Hello dear friends!
I write to you on a quiet Sunday from my terrace in the noisy and crazy city of New Delhi, where I now live. The sun is setting and any moment now the fruit and veg sellers will come by with their wooden carts stacked with piles of cauliflowers, potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, gourds and leaves, crying out their nasal calls for all the households to hear as inside, dinners begin their preparation. “Aloo le lo, pyaaz ley lo” (take your potatoes, take your onions) you will hear piercing the dim buzz of traffic, train horns and bird calls.
It’s been a sunny and warm day, similar to a nice May day in the UK. I’ve been sat outside on my day off, doing the one thing I shouldn’t – work. Although, to be honest, all my free time is spent either cooking, cleaning or washing. The past month has been extremely cold, not because of the temperature (that’s only been dropping to 4 celsius) but because houses here don’t have heating. I’ve been wrapping up in 5 layers and sleeping under 3 blankets.
I’ve been at my job at the Naz Foundation Trust for around a month now, and I’m loving it. The office is a 15 minute walk from my little one-bedroom apartment so it’s cheap to get there, not to mention it provides exercise (especially since I’m on the fourth floor and have no lift). On my first day, the Program Manager, a lovely, pro-active motherly Punjabi called Poonam, sits me down and tells me she wants me to write a financial proposal for a foreign embassy who want to donate some funds to the NGO, that she also wants me to create profiles of all the children in the care home for a Spanish company who want to do some sponsorship fo the children, and that she wants me to start picking university interns from a short-list and begin interviewing them to start working for me. I don’t even know my way around the office and they want me to have a team of 7 or 8 interns to coordinate. It’s telling that they have big plans for me. I can’t say I wasn’t confused.
“Let me know if you feel overwhelmed”, Poonam said quickly.
“I feel overwhelmed”, I replied, even quicker.
But slowly I’ve been settling in and understanding more of what is expected and how I can fit in to the NGO, as well as how I can use my experience to help champion their cause.
‘Naz’ is a fantastic Urdu word for ‘pride’, and the NGO have been working since 1994 to give the marginalised and traumatised a voice, dignity and care. The office building is also the premises of the children’s home – the first ever such home in India to specialise exclusively in children with HIV and AIDS (hence why you will never see pictures of the children on here or my socials). They have been working in areas of gender, health and rights for 28 years, making taboo issues very open. Asian cultures do not talk about topics like HIV, sex or sexuality, so children here are left to find out for themselves. They don’t understand contraception, consent or even how babies are made, and you know what they say – if you don’t talk about it, they’re gonna do it even more, and they’ll do it wrong. So Naz’s main approach to HIV and AIDS is prevention – educating people in how it is contracted, how to avoid it, how it can be treated, and most importantly, the societal stigmas around it.
I’ve been getting on really well with the children in the care home. Teaching them bits of music here and there. I’ve found myself mostly helping them with their English work. Anjali, the founder of Naz, keeps telling them to speak in English with me because it will improve their English (essential in Delhi for Indians to be taken seriously). I always wink and whisper to them to speak a little bit of Hindi with me, because I need to improve my Hindi (essential in Delhi for foreigners to be taken seriously). The kids always smile and call me “bhai” (brother) and it’s always a joy to see them and help in every way possible to empower them to live beautiful long lives. People like them are the reason I live and breath. They give me life.
One of my interns has written an amazing curriculum for the children in the care home and I can’t wait to see her deliver it. I will have an intern working on developing our visibility on fundraising platforms for the various programmes of the NGO. He’s a highly decorated student in his university and he can do some amazing work for us. I have a couple of interns doing research into marginalised communities, finding their needs and ways to empower them into full societal-living. I have an intern creating social media posts, boosting engagement and getting conversation going. I’m doing a lot of work to say I’m not paid for it.
Ahh yes. I’ve lost a few of my donors. Bummer. I’ve had to really strip back on my spending, living on simple rice and dals and a few cheaper vegetables. I’ve had to cut out meats and treats. Clean water I now get from boiling tap water. I bought a heater due to the perishing cold but had to stop using it as it was driving up the electricity usage. I get free lunches at the office and they’re delicious. It’s fine. This is actually the life I was expecting and ready for when I was planning to move to India, it’s just that people and God have been so good that I was able to afford a bigger apartment and nice food. So it is what it is and I am so happy to do what I love. I do, however have some real needs, if you feel able to give. I’ve got an Amazon wishlist here – things ranging from a jar of Nutella to a small table and 2 chairs (I’m currently eating on the bed). If you could search the list and see if there is anything you would like to buy. I’m also really desperate for regular donors (from £5pcm to £50pcm) to replace the ones I’ve lost, and help pay my rent, so if you know of anyone who is looking for a good cause to get behind, please ask them to send an email to will@nazindia.org.
A few fragmented thoughts:
- I’m thankful to everyone who has given to me in the past and everyone who continues to give. To those that have had to withdraw funding due to financial difficulty, I understand, and there are no hard feelings. I’m praying for your situation to improve. Not for me, but for you.
- I’m still working for BLC Goa, overseeing the social media, newsletter and communicating with prospective volunteers. I will also be going to Goa every 2 or 3 months to do some teaching. Martin, Beena and the team and the children are and will always be my family.
- It’s possible that I had COVID when I arrived in Delhi. I was staying at a friend’s house, bless them, and they had to deal with me having a fever, tiredness and a cough for a week while I was in their house. I tested negative twice, but the Omicron variant tends to fly under the radar. We’ll never know.
- My external hard-drive has been corrupted by a failed head. Everything is on there. Music, photos, and all my upcoming music for release. I’m deeply heartbroken as it may never be recovered and the job to recover it has been quoted to me between £70 and £450… which I do NOT have. Maybe this is God’s way of telling me to finally let go of the dreams of music production and to focus on doing some work that creates real change. Or I could just be reading into things.
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