandfather and grandmother were waiting for my arrival. That day night, they prepared chicken for me. I brushed my teeth before sleeping after food. On April 8, I woke up in the morning, took a bath, brushed my teeth, said prayer, had food, went to get my Aadhaar card, and went to the temple. On April 9, I went to see my friends. On April 10, I came back to orphanage. On April 14, I am going to the drama camp. I liked the holidays."

Pavan and mom Bagya

• Kartik (4th grade, who did not go home because his father is traveling all the time): "As a counselor Venkatesh Sir comes to our orphanage. Here, Banu Aunty takes care of us. Yoga Aunty cooks food for us. Except Sunday, we have tuition on all the other days of the week. Weekly one day we have singing class. Weekly three days we have karate class. Every Sunday, we have shopping time. Every month on the last Sunday, we get chicken dishes. Every day, I read the Vijaya Karnataka newspaper. Here, my works are washing clothes and cleaning the staircase. I got 2nd place in the sack race. In tuition class, Savitha Miss teaches me nicely. In the future, I will study well. Here, we grandly celebrate the Ganesh festival, Yugadi festival and Christmas. On the day of the Holi festival, we all poured colors and danced here. On Sankrathi feast, we ate sesame and coconut. Every day we used the iPad for half an hour."

Kartik and dad Shivanna

Other kids and their parents:

Vishnu, Shilpa, Jeevan, mom Kamala, baby Aakash

Pallavi, mom Sushila, Vishnu

Mahesh, mom Sushila, Raju

Shanti and mom Puttamma

Awards at school

This year, a few of our big kids and little kids won awards at school -- in categories like attendance, good behavior, cleanliness, sports performance, and citizenship...

Anand, Nanjunda, Vishnu, Pallavi, Sowmya, Tunmaya

After a full summer (April, May) of playing and some tutoring, the kids are all starting school again at the end of May.  

"Little Girl" by Deborah Crooks

A friend of Operation Shanti donated a song to us. We've used it here:

Project Dog House

Another summer project for our older kids was building a dog house for our three dogs, who came with our kids from the street. Here's what they came up with. Not bad for using extra materials around the facility and a bit of cement -- and all for under $10!

Mom Maggie and her puppies arrived last year. Puppies Gundha and Shirley are now fully grown. Having pets around teaches the kids not to beat them and hit them, and to take good care of their animals.

The older kids are also responsible for washing and walking the dogs when they aren't studying. Considering our dogs are street mutts, they sure are nice and clean. And friendly!

Sumitra, Devaraj, Manikanta, Jyothi, Netra, and Pallavi
hanging out in front of the dog house.

Spotlight on (and goodbye to) a volunteer -- "Kim Madam Kim Madam!"

Kim came to Mysore in 2006 to practice yoga and to volunteer at a charity. She started with Operation Shanti in the fall of 2006, and helped our kids and moms for two years, until mid-2008. Now, Kim is leaving Mysore for the "greener pastures" of Argentina, and we thought that we'd, along with our kids and moms, say goodbye to her and thank her for all of her contributions to our work. There were many.

with Pallavi, Apu, and Latta in our Street People Program in 2006

Kim started out volunteering with our street kids and moms, and she was involved with just about everything that we do -- from teaching our little kids their ABCs...

with Jyothi, Parveen, and Pallavi in early 2007

...to making monthly visits to the kids that we had placed in a residential school...

with Chumi, mom Kumari, and Venkatesh -- JSS Suttur 2007

...and to teaching yoga to our kids on Sundays.

Pallavi, Latta, Prema, Antony, Raguvendra, Nanjunda doing sun salutations

Kim also helped with taking our women and kids to the doctor when they got sick, made friends with the friendly ENT doctor who did Prema's ear operations, and gave it to the nasty doctor at Cheluvamba who insulted and abused one of our moms who had gone for  birth control advice.

Kim says, "There were many beautiful, heart-warming (and sometimes hilarious!) moments while I worked with Operation Shanti; however, to have witnessed how far the kids and moms have come over the past few years is the best overall experience. It's wonderful to see many of our kids now off the streets and living in Karunya Mane, a safe shelter where they're healthy, happy, thriving and getting a good education. And some of the moms have worked so hard and empowered themselves to turn their lives around by leaving dangerous and abusive domestic situations, for example. Now they're leading more peaceful and productive lives, taking excellent care of themselves and their children, and giving themselves the chance of a better future."

On the difficult times as a volunteer: "Definitely the most difficult part of volunteering for Operation Shanti was working with the terminally ill in our program--sadly watching them suffer while their lives slipped away, and then eventually saying goodbye. It was also challenging, and oftentimes maddening, to work within a system and a society that for the most part turns its back on the destitute--especially destitute women. To watch how inhumanely the poor can be treated here is just as sad and tragic as watching them die."

Recently, Kim paid a visit to the kids who are now at Karunya Mane to say goodbye before she leaves Mysore. Many of them remembered her fondly. When Prema saw Kim, she ran to her brother Venkatesh and said, "Kim madam! Kim madam!"

with little Vishnu

Even little Vishnu remembered Kim. She took him to the dentist after she noticed that his two front teeth had started rotting (mom was feeding him milk at night to help him sleep but often forgot to brush his teeth afterwards), and they spent quality time together during their several visits to the dentist.

And, what does Kim take with her to her next adventure from Operation Shanti and India? "All of the following but now to a greater degree: patience, tolerance, unconditional love, compassion, empathy, an open heart, and the joy in life's simple things."

More art supplies

Thanks to the dedicated effort of Tracy and Ray, their supply of arts and crafts materials -- crayons, color pencils, glue, paints, papers of all kinds and much more -- gathered from generous donors throughout the year arrived at Karunya Mane.

Some of the stuff they brought!

The kids are really enjoying their Sunday projects with our current volunteers Sara, Jen, and Ashley.

Ray helps Pallavi and Jyothi decorate the little stick figures with clothing and hair

Sara with her bunch of kids

Recently, the kids made these:

Jen with Manikanta and Prema

Latta

Jeevan

Happy birthday (again) Sreenevasa!

Well, Sreenevasa decided that he wanted his own cake for his birthday, today. So we figured why not, since he's likely never celebrated his birthday before---at least not the official way---and the kids do love cake! After cake, they went right to studying.

Kaleem, Harish, Nanjunda, Sreenevasa

Parveen, Anand, Arvind, Pallavi

Sinchana, Parveen, Anand, Arvind

The May fundraiser

On May 23, the "One Night Off the Mat" fundraiser was hosted by Santosa Cafe, good friends of Operation Shanti. Food was donated by Anu and Ganesh of Anu's Internet Cafe. Countless people helped organize the event, and numerous generous folks in the community donated chai, auction prizes, and entertainment. The event was a huge success, a lot of fun for all, and raised enough funds to help pay for school fees, bunk beds, and medicines for our kids at Karunya Mane.

The first seven kids that we met three years ago (Chumi, Pallavi, Latta, Prema, Venkatesh, Nanjunda, and Asha) attended the event. They had a great time watching the magician do his tricks and the Snake Sam show off his incredibly slippery snakes!

Latta and Richard hanging out

They also loved the chocolate-covered bananas and the chocolate fountain. The auction was the hit of the evening, with PJ and Richard as emcees, and many in the community donating amazing prizes.

As one generous donor said, "We were just doing our homework. Bad karma: 0; Good karma: 1".

Om namah shivaya.

Nanjunda, Pallavi, and Sumitra, and a bunch of yoga students