By Namrata Jain | Project Leader
Bal Sambal is part of a family legacy. Panchsheel Jain founded Bal Sambal inspired by his father who did a lot of social work in the field of development of women and children in India. Hence, Panchsheel had quite a bit of experience with underprivileged children's development before founding Bal Sambal.
Despite of the tools like experience, motivation, network of like-minded people and development strategies in his belt, there were few cases when the problems seemed daunting and unbeatable. But the words of his father inspired him to find solution and move on. A succint poem by his father (in Hindi followed by translation):
Ek ke baad ek musibat aati rahi,
Ek ke baat ek gajab dhati rahi,
Kuch din ruki, phir chal di,
Hamne pucha musibaton se, laut kar kab aaogi,
Vo boli, kya khaak aayengi, tumne samjha kabhi hamein musibat?
Translation: Problems kept coming one after another, kept throwing difficulties at every step. The problems stayed for a few days and then they moved on. I asked the problems, when will you be back. They said, the heck we will be back! Did you ever think of us as problems?
One of the failures came at a very early age when the construction had just begun. One of the first things to get set up after setting the foundation was getting electicity up and running. But when trying to get that done, Panchsheel realized that the village had no electricity. there wasn't even a transformer to suppy electricity in that area. He made quite a few trips of the government offices to get electricity lines pulled to the village but all the efforts were in vain. The minimum waiting time was 2 years and that was a big blocker to Panchsheel's plans.
So, one of the first things he had to do was focus the donations coming in to buy a transformer so that the whole village could get electricity. It was a big problem to begin with but ended with not only solving Bal Sambal's problem, but also the whole village now had electricity. An added advantage was that the village of Sirohi accepted Bal Sambal with open arms as a harbinger of development and better days.
Today the children of that village come and study in Bal Sambal school. The locals help the organization in every way they can and have a very special relationship with Bal Sambal.
We learned a few things through this experience. Firstly we learned to never take anything for granted and do a thorough research for everything we need with dependency on other organizations or the government. Secondly, we learned to look at the big picture and welfare of all. Knowing we have the power of making a difference to someone's lives also makes us responsible to make the right decisions.
To end with a great quotation of Maya Angelou, "Nothing will work unless you do."
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By Namrata Jain | Project Leader
By Namrata Jain | Project Leader
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