By Rahul Brahmbhatt | Executive Director, Magic Bus USA
Brief description of community/socio-economic background:
Bhalswa is a large resettlement colony on the outskirts of northwest Delhi, located on the fringes of Delhi’s largest garbage dumping ground. Not surprisingly, only the poorest families in this megacity call this area home. Most of the community’s population is well below the poverty line. Men here work as daily wage workers at construction sites. Women work alongside them or as domestic help in more affluent neighborhoods.
The area is like so many others like it in Delhi, suffering from a lack of electricity, clean drinking water, and sanitation facilities. Unemployment is high. There is only one government school in the area, located far from where the children live.. Children have to walk a very far distance just to attend this school.
These are the living condition for Magic Bus volunteer and first-generation college student, Gulafsha. She lives here with her parents and five siblings. The entire family of eight lives in a one-room shack in this slum. Her father runs a small butcher shop and earns 8000 rupees/month, the equivalant of $133/month, which is just enough to make ends meet.
How did Gulafsha find Magic Bus?
In 2011, through generous donors, Magic Bus was able to launch a program in Bhalswa. Magic Bus staff was tasked with surveying the community and working with local organizations to identify high-potential youth. Gulafsha was identified as a bright, cheerful, young girl who was willing to be the change in her community. She was excited and motivated to become a role model to younger children in her community.
With her parents' blessings, Gulafsha was ready to start working with Magic Bus, but there would be many obstacles on the way. Her family faced constant dissention and threats from community leaders for sending a girl to take part in a mixed-gender, outdoor program. “When we started, it was not socially acceptable to send a girl out into the playing field," said Gulafsha’s mother. According to the community, girls were not supported to play, they were supposed to be "good girls" and stay indoors unless with their family. Gulafsha's family could not have done this along and that's where Magic Bus staff stepped in an assured her family that the organization and staff would always be there to not only back Gulafsha, but her parents and family as well. Fully aware of how taking part in the program would positively affect Gulalfsha's life and future, they courageously supported her participation at Magic Bus.
How has Magic Bus impacted Gulafsha's life?
Gulafsha has joined the Magic Bus Connect program which helps prepare Magic Bus graduates with livelihoods and job-skills training. The Connect program builds skills in areas like functional English, computer literacy, and interviewing. In the program, she was paired with a career mentor who helped her decide what she wanted to do for a livelihood. Gulafsha graduated high school and continues to serve as a Community Youth Leader, serving as a Magic Bus role model for 50 children in her community.
Through this process, Gulafsha realized that she has a natural gift for teaching and decided that she wanted to pursue further education to reach her goal. With the help of Magic Bus staff, she met with her family and discussed the investment in her education. With their support, she applied for and was accepted to the 3 year Bachelor's of Arts program at Delhi University. She has just finished her first year of her degree and is studying hard, overcoming the talleset of odds to make it this far!
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