Better chance to live
Twelve-year-old Deepak is in school, lives in a concrete house, has time to pursue his hobbies, has a toilet attached to his house, has electricity facilities and wants to become a scientist. “I want to become like Abdul Kalam [former President of India]. I also like to become an artist,” says Deepak.
Deepak’s mother Govindammal Anandan, says, “I never imagined my children would live like this and go to school without any difficulties.” Life wasn’t this easy for Govindammal when she was a child.
In 1990, the expansion of Metro Railway Project in Chennai city displaced a number of families living in the slums along the route. They were relocated to an empty ground outside the city surrounded by low-lying marshy land without any basic facilities and far away from their places of work. Govindammal’s family was one of them.
“I was just thirteen years old then. I had to leave my school. When I injured my finger, there was no doctor to go to. No electricity. Though we were used to living in slums in the city, this place was worse than that,” recollects Govindammal. Her neighbour quickly adds, “We didn’t have access to water and no toilets were around. Girls and women had to use the open ground far away from our houses and we would go after it is dark. It was very unsafe for us.”
All they had was bits of plastic sheeting to make a roof over their heads. When the New Hope Area Development Program (ADP) began work there, the project started an initiative to provide homes for the people in partnership with another NGO focused on low cost housing. By 2000 most families had houses of their own.
“Everything started to change after World Vision stepped in,” says Govindammal.
Govindammal got married when she was just 16 years old. But with the help of World Vision, she is able to create a better future for her children today. Of her three children, Deepa, 14, Deepak, 12, and Dilip, 8, Deepak is sponsored by World Vision.
Deepak’s father works on contract for the Chennai Corporation as a sanitary worker and his income is not sufficient to run the family. World Vision helped Govindammal start a cycle rental business. “They gave me two cycles. I was very prudent and with the profit multiplied it to 15 cycles. That helped our family a lot,” says she.
Through her Self Help Group, she started selling powdered masala (spices) and was able to make some profit. The “Senthurapoo” self help group, started with the help of World Vision’s New Hope ADP is one the 650 such groups in the project. These groups not only bring women together and help them support each other, but also save money and raise credit using the group as collateral.
“World Vision gave me the confidence that I can earn on my own. Deepak’s sponsorship helps us a lot. I was able to access loans to rebuild our house, for starting small businesses and my children get support for their education,” says Govindammal.
“I never expected I would be able to provide this kind of a life for my children. Sometimes I can’t believe the change that has happened in my life. In fact the entire community is changed. World Vision has helped us provide a better life for our children,” says Govindammal.
Deepak is in his grade seven in school and his sister Divya and brother Dilip are in classes nine and three respectively.
