Morgan Brown and his colleague Jane Westall are out at work. So as they make their way through the slushy slum on Tadiwala Road, they stop to greet the elderly shopkeeper, help a child retrieve his ball from an open drain and exchange pleasantries with a group of women who have got together for the day’s gossip session. Brown and Westall say they are at home in Pune. Both of them are among a growing set of foreigners who are in India not just to see the Taj and go sun-bathing in Goa, but to do some real work. Brown, who is from New Hampshire in the US, works for Disha, an NGO that works to support slum dwellers infected with HIV He also conducts demographic research on slum dwellers around Tadiwala Road, Bibwewadi and Ramtekdi. “I’ve also volunteered for the ‘Wake Up Pune’ campaign to spread awareness about the disease. It has been a constant learning process. I might think of coming back to Pune soon,” says Brown, an anthropology graduate from Harvard University who has been in India for the last 11 months and did social work in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala before shifting to Pune. Westall, who is Scottish, draws up policies on health, hygiene and sanitation for children at day care centres located around Tadiwala Road, Bibwewadi and Ramtekdi. “We had to be really patient and persistent with the kids. That’s how they learn best,’’ says Westall, a graduate in media studies and sociology who works to ensure that the child centres have first-aid kits, antiseptics and toilet soaps. Two years ago, American Elizabeth Sholtys set up Ashraya Children’s Initiative (AIC) aimed at providing shelter and education to children. Today, it houses nine children between eight and 12 who attend the Erin Nagarwala School in Kalyaninagar. “It was mostly through local social workers that we were able to support these kids. We chose kids who couldn’t afford education and had no other support,” says 23-year-old Sholtys, who graduated in anthropology and sociology from Emory University, US, and later did her International Baccalaureate from Mahindra United World College in Pune. Sholtys also runs an outreach programme for 12 girls who are enrolled in Pune’s municipal schools and come from modest backgrounds. “We provide them medication, nutritional support and talk to them on personal hygiene,” says Sholtys. Her work wasn’t easy. “Some of the kids had dubious pasts and some had criminal records too. When we brought them to the home two years ago, getting to know each other and opening up was the biggest challenge. Gradually, the ice was broken and today, we are all part of one big family,’’ says Sholtys. When Eva Raschke came from Hamburg, Germany, she wasn’t sure if she had done the right thing — everything seemed alien and distant. But a few days into her job at Sahara Aalhad, and Raschke decided she would stay on for another three months. “I’d like to work on awareness campaigns on HIV But I’m open to doing whatever comes my way.”-Laxmi Birajdar
