A Warm Welcome

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to meet some of the children from Parichay and see the project sites. I learned that there are two project sites, the first which holds educational programs/classes for mentally challenged children. There I witnessed Vijay conduct their daily morning yoga session, and I was impressed with the attentiveness of the children and how well behaved they were.

After this we walked a little to the second project site, where there are two classrooms and a room which are used by the women to prepare spices to sell. There are four classes a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. After meeting some children and having a glimpse in the fragrant spice preparing room, some of the children dressed up after giving me a warm welcome and (after overcoming their pleasant surprise at my ability to read and write Urdu!) we set off for Tribal Fusion.



Tribal Fusion is an international advertising company that has been assisting Parichay for a number of years where they can. Since there is no projector at the project site, we decided that I should utilise this opportunity to show a presentation of my life in London and about my family to break the ice and allow the children to know a little more about me. After this I then witnessed how not only the various ways in which Tribal fusion donates to Parichay to be beneficial, but also how visiting a professional environment shows the children that success IS obtainable and within reach. The children there were given some computer training and played a game on India's geography split between two teams.





After this, I joined Vijay downstairs in the staff canteen where he was selling spices to staff members (there are approximately 150 staff members in Tribal Fusion), in addition to spices there were also henna hair powders mixes available, masala mixes, besan (chickpea flour) and also paratha (seasoned flat bread) mixes available. The day showed me another approach of how Parichay is extending support for it's work through different and everyday (and most importantly ground-level and approachable) means.