AMARJIT. HIS STORY

Amarjit is a 16-year-old boy who lives in the southern area of the city of Varanasi. Son of Kusum and Bethu, Amarjit is the third of the four children in the family.

His two elder sisters, Neha and Sneha, are studying in Class XII and Class X respectively. His small sister Nisa is in Class VIII. Amarjit, the only son, is also in Class X like one of his sisters. They all attend a public school near to their house.

Amarjit´s parents are humble people. His mother works cleaning houses. His father, who has had a stomach sickness for years can’t move too much, which is the reason why Amarjit has to work during the time he is not at school, selling flowers at the Ghats or rowing a boat on the Ganges for tourists.

Amarjit’s dream has been always to dance, but his family responsibilities and lack of money does not permit him to do this.

They have their own house, which they share with their relatives, so the space for the family is not big enough.

Contact with us:

In the month of October, two of the Swawalambi members, Ivan and Vicenta, met Amarjit and with the support of some Spanish friends they decided to help him to open a small shop in one of the rooms in his house, so he could stop working and his father could work without going out of the house.

In order to achieve this, Iván and Vicenta, with the help of Cristina, a social worker living in Varanasi and the other member of Swawalambi, came to the following agreement with Amarjit´s family:

-          The family would be responsible for organizing the preparation of the shop: carpenter, painter, contacts with the suppliers, etc…

-          The family would allways give Cristina the bills justifying the money they had spent.

-          Cristina would give them a certain amount of money, and once finished would give them another amount.

-          Amarjit would stop working and his father would work at the shop. Also Amarjit would start attending some dance classes that the sponsors would finance for one year, on the condition that once the year was over, Amarjit’s family would continue paying for the classes, assuming that they were earning enough money.

Results:

After 4 months Amarjit and his family had a small grocery shop. Amarjit’s parents work in it and sometimes the children help them. Meanwhile they are studying and Amarjit is attending dancing clases.

 The shop has allowed them to have more stable incomes to. Now Amarjit is very happy and very grateful for the support.

"Now my family is happier" says Amarjit