New Light

Dear Roxie,

I couldn't help but think of the first short story you wrote in my class, about a street child in India finding a baby and deciding to take care of that baby no matter what. It really is in our nature to take care of each other, it seems that often we let other concerns get in the way of that instinctive drive
Yesterday afternoon I met a woman who has followed her instinct to take care of others and started an organization called New Light (www.newlightindia.org) in one of Calcutta's oldest red light districts near the temple of Kali.
Urmi Basu began reaching out to the children of Kalighat when a group of boys asked her to help fund their football match. Urmi saw the remarkable need to educate these children and help them rise up from a life that promised poverty and crime.
So New Light began with 10,000 rupees ($100 USD) and a lot of ambition, and most importantly support from the women themselves, who like all mothers, wanted more for their children.
When we visited about 70 children came into the multipurpose room that serves as a classroom, workshop for mothers who recycle old sarees into scarves or other clothing, and homework spot. The children sang India's national anthem and then sat for meditation for about ten minutes, yawning and a little bit squirmy, they nonetheless tried their best to relax and focus as they had been taught.
With a staff of around thirty-four, Urmi is able to keep New Light open twenty-four hours a day. Children come to the center to eat, for tutoring, and if they would like to sleep as well. And staff are everywhere, a mix of women and men who teach and nurture the children. Raju, a teacher who met us at the Kalighat police station and guided us to New Light, told me he had been working there since Urmi started in 2000.
It's not hard to see why staff stick around, after meditation, the children laid mats on the floor and pulled out their homework. They attend regular government run schools or even private schools, funded completely by New Light, and come to the center for remedial help. I watched Raju sit cross-legged I front of a small group of four students, and begin to give a lesson on geography. I. A country where classrooms can be as large as seventy of eighty children, having a private tutor is essential to educational success.
It was Ruma, however, who captured my attention. She begged me to sit next to her, and then pulled out a primary English workbook. For the next forty-five minutes, Ruma took me through a wide variety of lessons, showing off her English skills and insisting I teach her more. With her determination and sparkle, I could easily see Ruma working on the staff of the Oberoi or some other hotel that caters to Westerners. At eight or nine, she can see the importance of learning English.
New Light is not without volunteers or support, but it can always use more. At home we are often bombarded with pleas to give to charitable organizations in third world countries, and I am skeptical about what happens to that money. At New Light I could see charity happening before my eyes.