Reflecting and Looking Ahead

The road Sangam India has taken since March has been a rocky one, with plenty of ups and downs. From the beginning, one of our most sincere and most elusive goals has been forming strong, lasting relationships with the members of the communities we wish to serve. Gaining the trust of the people in these communities has been almost a Sisyphean task, where for every step forwards, the next step is quite a few times more difficult, if not a retrograde step. Diwali, in many of our eyes, was a remarkable time for us to reassure these people that we are really here to help them, to be their friends. Of course, in communities that have had difficulties with outsiders in the past, trust is not easily won. But I think this was certainly a move in a good direction for us, a move towards openness and a chance for us to give these people what they need.

This past Sunday, we held a medical camp, about which you can read in the previous post. What was different about this camp was the response from the people. Many of us felt that we were able to connect to them, and help them in ways that they wanted to be helped. We felt that it was time for us to start including the community across the street. When Sriram, Srinandini and myself went to that community, the response we received was very heartwarming and encouraging. The residents were ready to come to our camp immediately, and hopefully we have helped a few of them and can help more of them in different ways.

Sriram, Malar and myself also visited Lakshmi, Amudha and Meena, the sisters that we've sponsored for 11th grade. For me personally, even though I don't speak much Tamil, it was a chance to connect, to see these girls as my friends, as my sisters. The inspiring part about doing this kind of work and meeting these people is not the work that is being done, but the people that we meet when we're there. It is truly inspiring to see Sangam India truly move towards what "Sangam" should really mean - unity and joining hands.

Things are really looking up for our little group, especially with the support of all of our members and friends who are not in Chennai. We are really looking forward to wrapping up this year with a bang and starting off next year with some big ideas and even bigger plans. More on that will come later. For now, I hope you will share in the joy that we all feel at experiencing what really seems like a breakthrough to a new dynamic within our group and with our friends at Ramavaram as well.