Participants: Terry Benedict (Host)
Series Code: HIM
Program Code: HIM000023
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00:20 India is a land full of contrast.
00:25 It's a land of great mystery and beauty. 00:29 It's a land of unspeakable despair. 00:32 But traveling through India one thing is for sure, 00:35 it's a land filled with people 00:37 who should never be underestimated. 00:40 For the last 40 years 00:42 Asian Aid has invested in the futures of people 00:45 who have never been given such a chance 00:47 and their investment has proven infinite returns. 00:52 Driven by the vision of Helen Eager, 00:54 dedicated to helping those who have the least, 00:57 Asian Aid is an organization 00:58 in for many diverse development projects 01:01 and sponsoring thousands of children. 01:04 Their outreach spans from Bangladesh to Nepal, 01:07 Sri Lanka and beyond, 01:10 from remote villages and empty fields 01:12 to sprawling centers of education, 01:15 from nothing to the unimaginable. 01:19 Now Asian Aid decided to document the work 01:22 it has been doing in all these years 01:23 with the desire to show the world 01:25 what is possible. 01:27 By digging wells in remote villages 01:29 for clean drinking water 01:30 and bringing much needed healthcare 01:32 to the women of Nepal. 01:35 By providing an education for orphans, 01:37 deaf and blind children, 01:38 giving them a sense of place, a home. 01:41 But what we really discovered was being given was hope, 01:45 giving hope to children, giving hope to women, 01:50 giving hope to the ones who needed the most. 01:53 This is Hope in Motion. 02:33 Where is their room? 02:35 Yeah, this side. 02:36 Okay. 02:38 When I arrived in India, 02:40 I had a lot of things on my mind as a filmmaker, 02:43 but sponsoring a orphan was one of them. 02:46 My crew is stuck in the States 02:48 dealing with the politics of Indian visas. 02:51 Most of my equipment was with them 02:53 and we only had a limited time at each place 02:55 Asian Aid wanted us to visit. 02:58 At best I'd get about half the material we needed 03:02 and at worst the crew wouldn't make it to India 03:05 before I had to return back to the States. 03:08 So the last thing I expected to do 03:10 was the first thing 03:11 you shouldn't do as a filmmaker, 03:13 get involved. 03:18 My first day in India made my concern seem rather small. 03:21 I found myself in one of those villages 03:24 that you see on television, you know the kind. 03:28 Children's faces 03:30 moved in and out of my frame all day long. 03:32 I had seen these faces before 03:35 distantly on my television or the internet. 03:41 Like everyone else I was insulated. 03:45 In India orphanages number in the thousands 03:49 and I was about to start filming 03:50 at one called the Elim Home 03:52 located on the outskirts of Hyderabad. 03:57 The kids that I was photographing at Elim 03:59 seemed well adjusted. 04:00 The stories of their parents' demise replaced by friends, 04:03 meals, school and play time. 04:06 I found myself having fun with them. 04:09 They were just like my kids. 04:13 Have you ever wondered 04:14 what an orphan really goes through 04:15 when they are rescued off the street? 04:18 I wanted the chance to film the process 04:20 of a child transitioning from life outside 04:23 to life inside, the beginning. 04:26 So when Helen informed me of the new arrival, 04:29 I grabbed the camera just in time 04:31 to meet a little girl name Keerthana at the gate. 04:52 Her mother had died three years ago 04:54 when Keerthana was two. 04:57 Her father left for Mumbai, India 04:59 to clean commercial trucks and he never returned. 05:04 A local pastor familiar with Keerthana's plight 05:08 took her in, planning to raise her as his own. 05:14 The plans changed, however when Keerthana's stepmother 05:17 said they couldn't afford to keep her. 05:19 It's not uncommon for stepchildren 05:21 to be abandoned 05:22 when the expenses can't be met. 05:25 So at age five and for the third time 05:29 Keerthana was an orphan once again. 05:35 How long do you think 05:39 that it will take her to transition 05:42 or to feel comfortable you know being here? 05:45 Yeah, it will take one week. 05:48 Really? 05:49 Yeah, one week to feel comfortable 05:51 because this is a new place, a new environment. 05:57 Honestly, Rueben and I didn't believe 05:59 that Keerthana would adjust to life in an orphanage 06:02 in just one week. 06:13 I was like mortified. 06:15 It was the most uncomfortable, I mean, 06:20 at one point I just stopped the camera. 06:23 And then I thought, you can't stop the camera, 06:25 you got to keep going and Rueben's looking at me 06:27 as he's snapping stills and he's-- 06:31 we don't want to get too close, 06:32 she's looking at us like, you know, 06:35 aren't you gonna do something? 06:39 When I saw her, I remembered my life 06:43 when I first came to Elim. 06:46 You know, I'm just wondering 06:47 because the pastor dropped me here 06:49 and he was trying to leave. 06:51 And I went all around the campus 06:53 looking for the pastor. 06:55 He, like, I couldn't see him, and there were other boys 06:58 were running behind me to hold me back. 07:01 But it really made me worry. 07:08 I could see that here's a little girl 07:09 who just came recently 07:11 and she faced the same problem. 07:12 So I admit when I saw her-- the pastor leaving out her 07:16 and trying to hide somewhere the other 07:18 and trying to be away from her 07:20 and it's the same experience that I felt. 07:23 I had the same experience that little girl had 07:25 other day. 07:30 See your bag, oh, big bag you've got. 07:33 I will put all the books. 07:35 When Keerthana was dropped off, 07:39 she wouldn't stop crying. 07:43 You can tell that it was something traumatic for her. 07:47 Days afterward she wouldn't talk to anyone, 07:50 she wouldn't go to school, she wouldn't go to study hall. 07:52 She would just be with the cooks, 07:56 cutting vegetables. 08:01 The only father figure in Keerthana's memory 08:04 had just walked away. 08:09 So here's a real tough situation. 08:11 This pastor, earning less than $20 US a month 08:15 has raised this child 08:16 and he just simply can't afford it anymore. 08:20 Her first night in the orphanage was rough. 08:22 She didn't sleep well, 08:23 even though the orphanage gave her a bed. 08:25 She insisted on sleeping on the floor. 08:27 It's what she was used to. 08:29 When I gave her a bed, she was so happy. 08:31 But at nighttime she was falling down. 08:34 And we made her to sleep again on the bed. 08:37 Then she ate very little food when she came. 08:42 Then the next thing that ended up happening 08:44 was that she doesn't have a sponsor. 08:49 And so all of this chatter started happening about 08:51 well, how was she gonna stay here because, 08:54 you know, she has to have a sponsor. 08:56 There's also questions about 09:00 whether or not there's space available. 09:02 I find that maybe the hardest thing to do 09:07 is to refuse some of the children, 09:10 you know, sponsorship, 09:12 because we don't have enough sponsors. 09:15 But we try to take all the blind, all the deaf, 09:18 all the total orphans 09:20 and but of course there are lot of other 09:22 tragic situations as well as those. 09:31 The bottom line is that, I just, that night, 09:36 when we went back to the hotel, 09:39 I skyped my family and I told Rebecca, I said, 09:44 are you ready to sponsor a little girl? 09:50 She just like started crying, she said, 09:52 well, just bring her home. 09:58 In fact, I asked Helen, I said, Helen, 10:00 can we do something? 10:02 I mean, Rebecca wants me to bring her home 10:04 and I said, if I can facilitate that, 10:08 you know, that's what she wants me to do. 10:10 Helen said, she said no. 10:12 She said, listen, everything will be okay. 10:15 She's actually, it's better to have her here 10:18 because she said quite honestly it's very, very difficult to, 10:22 you can't adopt these kids out of here. 10:23 Everybody in India gets a free shot at an orphan, 10:26 which sets them up for 10:27 all kinds of abusive situations. 10:34 I started the process of becoming 10:35 Keerthana's sponsor, 10:37 but it was time for me to leave. 10:39 There were more places to film 10:40 and more faces to capture. 10:43 In two weeks I would return, 10:45 but I kept thinking about Malathih's words 10:48 about Keerthana assimilating within a week. 11:22 A week, a week and a half after she was dropped off, 11:25 she started playing with the children, 11:28 she started eating with us. 11:31 At first she ate very little. 11:34 Keerthana was still a little bit in shock. 11:36 She was-- 11:38 you could tell she was trying to take everything in. 11:42 With 70 kids at Elim Home, I figured Keerthana 11:45 would quickly disappear into the crowd. 11:50 By the time I returned, the rest of my film crew 11:52 had caught up with me in India. 11:55 They brought with them school supplies, 11:57 some clothes and gifts that Rebecca and the kids 12:00 had put together back in the States. 12:03 Given the high level of emotion 12:05 surrounding Keerthana when I left, 12:07 I wasn't expecting much of a positive outcome. 12:11 I was wrong. 12:23 When she came first, I used to be after her, 12:26 but now she's after me and after all the kids 12:29 and she's very playful, 12:31 and she says now she's very happy 12:33 to be at Elim. 12:35 She truly has settled in. 12:36 She's settled in to school, and, you know, 12:41 I've spent some time with her, 12:42 I got her introduced to my family on skype. 12:45 And I'm looking forward to and so is my family 12:48 to that day that investment pays off. 12:51 It's already paying off now, but I look forward to that day 12:55 when she finishes her degree 12:57 in whatever it is that she wants to do, 13:00 and that she's able to take her rightful place in society. 13:04 And she's gonna be able to live a principled life. 13:07 I think it's great. 13:15 I realized every orphan success story starts here 13:19 when they're dropped off. 13:21 And all they need is someone to take them in, 13:24 someone to believe in them, someone to give them hope. 13:59 Well, I'm here at Sunrise home with Joshua 14:01 and these two lovely girls. 14:03 And every morning their sponsors 14:06 make a big difference in their lives 14:08 providing accommodation, 14:10 providing clothing, providing food 14:13 and shortly they are going to walk down the road 14:14 to the local Bobbili Adventist school 14:17 and with sponsorship you can make a big difference 14:20 every morning in the life of the child. 14:42 I saw everything, every animals and birds, 14:45 and my parents and my peers also I saw when I go outside. 15:19 My name is Usha Kumari. 15:21 At the age of seven years I got brain fever 15:24 and I lose my sight. 15:27 They told me, you can't get sight again. 15:33 I feel so sad. 15:35 In the darkness we have to live all the life 15:39 until we die. 15:45 In my family all are normal, 15:47 but I am, have the defect that's why they feel so bad. 15:53 I only told them, I want to study like others, 15:58 don't neglect me, like that I told. 16:04 In poor villages across India just like Usha's 16:07 blindness is an all too familiar occurrence. 16:11 Families are uneducated and poverty stricken, 16:13 and many times intermarriages are arranged to protect 16:16 what little family assets are available. 16:19 These intermarriages can lead to defects like blindness. 16:24 Reality is children born disabled 16:27 are unwanted burdens, 16:29 because their disabilities keep them from working 16:31 and bringing in income. 16:34 For many parents they feel like they have no other option, 16:37 but to discard their blind children. 16:39 For one young girl name Rajani, 16:42 her story unfortunately sums up 16:44 the despair some are driven to. 16:46 What happened when you were small? 16:47 They tell when I was small at that time 16:50 they wanted to throw me on the train line. 16:54 Really, so what happened when she was small, 16:57 her parents wanted to because she was blind, 17:00 they wanted to throw her on the train line 17:03 she just said, 17:05 but her sister loved her very much, 17:07 and when the parents 17:09 went to throw her on the train line, 17:11 her sister tried to save her. 17:14 But what happened was that Rajani was saved 17:17 and her sister lost her life, 17:19 so really your sister died for you, didn't she? 17:22 Yes. Because she loved you. 17:24 My big sister loved me. 17:28 It's a hopeless paradox to be caught in the middle of, 17:31 one that should be enough to make 17:32 any rejected blind child like Rajani give up. 17:35 This is Babita, this is Laxmi, 17:38 this is Sravani, 17:39 at the moment she is the littlest girl 17:42 that we have here in the blind school. 17:44 This is Shanti, and she is one of the children 17:47 here at our blind school 17:49 because of her disability I guess 17:52 the parents don't really bother about her at all. 17:55 But there is an incredible resiliency in these students, 17:59 they desire to live fully, to learn and excel, 18:03 to rise above the circumstances they were born into, 18:07 rather than be defined by them. 18:11 This school is giving them that chance, 18:13 a chance for success. 18:21 We now have around 180 children in our blind school, 18:24 half of them are totally blind approximately, 18:28 and half of them have got just, just a little sight. 18:37 At least a few are literates 18:40 and it just gives you I don't know 18:45 how you should take, it gives you a better life. 19:03 Asian Aid supports one of the 19:05 premier blind schools all of India. 19:08 Here they are given a high standard 19:09 value based education. 19:14 Learning everything from braille to the arts, 19:17 and these kids love it. 19:25 First, we teach them the oral, the ABCD alphabets, 19:29 after that we teach them the six dots, 19:31 how to write in correct manner. 19:34 So everything is good in here 19:37 and in class time also teachers will tell us lessons 19:40 very nicely and clearly. 19:42 But blindness is not the only issue 19:44 Asian Aid is dealing with here. 19:46 There are various cases of acute medical care 19:49 that must be addressed. 19:51 One special case is a young girl named Laxmi. 19:55 Do you like probably blind school? 19:57 Yes. 19:58 Yes, you have many friends, many sisters. 20:01 So many. So many. 20:03 Laxmi has an advanced case of skin cancer. 20:07 By the time she came to Asian Aid, 20:09 local doctors told her 20:10 there was nothing that could be done. 20:12 Laxmi has been in our school for the blind children now 20:15 for quiet sometime a few years, 20:17 and she is a very good girl and she is a happy girl. 20:20 Aren't you? Yes. 20:21 It's sad to say, it has now come to this state 20:26 and we feel very, very sad for her. 20:32 Asian Aid continues to look for treatment 20:35 as her condition worsens, 20:37 and they are always trying to expand 20:39 and develop medical partnerships 20:42 to handle such challenges and needs 20:45 for these kids each with their own difficult story to tell. 20:49 It's never too late to start helping them. 20:53 The blind school has been a passion project 20:55 by Helen Mummy Eager 20:57 and the rest of Asian Aid for years. 20:59 They built an all inclusive campus for them. 21:03 Where these kids many abandoned 21:05 can grow and flourish. 21:08 Come little children come to me, 21:11 I will teach you ABC. 21:14 Sammy is one of the youngest boys 21:16 of the blind school, 21:18 and one of the most promising. 21:19 Sammy is a good boy, so whatever we teach 21:22 he'll just keep in his mind faster than anybody else. 21:26 Sammy proves it's never too early 21:29 to give these kids the tools they'll need to succeed. 21:31 Though he is small, he'll take part in all the activities 21:35 so what we ask him to do. 21:37 What are these? 21:39 These are grapes. 21:40 Well Sammy is a special little guy. 21:43 His mom died when he was very young, 21:46 and his father remarried 21:49 and there is a cultural thing with the remarriage 21:52 where sometimes the children aren't accepted. 21:54 So Sam has come to the blind school, 21:57 and he doesn't see a lot of his family, 21:59 so he is effectively an orphan, 22:01 but Sam likes the blind school and this is now his home, 22:06 and we are very excited that Sam is an Asian Aid child. 22:10 His family, his friends, 22:12 everything he has in his whole world 22:14 is right here at the blind school. 22:17 I think when he become big 22:18 he may become something in his life. 22:21 But Sammy and the others are getting more than 22:24 just the tools to build a bright future. 22:29 What Asian Aid is giving them is what they really need, 22:32 a sense of family, a home. 22:38 Sometimes they don't want to go home, 22:40 and I remember there were two little girls came 22:42 and when these two little girls came, 22:44 they were just so happy, there was plenty of food. 22:55 These kids can see better than most of us. 22:58 They can see hope, 23:00 a hope that leads 23:01 to the important things in life. 23:04 It goes beyond just food and shelter, 23:05 they're surrounded by people that love them, 23:09 and because of that they have the confidence 23:11 to strive for more. 23:13 I want to become a computer teacher; 23:16 if I got chances or privileges in other countries 23:20 I will go, sir. 23:25 They can do more than just get around, 23:27 and they decide to show us that. 23:29 One of their favorite past time is playing cricket. 23:36 Using a ball with bells in it, they can hear it coming. 23:42 It's a pretty amazing feat showing that there isn't much 23:45 they can't do. 23:56 And then you see some of them on the school campus 24:00 and you sort of expecting them to fall over 24:02 or bump into something that they just 24:04 after they have been there a while I guess 24:06 now that you walk these many steps this way, 24:08 and then you turn left or something, 24:10 I don't know how they do it. 24:20 The kids wanted to put on a show for us. 24:22 We weren't sure what to expect, 24:24 but right away it became obvious 24:25 that they have the same passions, 24:27 talents and abilities that any kid would have, 24:32 and they were happy to express themselves. 24:41 When darkness is everywhere, Asian Aid provides the light. 24:46 A light that gives hope to children 24:48 would otherwise not only get a chance to survive, 24:51 but to thrive 24:53 and contribute in positive ways to the global community, 24:56 may be darkness is more about our state of mind. 24:59 I will never think that I am blind 25:01 because I have every thing, 25:03 instead of seeing everything we can hear anything 25:06 and we can learn and we can go anywhere. 25:13 Come little children come to me, 25:17 I will teach you ABC. 25:34 We leave here a share of that hope is alive and well, 25:38 there is no avoiding, 25:39 it was clear as they are living. 25:42 We could see it with our own two eyes. 25:46 Where there is hope, there is no darkness. 25:58 This is Hope in Motion. 27:38 Through my work for Asian Aid, 27:40 I am constantly being made aware of the need 27:42 and suffering around the globe. 27:44 Currently there is a desperate need in Nepal 27:47 to put an end to the sex slave industry 27:50 which is destroying the lives of so many 27:52 thousands of children and young women. 27:54 If you would like to support 27:56 Asian Aid Safe Haven Project in Nepal 27:59 or any of our other current projects, 28:01 please get in touch with Asian Aid today. |
Revised 2014-12-17