Today, we are in Mumbai – by the way, Indians still call it Bombay, its only the English and officials who use its new name. Had a short flight from Jaipur to here early in the morning, and after a quick catnap and lunch, we were off once more.
Well what a day. Finally here in India and everything is such an experience. Trying to get some of the thoughts out of my head and into this blog after a comfortable night.
We arrived safely at Delhi airport after a good flight, although none of us got much sleep, because of crying babies. Anyway, they fed us supper at 11pm our time, (I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that late in all my life), and woke us by putting all the lights on at 3am our time to have breakfast.
The airport terminal was plush and could have been anywhere, apparently built specially for the commonwealth games, but the entire airport was surrounded by building work.
Jo, from the India office met us and and has been wonderful. Driving in India is not for the feint hearted. There seem to be no rules of right of way, other than who can honk their horn the loudest and who out-chickens who.
There was a vast assortment of vehicles on the road, which is full of enormous pot holes, honestly we moan at home but that is nothing!
There was a motorcycle with a woman, holding a baby riding side saddle on the back, bicycles piled high with goods, rickshaws and buses that look so battered you wouldn’t expect them to work, let alone be allowed on the road. But as yet no cows!!
The hotel is great and we have nice clean rooms with all the amenities. We wanted to explore Delhi a little this afternoon, sleep deprivation forgotten, to get a flavour of it, as we had not got anything on the itinerary, and were advised to visit the Lotus temple, just 10 minutes down the road.
After an exhilarating taxi ride (not brave enough to try the tuk-tuks yet) found ourselves at a beautiful oasis of green. The temple is shaped like a lotus flower in white marble, and there were lots of families there visiting, as tourists, like us.
It was beautiful and very peaceful. We had to take our shoes off and observe silence inside. It was a Baha’i house of worship, which as far as I could understand, wants to unite all the faiths of the world, bringing them to work and worship in harmony.
Many of their ideals, for equality of men and women, elimination of prejeudice and discrimination, universal and compulsory education, the elimination of poverty could all be those of Eglantyne Jebb herself.
The people were very welcoming, although we stood out, and were asked to have our photos taken by Indians who wanted their photo taken with a westerner. We were accosted by a large group of school children who all wanted to practise their excellent English on us, and they then laughed at us trying to say “Namaste” (hello) to them in return.
The families were dressed in their Sunday best and the children were beautiful in their colourful clothes. We noticed the black colouring around the children’s eyes, like eyeshadow, which looked very dramatic.
Later our photographer told us that the painting of children’s eyes is a cultural tradition and is supposed to ward off the “evil eye”. And actually, Save the Children, through the education of midwives, are trying to help people understand that the Kohl they use to give children the dark eyes is detrimental to their sight and can lead to loss of sight as it gradually blocks the tear ducts.
Other such traditions, such as removing a new born baby from the mother just after birth so she does not give the baby her yellow breast milk, which is thought to be tainted, is deeply ingrained in the culture and needs careful education to re-educate on the benefits of chlostrum milk.
We have had a fascinating and wonderful first day, but today we will see a different side to life as we visit a street children project and the slums of Delhi to see a mobile health clinic.
Tomorrow we have a very early start when we catch the 6.00am train to Jaipur, which if I can stay awake should be great.
The First Monster is a team duathlon that takes place along the shores of Loch Ness, Scotland. The actual event is a 120km loop around the Loch with running and cycling sections. Each team member is required to complete both a run and a bike leg. Four team members from Save the Children Farringdon volunteered to put themselves through their paces.
From Bangladesh to New York City. We met women and children who told us their stories. We heard about children dying from things like diarrhea. Now we’re here in NYC to hold world leaders to account. They must keep their promises when they discuss world poverty at the UN Millennium Goals Summit. Adrian Lovett and Sian To discuss why Save the Children are in New York pressing world leaders for change.
EVERY ONE campaign chair Adrian Lovett shows you round the campaign’s art installation at Grand Central Station in New York, representing the three million supporters of the EVERY ONE campaign.
As part of our series of BackRoom Briefings, Patrick Watt addresses Millenium Development Goals 4 & 5, and proposes how we can get back on track with world leaders’ promises to reduce the awful levels of child mortality and maternal health before 2015.
Ahead of this week’s crucial MDG Summit, we asked children, doctors, health workers, mothers and ordinary people from around the world what we can do to stop children dying.
It’s monsoon and, during these rainy days, my mind wanders to thoughts of ten-year-old Tariq. I remember his family cowering under their small shack in Koyra of southwestern Bangladesh.
Most of all I remember his tranquil big brown eyes cloud over with fear when he spoke about Cyclone Aila.
In Niger’s bustling capital, Niamey, it’s easy to forget that more than 80 percent of people in this country are dependent on the land for food and their livelihood.
Most are extremely poor – a combination of regular poor harvests which yield little and a hand to mouth existence when the harvests are good.
We need community workers, cars and fuel to physically go out, find these children, bring them back and save their lives.
And we need to help families in the longer term. They need food now, but they also needs to be protected from having to sell seeds and tools for just a few days of food.
