Inaugural Speech

INAUGURAL SPEECH MADE BY DR FIROZA BHABHA TO CELEBRATE THE OPENING OF SANJIVANI

Mr Rahul Khanna, Children, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the children, staff and trustees of VOICE, I welcome you here today to celebrate two major events in our lives.The first being VOICE's fifteenth birthday, and the second, the opening of SANJIVANI...the home of Mumbai's girl street child.

Allow me to take you back in time to 1992, when I received a phone call from CONCERN INDIA, enquiring if I could help an organisation called VOICE which was working towards educating street children.

This phone call resulted in my going to Churchgate station rather late one night to meet Victor Bansiwar who had started VOICE, along with his wife Rajashri, a year earlier.There he was - under a street lamp, outside the station, surrounded by about ten street childred, all of them totally oblivious to the world around them. For me, this was to be the beginning of my relationship with VOICE.

HOW and WHY did VOICE happen?

Victor was studying for a Masters degree in social work at Bombay University and was placed in a remand home for a year.It was during this time, that he was deeply moved by the plight of the children he was working with and he realsied that the only thing they lacked in life, was an opportunity. Victor decided that he wanted to dedicate his life to bringing this opportunity to Mumbai's street children and so, he dared to dream and to visualise and VOICE was born in 1991.

Victor's clear thinking resulted in us taking education to the street children who live on railway platforms rather that expecting them to come to us. As a result, we started teaching at several stations along the western railway line.

Education involved not just the 3 Rs, but the focus was on an overall developement - body, mind and spirit. But how does one even begin to teach morals to a child who does not know where its next meal is coming from? To achieve this, games such as a modified snakes and ladders were devised.

Soon, apart from Victor and Rajashri, we were joined by Nimesh Kothare (a lawyer), Gita Simoes (a graphic designer), and Nikunj Jhaveri (a businessman).

We started teaching the children screen printing, tailoring and a host of other activities which I will not discuss in detail as all this will be shown to you in the course of the programme.

However, I do want to share with you, an event that gave us great joy. Last year, we received a message from the education department, saying that of all the NGOs working with underprivelaged children, they had zeroed down on two, one of which was VOICE. They invited Victor, Rajashri and 3 children to Delhi to talk about our method of working...the children spoke in front of a packed auditorium, telling people about VOICE and how it had changed their lives! It is this sense of self respect and dignity that VOICE has always hoped to give our children.

Over the years, VOICE has touched about 4000 lives.

However, as a result of their homes being demolished repeatedly, economic necessity requiring them to earn and peer pressure, the drop outs have been large.

This, together with the fact that the girl street child is prone to abuse on the streets, has pushed us towards building SANJIVANI...we wish to thank all our donors for making this a reality today. It would be impossible for me to mention everyone by name.

However, there is a group that I will mention - the children of the Cathedral and John Connon School, and the children of the Bombay International school who took part in our "be a brick buy a brick" programme.

They worked hard - relentlessly - and collected an enormous amount of money. this concept of children working for children was wonderful and we thank them profusely.

At this point, I would also like to thank children all over the world, a large group in toronto, in particular, who have over the years collected money, sent uplifting letters and cards and befriended the VOICE children.

I do not want to take up any more time. The audiovisuals and our children will speak for themselves. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Together, we have made SANJIVANI possible and I hope we can continue this work so that every child we touch is empowered and presented with a conscious choice in manifesting their life's journey.

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