The slum community that Wasim calls home is in Mumbai’s poorest Ward – the M-East Ward – and at its heart is the city’s largest garbage dump. Along the outer reaches of this giant landfill, the poor of Mumbai have flocked by the thousands into slum clusters, each competing with the other for lower standards of living.
Here, every second child is underweight and more than half are stunted. The effects of heart-breaking poverty run generations deep.
Wasim and his family however are better off than most of their neighbours – they have a solid roof over their head, a toilet in their house, and access to water. Even so, eight people live in Wasim’s one-room house, and Wasim and his sister Shahin were 3 and 5 years old when we first met them, but they had never been to school.
In early 2019, your gifts reached out with love to these siblings and drew them into our nursery and senior kindergarten. Wasim took to education immediately. He almost never misses class and he loves distributing books, pencils and crayons, and helping his friends complete their classwork. His teacher says he is a quick learner, quiet and obedient.
Along with education, your gifts have given Wasim and Shahin a hearty, nutritious meal every school day, healthcare assessments, dental workups, all of their educational materials and personal counselling for his family’s upliftment.
Wasim dreams of becoming a doctor when he grows up.
Thank You for reaching out with love to Wasim, Shahin and their family. Your interventions at such an early stage in their lives have ensured that they don’t join the hundreds of malnourished, uneducated and at-risk children in their neighbourhood.
May you be blessed for all you do!
