Today, for the first time in a year and a half, I visited the New Ark Mission, a charitable organization. The New Ark Mission was started in 1997 by Raja, an autorickshaw driver. He began by taking people who were dying on the streets into his home and caring for them.
Currently, there are about 750 people living there, including children. Most of them have amnesia or mental illness. Every day, someone is picked up and every day, someone dies. It is a place where people live and die everyday. There is no government support, and everything is made up of individual and corporate support.
It is one of the charities I have visited most often since my first visit 10 years ago. I keep a record of all my visits on my blog, so you can see the history.
ðžãã¥ãŒãºã»ã¯ãªãšã€ã·ã§ã³ïŒåšå¹Žèšå¿µã¢ã«ãã ãâ åµèšã®èæ¯ â¡æ åå£äœèšªåã®èšé² â¢åçš®ã€ãŽã§ã³ãã®æãåºïŒThis video is a record of the activities of Muse Creation from June 2012, when it was founded, to March 2020.
Incredible teams create incredible impact. We all know this, but each time we see it in practice, it is a wonderfully satisfying and warm feeling all over again.
Over the last two months, I have had the benefit of seeing and experiencing the best of human spirit and endeavour rising up to meet the soul-crushing challenge posed by the Covid crisis.
Over the last two days it was on display again – this time with our own team of community teachers and an extended team of volunteers who came together to plan and execute the vaccination drive and camp for the economically disadvantaged. This was a team that came together for no specific gain – other than for the profound impact they knew they will have on the community if they execute this project well. From project planning to helping load vaccines, to manning registrations, to house-keeping, to crowd control – there was nothing that was beyond this team.
A âThank Youâ seems insufficient – but is the least that can be said. Hereâs to an amazing team that can make an Herculean effort seem simple. You are an incredible team, Team OBLF!
We ran our first ever free vaccination camp for the economically disadvantaged today. Planned to cover 250 today. Ended up with 344. Incredible level of planning & execution, to avoid crowding, and the rush. It mostly went according to plan; there were still disappointed people who had to be turned back because our stock for today ran out; Tomorrow will be another day, with an additional 350+. But proud to have made this possible working together with EO for Bangalore and Narayana Health. Great teams working together to make a strong impact on the ground.
With today’s camp ONE Billion Literates Foundation is also happy to have activated yet another vector of its strategy to address the covid health crisis.
And by the way, we also opened our third covid care isolation centre yesteRday along with our partner Enablers United…this is in an interior rural village and will serve the growing number of infections in the rural interiors.
Over the past few days, we have started working with ASHA health workers and Panchayat task force members, who are at the frontline of the fight against the pandemic. We have been providing them with high quality N95 masks, sterile gloves, face shields, sanitisers, caps to bear the summer heat, as they work tirelessly, with most of them doing multiple door to door visits every day, putting themselves and their loved ones at risk.
Our team has also been doing a very targeted distribution of ration kits to highly marginalised communities who have been hit hardest. It is heart breaking to see the predicament the people find themselves in, with nobody to turn to for help.
Kudos to our team members, Mahesh and Anthony, and a big big thank you to our frontline team and cadre of teachers who have been going out every single day to make this happen!
Weâd also like to express our gratitude to EO Bangalore for providing the ration kits.
ð»Gaining a new perspective through creativity and volunteering.
(Article for OWC âThe Rangoliâ July, 2018)
After living in the U.S. for ten years, I moved to Bangalore with my husband in November 2005. Until I started to live in India, I had spent my life building my own business career in Tokyo and New York, and was not very active in volunteer activities. However, as soon as I settled in Bangalore, I couldnât ignore the poverty that can be seen all around the city. I felt that I should do something to make a difference, but I could not immediately think of what specifically to do.
In November 2007, I attended OWCâs Monthly Speaker Meeting. The speaker was Pastor Dr. Reuben, who runs a home, âAgape Children Centreâ in Bangalore. His story about the lives of street children, stone-breakers (quarry workers), and eunuchs (hijra) was truly shocking for me. I felt that I should contribute for people who are living in extreme and deprived environments. One of the suggestions that Dr. Reuben gave us, was to not give cash to beggars. He said that it would be better to give food or clothes, instead of money. Since then, I have made it a practice to buy a lot of small packets of biscuits for beggars, and always keep some in our car.
In the next month, I visited âAgape Children Centreâ alone, and met their children. My purpose was to write a visit record for a Japanese newspaper, but in reality, I was very nervous and it needed courage to go there. It was an eye opening experience to communicate with Pastor Reubenâs family and the girls, who were once street children, living under one roof as a big family.
Around that time, when I was driving around the city, a bus stopped in front of our car, while we waiting for a signal. My eyes caught a sentence written on the back of the bus.
âFeeding a hungry child is not charity. Itâs our social responsibility.â
It was one of the buses of Akshaya Patra, which runs the worldâs largest school lunch program with the aim of ending child hunger in India. That sentence triggered me to action.
Immediately after, I started to hold a âCharity Tea Partyâ at home, every few months. I invited Japanese expatsâ wives to my home and held seminars, and shared useful information about living in India. I collected a seminar fee and donated items from participants, and visited local charities to donate them. This activity continued about five years, and was the foundation for the creation of Muse Creation.
I founded Muse Creation, a volunteer NGO, in June 2012. Muse Creation brings together the collective creative talent of our Japanese community in Bangalore. We have set up three teams: Team Handicrafts, Muse Choir & Dancers, and Team Expats (which focuses on familiarizing Japanese expats with the work and living culture of India). Through these creative activities, we wish to bring awareness, and to communicate with local underprivileged people.
Every Friday, I hold a workshop, called âStudio Museâ at home. Members get together for a creativity and social skills workshop. At the same time, it is a place to exchange information to help lead a better life in India, a place to build a social network, and a place to help each other in an unfamiliar living environment.
Muse Creation organizes annual charity bazaars, and participates in other community bazaars, including OWCâs Christmas bazaar. All the proceeds from the sales of our products are donated to various charitable organizations in Bangalore. Visiting them to communicate with local people, is a valuable experience for our members. We also organize various activities like handicraft workshops, local shopping tours, experiential lunches (for instance, lunches where members wear saris), business seminars, etc.
Members of Muse Creation always number 40 or more at any given point, and members enrolled in the past six years exceed 180 people cumulatively. There are quite a few members who challenge new activities that they have never experienced in Japan, such as learning handicrafts, dancing, and chorus music. These experiences enrich their lives in India.
Last year, when I went back to Japan, we held the fifth anniversary of Muse Creation in Tokyo and Nagoya with our alumni members. I met with over 50 past members at that time. Everyone told me that the activities of Muse Creation were an important part of their lives in Bangalore. The comments were a source of happiness and motivation for me.
It is not easy to bring together many people over a long period, to act in unison. However, what can be collectively experienced and achieved in Muse Creation, can never be realized alone. I sincerely hope that Muse Creation will continue to be an effective and impactful group through the active efforts of our members.
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MUSE CREATION Charitable Trust [NGO] 