India is a land full of
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contrasts It's a Land
of great mystery and beauty
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It's a land of unspeakable
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despair But travelling through
India, One thing is for sure
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It's a land filled with
people who should never be
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underestimated For the last 40
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years Asian Aid has invested
in the futures of people
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who have never been given such a
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chance And their investment
has proven infinite returns.
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Driven by the vision of Helen
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Eager, dedicated to helping
those who have the least,
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Asian Aid is an organization
implementing diverse development
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projects and sponsoring
thousands of children...
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Their outreach spans throughout
Asia, from Bangladesh to Nepal,
Sri Lanka and beyond...
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From remote villages and empty
fields to sprawling centers of
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education... From nothing... to
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the unimaginable Now, Asian Aid
has decided to document the work
it's been doing all these years
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with a desire to show
the world what is possible.
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By digging wells in remote
villages for clean drinking
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water. And bringing much-needed
healthcare to the women of Nepal
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By providing an education for
Orphans, Deaf and Blind children
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giving them a sense of place, a
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home. But what we really
discovered was being given was
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hope. Giving hope to
children, giving hope to women,
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Giving hope to the ones who
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needed the most. This is Hope In
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Motion. When I arrived in India,
I had a lot of things on my mind
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as a filmmaker. Sponsoring
an orphan wasn't one of them.
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My crew was stuck in the States
dealing with the politics of
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Indian visas. My equipment
was with them, and we only had a
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limited time in each place
Asian Aid wanted us to visit.
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At best, I would get about
half the material we needed.
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And at worst, the crew wouldn't
make it to India before I had to
return to the States.
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So the last thing I expected to
do was the first thing you
shouldn't do as a filmmaker:
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get involved.
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My first day in India made
my concerns seem rather small.
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I found myself in one of
those villages that you see on
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television, you know the kind.
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Children's faces moved in and
out of my frame all day long.
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I had seen these faces before--
distantly, on my TV or the
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internet. Like everyone else, I
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was insulated. In India,
orphanages number in the 1,000s,
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and I was about to start filming
at one called the Elim Home
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located on the outskirts of
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Hyderabad. The kids that I
was photographing at Elim seemed
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well-adjusted. Stories of their
parents' demise replaced by
friends, meals, school and
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playtime. I found myself having
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fun with them. They were just
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like my kids. Have you ever
wondered what an orphan really
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goes through when
they're rescued off the street?
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I wanted a chance to film the
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process of a child transitioning
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from life outside to
life inside--the beginning.
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So when Helen informed me
of a new arrival, I grabbed the
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camera just in time to meet a
little girl named Keerthana at
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the gate. Her mother had died
three years ago when Keerthana
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was two. Her father left
for Mumbai, India to clean
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commercial trucks, and he never
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returned. A local pastor
familiar with Keerthana's plight
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took her in, planning to raise
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her as his own. The plans
changed, however, when
Keerthana's stepmother
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said they couldn't afford to
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keep her. It's not uncommon
for stepchildren to be abandoned
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when the expenses can't be met.
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So at age five,
for the third time,
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Keerthana was an orphan once
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again. "How long do you think
it will take her to transition
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or to feel comfortable here?"
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"It will take one week."
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"Really?"
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"Yes, one week to feel
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comfortable because this is a
new place, a new environment."
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Honestly, Rueben and I didn't
believe that Keerthana would
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adjust to life in an
orphanage in just one week.
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"I was like mortified.
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It was the most uncomfortable, I
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mean, at one point I just
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stopped the camera. Then I
thought, you can't stop the
camera, you gotta keep going.
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Rueben's looking at me
as he's snapping stills
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and he's--we don't wanna get too
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close-- she's looking at us
like, you know, aren't you gonna
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do something? "When I saw her, I
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remembered my life when I first
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came to Elim. You know, I'm just
wondering because the pastor
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brought me here and he was
trying to leave. And I went all
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over the campus looking for the
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pastor. He, like, I could see
him, and there were other boys
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running behind me who held
me back. But it really made me
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worry. I could see that here's
a little girl who just came
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recently and she faced the same
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problem. So I admit when I saw
her--the pastor leaving her and
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trying to hide, trying to be
away from her. It was the same
experience that I felt.
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I had the same
experience that little girl had.
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"When Keerthana was dropped off,
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she wouldn't stop crying.
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You could tell that it was
something traumatic for her.
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Days afterward, she
wouldn't talk to anyone,
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she wouldn't go to school,
she wouldn't go to study hall.
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She would just be with the
cooks, cutting vegetables."
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The only father figure in
Keerthana's memory had just
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walked away. "So here's a real
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tough situation. This pastor,
earning less than $20 (US) a
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month, has raised this child.
And he just simply cannot afford
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it anymore." The first night
in the orphanage was rough.
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She didn't sleep well, even
though the orphanage gave her a
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bed. She insisted on sleeping on
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the floor. It's what she was
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used to. "When I gave her a bed,
she was so happy. But at
nighttime she was coming down.
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And we made her sleep again on
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the bed. She ate very little
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food when she came. Then
the next thing that ended up
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happening was that she didn't
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have a sponsor. And so all of
this chatter started happening
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about how was she gonna stay
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here. Because, you know,
she just has to have a sponsor.
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There's also questions about
whether or not there's space
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available. "I find that maybe
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the hardest thing to do is
to refuse some of the children
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because we don't have enough
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sponsors. But we try to take all
the blind, all the deaf, all the
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total orphans. But of course
there are a lot of other tragic
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situations, as well as those."
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"The bottom line is that, I
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just, that night, when
we went back to the hotel,
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I Skyped my family and
I told Rebecca, I said,
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Are you ready to sponsor a
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little girl? She just like
started crying, she said, "well,
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just bring her home. In fact, I
asked Helen, I said, Helen, can
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we do something? I mean, Rebecca
wants me to bring her home.
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I said, if I can facilitate
that, you know, that's what she
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wants me to do. Helen said, she
said no. She said, Listen,
everything will be okay.
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She's actually, it's better to
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have her here. Because, she
said, quite honestly it's very
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difficult to be, you can't
adopt these kids out of here.
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Everybody in India gets
a free shot at an orphan,
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which sets them up for all
kinds of abusive situations.
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I started the process of
becoming Keerthana's sponsor,
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but it was time for me to leave.
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There were more places to
film, more faces to capture.
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In two weeks I would return,
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but I kept thinking about
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Malithih's words about Keerthana
assimilating within a week.
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"A week, a week and a
half after she was dropped off,
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she started playing with the
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children, she started eating
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with us. At first she ate very
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little. Keerthana was still a
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little bit in shock. She was,
you could tell she was trying to
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take everything in." With 70
kids at Elim Home, I figured
Keerthana would quickly
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disappear into the crowd.
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By the time I returned,
the rest of my film crew had
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caught up with me in India.
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They brought with them school
supplies, some clothes, and
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gifts that Rebecca and the kids
had put together back in the
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States. Given the high level of
emotion surrrounding Keerthana
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when I left I wasn't expecting
much of a positive outcome.
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I was wrong.
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"When she came first,
I used to get after her,
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but now she's after me
and after all the kids.
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She's very playful, and she says
now she's very happy to be at
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Elim." "She truly has settled
in. She's settled in to school,
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and, you know, I've
spent some time with her,
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I got her introduced
to my family on Skype.
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And I'm looking forward
to-- and so is my family--
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to that day that investment pays
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off. It's already paying off
now, but I look forward to that
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day when she finishes her
degree, whatever it is that she
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wants to do, and that she's able
to take her rightful place in
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society. And she's gonna be
able to live a principled life.
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I think it's great."
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I realize every orphan
success story starts here.
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They're dropped off.
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And all they need is
someone to take them in,
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someone to believe in them,
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someone to give them hope.
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