My sister and I went to ‘Dastkar’, an NGO in Delhi, and met Ms. Laila ji, the chairperson and co-founder of Dastkar. Dressed in a crisp sari, with short bouncy hair, she seemed to be a strong woman with a modern outlook and very Indian values. Soon, in our conversation we found out something common between us – that our dads were diplomats in the Indian Embassy. This enabled us to chit chat about our experiences as children of diplomatic parents. But then that’s another story ;)

 
About Dastkar, we learned how it started and what its objectives are, from Ms. Laila ji. One of the objectives of Dastkar is to encourage and give a platform to smaller NGOs working with the “lower class” communities. Jan Sandesh is one of those NGOs that is supported by Dastkar and works with the women in the slum (see previous blog). The other small NGO that Dastkar promotes is ‘Lakshay Badte Kadam’. It is a very small NGO run by Ramesh who is working out of his house. He supports 13 street children whom he provides shelter and food in his own house, and he sends them to school, and he also teaches them how to make jute bags in their free time. These children, who might have normally ended up in the streets with no education and bad company, today at least have a chance to a better life. Lakshay Badte Kadam makes jute & recycled fabric bags. They also make bags out of recycled newspaper.