Tagging along on site visits

As I mentioned, I was feeling a bit jealous that the students were getting to go on some great site visits with their clients, so I decided to tag along whenever I could escape from other work responsibilities. Turns out I was able to do a couple of amazing site visits with the I-India team which made the trip that much more amazing. As I mentioned I-India is a nonprofit that works with orphaned, destitute and/or abused children in Jaipur. They provide housing, food and education for the kids in the hopes of giving them a chance at a better future.

I went with the team to Jagh Children’s Village which is an area where I-India has built a school and boy’s shelter in a remote area in the outskirts of Jaipur. The school is this little happy oasis in the middle of the desert. Water is trucked in twice a day to meet the needs of the kids and they are working on constructing a medical center, another shelter home and vocational training program as well. Here are some pics of the school and some of the boys that live in the home.

On another day, I tagged along with the team to visit some girls’ home which was a blast. The girls' homes are three very modest homes all within walking distance of each other. They are not much to look at from the outside but as you get closer, you know they are something special.



You can hear the sound of girls laughing and playing and being truly happy. To think that these girls were brought in to I-India because they reached out for help after being abused, were living on the streets begging or were orphaned. As one of the staff member’s at I-India said, “our payment for working here are the smiles on the kid’s faces and knowing that their lives have been turned around”. Just an amazing place.

And finally, we went to visit Ladli which is the jewelry making and handicrafts operation that I-India runs. Ladli is a place where the older kids can go to get a meal, be taught for a few hours and have the opportunity to hang out with their friends while making jewelry. I-India then sells the jewelry to help support their other programs. Again, happy kids everywhere and happy Duke students buying trinkets and getting our hands henna’d from the girls.

These visits are what I think is so amazing about the GCP. To have an opportunity to go to a country and see some of the traditional tourist attractions but then also have the opportunity to spend time with really impactful organizations that are making a real difference in the lives of the poor and underserved. Very cool.