It all started on November 7, 2008… It was my first trip in India, going to live my first voluntery’s experience in an association (Jeanamitabh) in Bodhgaya, Bihar. For six weeks, I helped and worked as a teacher in the orphanage of the association. We can say, I had my own “illumination”!
Of course, I lived and shared misery, disease, begging, but I remember just that strength and spirituality, the energy of this population… I feld in love with India.
The clash of cultures has not made me fear, instead, I was amazed, and I understood the words of sister Emmanuelle: “the wealth of poverty”. In this other world, completely opposed to mine, I had start again from scratch. Relearn the politeness, the way to live, to wash, to watch, to dress! It’s not always obvious for a young girl of 19 years! I introduce myself in their lifestyles and than i start to understand their life. I start to realize who hard it is to be a girl in India, I saw them early in the morning, selling some spice at the market, and then later, working in the fields under the hard sun…working working until night time. Not a life of a young girl….
How can not be sensitive to this?
Our ”illimination”: create our own school, making this project with local’s friends (thanks Vikash!!! and all my friends). School for those girls!!!! In the Bihar state, 80% of the girls will never go to school!!!!!!! Even if womens are fighting for their social place, attitudes remain traditionally patriarchal, be a girl means harder life. So, we start the projet! Now it’s amazing!!!!!!!! So was born the association: the Deedi’s School (registered to the Indian Government).
In France, the association has no legal status, it’s Indian soo we created CHUMA (which means kiss in hindi),to serves as a financial bridge between France and India!
(In India, 1 Euro = 68 rupees, for idea, a meal = 15 rupees!).