When Girish Kulkarni was in college, his friends would take turns inviting each other over to their houses. “Let’s go to my house,” they said. Except a friend. He would go to other people’s houses, but he would not invite anyone else to his. If someone asked him where he lived, he would deflect the question.
Curious, Girish and his friends found the guy’s address and set off for his house. To their complete surprise, they ended up in a house right in the middle of Ahmednagar’s red-light district. His friend’s mother had the oldest profession in the world. She is also her 14 year old sister.
His friend was deeply embarrassed but, to his credit, he spoke up. “How would you feel if it was your mother and sister?” he demanded of Girish. This was a turning point for the young Girish, now an esteemed professor.
He made it his life’s mission to provide a home for the children of prostitutes. I wanted to give them a safe space to grow up like normal children. She didn’t want them to have to run out and buy cigarettes and alcoholic beverages for customers. He didn’t want them to succumb to addictions at a young age, or be drawn to prostitution.
For the past 20 years, Professor Girish Kulkarni and his team have virtually eradicated child prostitution in India’s unique Ahmednagar, rescuing both the children of prostitutes and children brought as sex slaves.
Rameshbhai from Caring Friends walked me to the Snehalaya campus that Girish has built on the outskirts of the city, which includes facilities for children born with HIV and a hospital for HIV-infected adults.
The children are educated in the best schools in the city, and Girish is building a world-class high school on campus. I met the whole gamut of children, from recently rescued toddlers to a 25-year-old woman studying for her computer science degree.
Snehalaya also runs educational and outreach programs to reduce infection by promoting safer practices among sex workers and gay men. A 24/7 children’s hotline answers calls about abused children, child labor, child beggars and child prostitution. Snehalaya also runs a home for single mothers and an adoption center.
Snehalaya has an impressive second and third level of leadership and management. This provides a depth of leadership, continuity, and scalability that many NGOs miss. Girish continues to teach a political science class at the local university; many of his students are so inspired by his commitment and passion that they end up joining Snehalaya.
“I wouldn’t trade this experience for a regular job that pays twice as much,” one told me. Also impressive: more than 25% of Snehalaya’s funding comes from the concerned citizens of Ahmednagar.
President Suwalalji Shinghvi, who encourages local families to visit and support the campus, is a warm and caring old man, popularly known as Bapu, both for his age and Gandhian qualities, who spends time with the children, blowing up balloons. . and playing with them.
Rameshbhai told me that over the years, Bapu has taken several young women of marriageable age, daughters of sex workers, into his own home to live for six months with his own daughters-in-law and teach them how to behave like a proper Indian. . ‘bahu’. She touched me beyond words.
This is a wonderful opportunity to meet people who are in a different league in terms of their ability to make a difference in the world around them. Share your own experiences with similar institutions and your thoughts.
