For every child is to be loved !!!

UTHAAN

Child Development Project

A Ministry to Northeast India's Poor, Marginalized, Vulnerable, Underprivileged and Abused Children

N.C.F. Compound, Nongrimbah Road, Laitumkhrah, Shillong-793003, Meghalaya, INDIA

BASHANTI CHHETRY:

Child’s location:  Umphrew, Shillong, Meghalaya     India

                                          City       State         Country

Date of Birth:  12/01/2006       Age:7         School Level: LKG      Gender : F

                          Month / Day / Year

Family Background: Orphan  

Her favorite subject in school -  Rhymes

Her personality traits -  Smart, neat and tidy

Her special abilities and talents- She is good in drawing

Her aim in life - Nurse

Bashanti was born in a tiny village called Umphrew (Meghalaya, India). She is the only girl in UTHAAN Centre whose father is unknown. Bashanti has neither seen her mother nor her father. She was just one year old when her mother abandoned her and left her with her grandmother. When her grandmother passed away she was taken care of by her eldest aunt who herself is a widow. Bashanti surname was altered to Chettry when under her aunt’s care.

The widowed aunt of this little girl is a farmer by profession. She managed her livelihood through farming and rearing a few cows. Bashanti was raised with cow’s milk for her physical growth and strength. Her aunt would milk the cows and sell it to the people in and around her village. Bashanti was deprived of schooling as her aunt had to look after her own children and pay for their schooling. It was all the more difficult for her to feed Basanti let alone afford her schooling. Moreover, the school was about six to seven kilometers away from their remote village.

One day her aunt came to UTHAAN Child Development Centre and requested the Project Coordinator to accept Bashanti and enrole her at the centre. Therefore, before enrolling her at the centre the Project Coordinator went to their village to meet her and observe their conditions. Finally, seeing the truth about the needs of this little girl our ministry registered her name. She’s been with UTHAAN for the past 3 yrs and is enjoying with new friends, having enough to eat, clothes to wear. Also, she is doing well academically too.

We came to know about Basanti a year back and decided to sponsor her. Doing so we now have a daughter thousands of miles away. We hope to meet her when we go to India. In the meantime, UTHAAN regularly provides us updates on her progress both physical and academic including photos :)

We may not be able to help all children in need, but by holding the hand of one and encouraging others to do the same, we hope to light up the lives of children who without our support would go lost in the darkness.

For there is nothing to lose but a lot more to gain... 'BE A SPONSOR'

Handpainted shoes for baby J.

The Moon

    I first saw her on the cover of The Moon and Sixpence and could't resist copying someone like her. 

One Love Jamaica!!

"I think I need to change, I might have peed a little because I thought we are landing in the water", a little boy said to his mom as we landed at Montego Bay Airport.

Jamaica is a beautiful, green island country with hills and lots of fruit trees from which you cannot take your eyes off. If you are an adventurous person, you are gonna love it here, there are many excursions to do around. 

Tourism, bauxite and sugar are three main income sources to jamaica. They take very good care of tourists here. People greet you, share their food with you. When you tell them that you are from India, conversation turns into cricket, 20-20 and how beautiful Indian girls are. 

As you travel in countryside you will see many unfinished houses with people already living in them. Jamaican people work hard and save some money. Once they own a land, they start building concrete house, first with kitchen and bathroom and start living in it. Again work and save some money and build other rooms. And so on. Hence it takes 10 to 15 years to complete house on average. 

If they don't own a land, they build wooden houses. If one needs to move, just get the wood and build another house.

Did you notice lots of trees around houses in each photo? Almost Everybody has mango, coconut, banana, almond trees in their backyard. 

 I asked one guy, "don't people steal mangoes from someone else's trees?" and he said, we don't need to. Everyone has their own tree!!

Breadfruit. This tree is on every half mile in Jamaica. Breadfruit is a really big fruit and needs to be boiled when raw and roasted when ripe. The fruit itself doesn't have any taste but I kinda felt like boiled sweet potato flavour to it. 

Seagrape tree on beach. They use it to make wine.

This is Ackee. Jamaica's national fruit. They are red when raw and orange when ripe. They mix this fruit with fish or meat. It has to be cooked really well. It has to ripen and open naturally before picking it. If immature fruit is consumed, it results in food poisoning. 

    We ate many almonds with Bobby. 

This is Soursop tree. There are two kinds of Sop trees. Soursop and sweet sap. Inner part of these fruits look like Sitafal (commonly found in India).  They also call it viagra on trees as it boosts energy in men.

                             Fruit stalls in Negril, selling Jamaican apples, avocados, soursop, bananas etc.

                                                               Arts and craft shops.

             

Selling and buying marijuana is illegal in Jamaica yet you will see many guys selling weed to tourists on the beach. The other day when we were eating lobster at a roadside stall, we got talking and the guys told us that they could show us some weed fields, we agreed immediately. (We don't get such offers everyday right?) So we drove next day for 45 minutes and stopped at one bar on hillside road. "Guy" came out, closed the bar and started walking uphill. We followed him for next 15 minutes. It was really steep path through jungle. Then behind all the bushes and trees, he opened small barb-wired gate. And there it was!!

   These plants were 4 weeks old. He planted them in tyres so soil wouldn't wash away with rain. They would all be ready with buds in another 2 weeks. Once leaves turn yellow and buds come out, he is all set for harvesting. These all are female plants, male plants are eliminated as they are no good. Green leaves can be used to make hashish.
We were taking pictures and that guy said, "no no no no not my picture". Before leaving he said "say weed" and took our picture.

Famous jerk chicken stall. 

Lobster cooking.

He added some garlic and mix masala (which tasted just like maggie masala). 

All set!!

   I would love to visit Jamaica again. If you go there, get out of the resort and meet local people, eat with them, learn some dance moves. Nice people, good heart and one love. I will always remember the way they say, "We don't have problems here, we have situations. Jamaica, No Problem mon".

You never say yes...... "Yea Mon"
You never say no...... "E..Eee"
And good......"Irie"

China Tea

My Chinese friend gave me these awesomely tasty, aromatic China tea. 

Pottery Shottery

                                           My Spring class ends here with these beautiful pieces.

                                 
                                                                  Tiles for a wallpiece. 

I put small piece of green glass on tiles for final firing.

                                                       A perfect cup of cappuccino.

                                                       

              Bliss..... when distant cousin comes from your Motherland and your mother sends dozens of hand made food items for you!!