"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

The first time I met Mrs Vasant, the founder of Samvedana charity, in October 2009, I was taken aback by the depth and sincerity of her vision for a better and brighter future for these underprivileged children from the slums in Ahmedabad, India.

She told me that as a child, her parents were actively involved in helping this community and she recounted to me how her home was a busy thoroughfare where poor children weaved through her own family and left a lasting impression on her. When her parents passed away, she naturally stepped into their shoes and now wholeheartedly devotes her life to this cause. The cause has a very definite aim, self empowerment and self reliance being the corner stones of her mission. Children and particularly women still exist as an underclass in parts of India and she hopes good education and more self confidence will break this cycle of inequality.

Two years prior to this I had decided that I wanted to work with underprivileged children in my home city of Ahmedabad and I was lead to Samvedana. After talking to Mrs Vasant, it became apparent that the children did not receive any dental treatment due to a lack of funds and so my family offered to provide this service for free. In October 2009, I set out with my parents and brother to set up a dental camp for the charity. Over the week, we treated over 150 children for fillings and extractions, though the conditions we worked in were difficult even with having taken over much of our own materials and equipment. We completed our week, having given each child with their own toothbrush and toothpaste to use every day, in hopes of preventing future dental disease.In 2010, I was supported by JAGS in my fundraising for Samvedana. The £752 that was raised went towards the children’s educational welfare, which would have provided a full years schooling for 10 children.

In October 2011, I returned to Samvedana the week before Diwali and the charity was in the midst of preparations for their own celebrations. I was fortunate to be able to lead the “urban regeneration project”, where our task was to clean up the area surrounding the school, by sweeping the roads, weeding and white washing the front wall of the school. To get the children actively involved in the thoughts behind the project, I divided them into groups based on age and they were each allocated a section of the front wall to paint. With the younger ones, I chose to teach them the English alphabet so they could paint it onto the wall, for which I made stencils, and the 9 to 10 year olds decided to paint a picture of school life. The older kids at the charity decided to raise eco-awareness through their paintings and three new trees were planted outside the school as a first step toward building a greener and healthier future.

This year, I am working towards raising awareness and funds for Samvedana at ‘Libertas’, this year’s multicultural evening at JAGS. I will be selling Samvedana’s own handcrafted products, created by their ‘Udgreev’ project. The aim of the ‘Udgreev’ Project is to instil a sense of self respect, pride and confidence in the children, by “providing the youth a platform to develop their vocational skills, thus empowering them for better employment opportunities.”

As the years go by, my hope is that after having qualified as a dentist, I will return to the charity and I myself will be able to provide dental treatment for the children of Samvedana.

I look forward to meeting you all at multicultural evening this year!

Vidhi Patel.
Year12.

You can visit the charity webpage at: www.samvedana.org.in