Up Close in India
From New Delhi to Calcutta, a year abroad in India gave Maura, a 2004 Global Action Award honoree, an opportunity to experience some of the poorest areas of the world—and the progress that is being made in the fight against global poverty.
Since winning a NetAid Global Action Award in 2004, I have been quite busy. I spent my junior year of high school as a part of the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program. I traveled to Surat, India, a city about five hours north of Mumbai ( Bombay) and lived there for a year. Ever since I was in 5th grade, I had been fascinated with India. It is a place of over one billion people, with such beauties as the Taj Mahal, yet with so many people living in poverty.
On August 9, 2005, I said goodbye to my family, my friends, my home and my country and boarded the plane. I had just left everything I had ever known and I was quite nervous.
At the airport, my first host family greeted me with smiles on their faces. They would soon become like a second family to me. During the course of the year, I had three host families, and I stayed with each family for about three to four months. I also attended a local high school called Lourdes Convent High School, an all-girls school. There were about 5,000 Indian girls and myself, the only foreigner in the school (I stood out quite a bit with white skin and orange hair).
While living in India, I had the opportunity to travel extensively. I went to Delhi, the capital of India, where I visited a rehabilitation center for former child laborers called the Mukti Ashram. I was able to interview child laborers who were previously domestic workers and stone quarry workers. It was inspiring to hear their success stories; kids who had been working all their lives were now receiving an education and speaking out against child labor.
I also traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal where I visited a school for the children of city street sweepers. I was able to visit the classes of the primary school children and some of the areas in which they live. These were some of the poorest areas of the city, made up of small cardboard houses with thousands of people living in a crowded area. It was moving to see where all these children had come from and the beautiful smiling faces they had at school.
In May of 2006 I traveled to Calcutta, India. There I visited Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying and Mother Theresa’s Orphanage. Seeing so many suffering people being helped by such warm, kind people was truly beautiful. Shortly thereafter, I traveled to the largest slum in Calcutta. I was shocked at what I saw—thousands of people living on what appeared to be a garbage dump.
My year in India was truly amazing. Not only did I get to meet such amazing people, but I also got to go white water rafting on the Tibet border, visit the Taj Mahal, and go on a tiger safari. My year in India changed my life and I will never forget it.
I returned to America on June 20, 2006. Since then, I have slowly been readjusting to the American culture and way of life. From things as simple as the clothes I wear and the food I eat to the way people interact and the religious ceremonies, it is all different. I am in my senior year of high school now and I am continuing my work with Amnesty International and Free the Children at my school, Christian Brothers Academy. Two weeks ago, we participated in the Crop Walk, a walk to raise money and awareness to stop world hunger. My school raised over $12,000 for the walk and over 100 students participated. I have been traveling to many churches and schools to speak about my experience in India and raise awareness about poverty and child labor in the world. It is good to be home but I can’t wait to travel again in the near future.
