India

A Note on Security

Servants India operates in a major Indian city. But for security purposes, we don’t publicise the location of the team nor the names of team members. The people mentioned below are all real people, though their names have been changed. Please use the form on our Contact page if you would like to get in touch and/or inquirer about joining this team. We’d love to hear from you.

Get to Know Our Team

  • Yusuf, 26, is Australian but was born and brought up in India by his parents, Yaqoob and Ruby. Currently in India, sharing a room with Jeshan. Favourite recreations include: reading, playing sport and playing strategy games.
  • Jeshan, 28is from Odisha, an eastern state in India, and, having worked in several south Indian states, speaks six languages fluently! Jeshan loves to listen to and watch movies and cricket.
  • Yaqoob & Ruby (parents of Yusuf) are Australians who moved to India in the mid-1990s. Yaqoob originally trained in Commerce and Law, then International Development. Ruby has recently added theological studies to her previous Maths/ Computer degrees. They have recently returned to India after several years in Australia.
  • Nathan, 42, is from west coast US. He worked as a teacher in inner-city schools before moving to India in 2012. Passions include tracking, holding, photographing and writing about all manner of reptiles! 
  • Miriam, 40, is Egyptian-American. Initially trained as an aerospace engineer, she has since shifted into counselling. She and Nathan, along with their daughter Shakeena, are currently back in US on Sabbatical, hoping to return in the coming few months. Miriam is passionate about Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and mediation work, creating community, and doing yoga.
  • Shakeena, at age 4, is a rockstar of our urban poor neighbourhood! Already her fame has spread widely and her antics put a smile on the saddest faces. The most extroverted member of the team!

Between us we have had experience in working for and with the poor in a range of areas (see “Get to Know our Work” section below). But perhaps even more importantly, we focus on building warm relationships with our neighbours in an attempt to be a peaceful, compassionate presence in our neighbourhood.

We would love to welcome new members on to our team. We strive to have warm, open, honest, mutual, accountable relationships within the team and with a growing network of ex-pat and Indian friends. We look forward to welcoming new team members into the same caring community and encourage you to bring your own special gifts, talents and passions.

Get to Know Our Neighbourhood

We live in a city which is historically Muslim, but which is now quite diverse. This creates a rich cultural environment expressed in the architecture, art, food and religious practices. The contrasts and diversity were part of what attracted the team to move here from Delhi in 2012. Here one finds a vibrant mix of old and new: ancient religious monuments and British colonial architecture stand alongside glossy shopping malls; female college students in jeans and T-shirts pass women in traditional saris or burqas on the streets.

As a state capital, the city also has all the facilities available in modern India – from sports centres and parks to cinemas and coffee shops.

However, the city is also characterised by a widening gap between growing wealth and grinding poverty: middle class families live in plush apartments next door to the makeshift shacks of the people who clean their houses; their private cars share the road with bicycles, horse-drawn carts, rickshaws, herds of goats, pedestrians and crowed mini-buses.

While the city is known for its warmth and politeness, north Indian culture is generally somewhat aggressive. This is a challenging context for women, especially fair-skinned foreigners. Women may find the culturally ingrained patriarchy difficult. However, if we behave respectfully and modestly, the city is largely a welcoming place.

Get to Know Our Work

In 2014, Nathan got involved in an innovative Hindi literacy program, based on asking questions of the learner rather than traditional rote learning. Six years on, Jeshan and Yusuf are also working in the same NGO, and have been training school and college students to become literacy mentors in an ‘each one teach one’ campaign. We also have a network of 5-6 people from our local slum who teach alongside us in several locations; together, we have helped around 300 people (primarily kids) learn to read their mother-tongue. While the teaching program was on hold during the worst of the pandemic, we have recently restarted.

the stats:
  • India has by far the largest illiterate population in the world, at some 280 million adults.
  • Half of Indian Grade 5 students cannot read a Grade 2 textbook in their mother-tongue.
a story:

“How can I learn to read at this age?”

Shafia, 40, was asking me a simple and yet deep question. I responded to her confidently, that if she worked hard she would certainly be able to. But I knew the sad reality – the vast majority of people who have reached her age without becoming literate, would remain illiterate for the rest of their lives. Was Shafia right to doubt her ability to learn, to question the purpose of acquiring literacy now that she was middle aged?

As it turned out, Shafia was one of my fastest learners ever – she went from unable to recognise a letter, to reading sentences fluently, in just one month. Important as that skill is for her practically, I think its greatest significance is the impact it has had on her self-confidence. One day, after she read a story fluently, I reminded her of the self-doubts she had expressed back when we met the first time. She chuckled, as if to say, “that was a long time ago”. She now helps her own daughter, Shazreen (7), with her school homework. When I went with Shafia to a parent-teacher meeting, the teacher offered her an inkpad to make a thumb-print in the attendance register. The teacher was shocked – and delighted – when Shafia reached for a pen to sign instead.

support this work:

Several local residents have been trained and now work as literacy teachers.  Your support will pay their small stipends to help keep them teaching (about US$50 monthly per part-time teacher).  Click the PayPal button, and choose “India team: Literacy” from the drop-down list, or click the “Other Ways to Donate” button for other options.  100% of donations will be sent directly to the project.

About the same time our team moved to the city, a local pastor was starting up a home for minor girls rescued from trafficking. Making this connection caught Miriam’s attention, as she’d worked with this group before in Southeast Asia and it had become close to her heart. As Miriam felt more settled she began to go weekly first bringing activities and play and later as a counselor once she felt confident enough in language. For the next six years Miriam saw dozens of girls come through the home, listening to their hearts and histories, and journeying with them toward hope. The current and former residents continue to be a big part of Miriam’s life, as do the staff team. 

the stats
  • According to the 2019 “Crime in India” report, one child disappears about every seven minutes in India (see table 15.1).
  • Children make up roughly 40% of those prostituted in India (more here and at ChildLine)
  • Underage girls brought to the safehouse have included child beggars, girls married off as minors, those trafficked by relatives, neighbors, or strangers, and a few who themselves had gone into prostitution.
a story

Ruby—whose name has been changed—was a 17-year-old girl who came from a trash-picking family. Growing up, her brothers attended school but because she was a girl, Ruby’s parents did not invest in her education. Instead she had to collect trash each day. She longed to join the children she saw walking to school and to learn to read and write. At the safe house, though she struggled with her relationships to staff and the other girls, she realized she was getting the chance she always dreamed of, in the daily classes offered, and she quickly picked up reading, writing, and basic math. Now she dreams of starting a business to become self supporting rather than the typical path for girls from her region and socioeconomic class in India – to be married and live in her in-laws’ home, likely enduring abuse and loneliness.

Servants Team Member Miriam says, “I’ve learnt not to expect quick ‘success stories’ from among the safe house girls as their lives are so filled with trauma and incredible obstacles to change, personal and societal. Still daily encouragement abounds, and I pray for the decades-long view to be one of dramatic growth and new life.”

The Indian healthcare system attracts medical tourists from the West, but, paradoxically, remains very thin on the ground for hundreds of millions of the nation’s own citizens. Hospitals are typically overcrowded; and while the public healthcare system is free on paper, there are numerous out-of-pocket expenses which often result in the poor going into debt. The Covid crisis has exacerbated existing issues, with basic healthcare services often interrupted and resources diverted. Over the last year, we have become more heavily involved in helping some of our neighbours navigate the medical system: booking online appointments, buying medicines, talking to doctors etc.

the stats
  • The Indian government spends just 1.3% of GDP on healthcare, well lower than international norms.
  • India’s TB diagnosis rate fell sharply during the lockdown; this is likely to ultimately result in 150,000 additional deaths.
a story

When we first met Kripa, 28, the family was plunging into debt as she wasted away, with severe nausea and terrible headaches; the diagnosis – TB meningitis. We helped her get onto the right medicines and have better nutrition, but the situation was still grim. At one stage Jeshan babysat their 4 kids for a month (due to the Covid lockdown, no relative could come to stay) while Kripa’s husband stayed with her in hospital. Later, Kripa’s weight dropped to 21kg and it looked like she wouldn’t make it. Miraculously, through a combination of prayer, dedication and unceasing love from her husband, Kripa began recovering. She has since bounced back to 32kg, is no longer vomiting and is without headaches. She has a few months to go to complete her TB medicines, but we are incredibly grateful.

support this work

Most medical treatment in government hospitals is free or low cost, but sometimes there are big costs involved.  To help with medical expenses for those in most need, either click the PayPal button, and choose “India team: Health care” from the drop-down list, or click the “Other Ways to Donate” button for other options.  100% of donations will be sent directly to the project.

The Indian government has numerous schemes to help the poor, but the genuinely marginalised often have difficulty accessing them due to a lack of knowledge, corruption, and the convoluted nature of Indian bureaucracy. For many years, Yaqoob has been running training for numerous NGOs in how to help people access these services. He also created and curated a series of manuals on government services, which have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. More recently, Yusuf and Jeshan have been helping people from our slum and surrounding neighbourhoods with various government documentation issues.

The stats

Over the past two years, we have assisted approximately:

  • 500 people to enroll for or make a correction in their aadhar card (India’s basic form of ID).
  • 400 households get gas connections
  • 80 people to apply for public housing (only 1 success so far!)
  • 60 widows, people with disabilities and senior citizens to apply for pensions (many of these are still in process, but at least 20 people have started receiving their pensions).
a story

Mehtab, 35, lives in a shack by the side of a railway track. A father of 5 kids, he struggles to make ends meet working as a recycler. Despite having a substantial physical disability – his left leg  is largely paralysed in a bent position – he manages to cycle several kilometres to his work. When I met Mehtab, he asked me to apply for the disability pension for him. He was the first person I applied for, so it took me some time to learn the system – taking photos of his documents, uploading them through an online portal, and submitting hard copies in a government office.

After several months’ waiting, Mehtab received his first instalment in November 2020! The Rs 500 (USD 7) per month is not much, but it’s something to help tide the family over. Since Mehtab’s success, numerous others have come forward asking to apply for various types of pension.

support this work

Donations to this project will go towards paying the small fees required to apply for various schemes and ID documents, which currently amount to about US$100 each month.  Either click the PayPal button, and choose “India team: Government Services” from the drop-down list, or click the “Other Ways to Donate” button for other options. 100% of donations will be sent directly to the project.

While we are excited about the work we are already involved in, there are many more areas we would love to move in as a team:

  • Help people develop spiritually and grow in their understanding of God.
  • Appropriately questioning and challenging unhelpful cultural norms and gender roles which lead to underage marriage, domestic violence and poor parenting; and helping people ask these questions themselves.
  • Developing creativity and critical thinking through project-based learning.
  • Help people de-addict from tobacco and related products; and help younger generation not become addicted in the first place.
  • Possibly move to a rural area and work towards making villages more livable, to reduce the number of people ending up in slums in the first place.

Stories from India