Meet The Yamuna Kids

Have any of you joined any service groups this year? Well, I certainly hadn’t, until I was fortunately forced to go. In 8th grade there is a project called the the POP Project (PeOPle project), in which you search about a topic related to people in India. In this topic you have to do a lot of research and one of the ways you research is by doing an Independent investigation, in this method of research you can choose from three different options of ways of researching: Service (volunteer for a service club), Interview and Data analysis. I did service. As a professional procrastinator I waited till I had one week to write my essay, and I had to go fast since I had no time to spare. So I had to choose the most accessible service club to join, which was a service club (with only one participant) organized by my dear advisor Ms.Kapoor. She had recently started to go to this group of kids near the Yamuna river. She saw these boys when she went to where her maid lives, and she noticed how they had a bright future ahead of them but there was no one helping them reach where they wanted to be. This is what made her go to them and teach them English and help them learn. Now she goes there EVERY DAY. Going to this service club wasn’t something I was very excited to do, until I got there. When we arrived the first thing we did was put plastic sheets on the ground for the kids to play with Playdough and draw. After we all sat on the ground to start playing with the Playdough, I found myself playing particularly with this one boy, his names is Ruhit (about 6 years old), and this is the kid who I most spent time with. Then we went play monkey in the middle with a friend of Ruhit (I was the monkey most of the time). When we started to play they would throw the ball and it would land far beyond whoever the ball was being passed to, so this would make me have to race them to catch the ball, but most of the time these children would win against me. It was incredible how we were having such an amazing time together considering the fact that I do not know a single word in Hindi and he can only say “Hello” and “Thank You” in English. After that we went on to racing each other, we would draw a line on the dirt with a piece of wood as the starting line, and have someone at the end to tell us who one the race, it was a tight race but he would usually win, and then he would go to his friends to tell them he one and he would be laughing, jumping and overall happy. Now why am I telling you all this? This certainly isn’t the only place in Delhi where you can find children in these conditions, and it is not the only place where you can help. Children have been going through situations of extreme poverty since 1920 (Nearly 100 years ago!), and there are still kids today that are out searching for food in dumpsters while you sit in a air conditioned place reading this on your phone. This is an opportunity to help others but most importantly have fun, they will be having an amazing time with you and you will have that feeling of knowing that you did something good. You do not have to go to this place every day, but once a week is more than enough to make these children immensely thankful, going to this place will help Madhu Kapoor since she is the only one going today, if any day she were to be sick there would be no one to help these children, learn English, learn how to be hygienic, be taught manners. You do not have to go, and don’t feel bad if you don’t, but going will truly make a difference in these kids lives.