Social Good Moms in India

From May 20 - 24, 2013 Jennifer James and Nicole Melancon traveled to India to visit Mom Bloggers for Social Good partners to see their work in the field. Follow their journey. Great thanks to trip sponsor

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Traveling the world with a third-eye has always been the way I prefer to experience life. It means to view life openly and see everything – good or bad- with an open mind and heart. The world through my eyes can be contradictory and complex. Seeing both good and bad can bring so much immense joy and happiness while also such deep sadness that it makes your heart ache. Yet in my humble opinion, you cannot go through life with a blind eye. Otherwise nothing will change. (via The World Through My Eyes | Thirdeyemom)

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(via Meeting Frontline Health Workers in Delhi | Impatient Optimists)

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At the end of May I had the honor of traveling to India along with Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, a global coalition of mom bloggers who use our voice through blogging and social media to spread awareness, education and support to the various NGOs around the world that are making a difference. The purpose of our trip to India was to meet face to face with some of our partner NGOs and see firsthand some of the issues we cover as part of Mom Bloggers for Social Good: Maternal and newborn health, food and water poverty, sanitation issues, and education for women and girls. (via Face To Face With Poverty In Delhi's SlumsWorld Moms Blog)

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As someone who cannot fathom living in an urban slum in one of the world’s most populated cities, most of Delhi’s slum dwellers are primarily migrants from neighboring states that are rural and poor. They have few choices. They have learned to live in Okhla, eek out a living, and strive to stay alive for themselves and their families. Their living isn’t as effortless as our guide who knew every twist and turn of the slum corridors, but they’re surviving. (via Scurrying Through Okhla — Unforgettable Moments — Medium)

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Inside the mobile health van is a condensed version of any doctor’s office we would visit ourselves. I walked into the unit just as the doctor was providing prenatal care for a woman who was in her eighth month of pregnancy. The woman had come to the doctor months before because she could not conceive, but on this day she was proudly smiling as we spoke through translation about her first pregnancy. (via How Mobile Vans are Saving Lives | Impatient Optimists)

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There are moments in life when you are so deeply moved by what one person can do to make a difference in the world that it takes your breath away. This is how I felt when I met Sonal Kapoor, founder of Protsahan, a school for underprivileged girls in the heart of India. Not even thirty years old, Kapoor is already considered one of the most inspiring young social entrepreneurs in the world and after a visit to her beautiful school in the slums of Delhi, it is no doubt that she and her pupils will go far. (via Protsahan: Giving hope to India’s children | Thirdeyemom)

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One day while still working on the shoot Kapoor saw Julie heading towards her mother, barely able to walk. It was at that moment that Kapoor decided she would help Julie and other at-risk girls who live in Delhi’s slums who are often victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, are forced to work in brothels, or are victims of drug abuse. Kapoor started Protsahan, a small NGO school that educates at-risk girls through the arts. Many of the girls who come from situations of abuse don’t talk for months when they enter her school, but the arts help them trust again and open up. (via How One 24-Year-Old is Saving the Lives of Girls in Delhi | Impatient Optimists)

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After spending five days in Delhi I learned how important it is to be safe. I had not worried about that anywhere else in the world, but Delhi is different. The amount of people has a lot to do with it coupled with being a woman . We have all heard about the horrific rape of the Delhi student who died because of her injuries earlier this year. Here are a few things I learned about staying safe in Delhi from women who live there. (via 10 Ways Women Travelers Can Stay Safe in India | Babble Voices)

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Traveling the world with a third-eye has always been the way I prefer to experience life. It means to view life openly and see everything – good or bad- with an open mind and heart. The world through my eyes can be contradictory and complex. Seeing both good and bad can bring so much immense joy and happiness while also such deep sadness that it makes your heart ache. Yet in my humble opinion, you cannot go through life with a blind eye. Otherwise nothing will change. (via The World Through My Eyes | Thirdeyemom)

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Per the 2012 the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER): Learning levels have dipped to an all-time low. So, almost half the 6-7 year-olds (Class I) in India cannot read even one letter in any language, over 57% cannot read any English while almost 40% cannot recognize numbers between 1 and 9, the report said. Access to education is becoming a key problem and obstacle for many of India’s poor children. (via Pratham India: Every child, learning well | Thirdeyemom)

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Site visits where my partners do extensive work in the field are extremely important to me because they provide the quickest way for me to learn about global development. I can read statistics and stories all day, but unless I get into the field myself I will truly never learn. That’s why field visits are a priority for me. (via Why I Was in India Last Week | Babble Voices)

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Girls who are fortunate to prolong marriage are able to attend school longer than if they are married away by their family. Being married off instead of staying in school poses a huge challenge because once girls are married off it becomes increasingly difficult for them to become educated. And, girls face the often insurmountable challenge of having children even though they are not properly equipped to deliver a baby causing many to die during childbirth. In fact, the number one cause of death for girls between the ages of 15 – 19 is childbirth says the World Health Organization. (via The Importance of Education for Girls – Mom Bloggers for Social Good)

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Missing the girls already @NGOProtsahan. @socialgoodmoms #socialgoodmomsindia pic.twitter.com/M0gWb4W69S (via Twitter / thirdeyemom: Missing the girls already ...)

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Although these children are tragically poor, they still had some hope and loved to smile. (via Twitter / thirdeyemom: Although these children are ...)

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Behind the beautiful, lavish parts of Delhi always lies the most abject poverty imaginable. I have read several books on the slums of India and thought I’d know what to expect when I saw them in person. Yet nothing I’d ever seen in all my years of travel could have prepared me for the stark reality of desperation, misery and despair of walking through a real live slum in the heart of India’s capital. (via In the Background: Life in a Delhi Slum | Thirdeyemom)

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Girls at the Protsahan school in New Delhi.

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Mothers group for expecting mothers created by Save the Children India in an authorized slum in south Delhi. Since forming the group they have seen an increase in hospital births and exclusive breastfeeding rates.