My views on this are a bit different from the ones already expressed. Its great to hear that its a dream project for many out here.
I am not sure in which HAT my views fit in I guess its mostly the Red Hat. The following are my questions for all of us. I gave my explainations and my observations on these below but for those who do not have time want you to think on these questions. 1. By setting up an orphanage how many are we going to help and reach? 2. Arent we re-inventing the wheel as there have been many who have already made such efforts and working along? More over we have always said that we do not like re-inventing the wheels but to support the existing ones. 3. Old Age home has its own set of problems totally different from orphanges.. so have to channelise on both of them separately to do justice to the idea. 4. Would the model solve the root cause of it or are we just being intermediary to help those affected? Shouldnt we target the root cause then? 5. What is it that we want to acheive through this project? Be one more model helping the destitute people or be one to show solutions to the most people and kids for a better tomorrow? Let me elaborate on my views for the above points: 1. By setting up an orphanage how many are we going to help and reach? I would like to explain this with some numbers, these numbers are just my assumptions and intuiton only. If we take a sample of 100 rural children the number of orphans would be lets say about 15. I feel its much less than that. Our idea is to take care of just the 15% of the needy kids. Arent we restricting ourselves or the solution we are putting efforts is so limited. Cant we not put efforts to reach the rest as well and think in such lines. 2. Arent we re-inventing the wheel as there have been many who have already made such efforts and working along? More over we have always said that we do not like re-inventing the wheels but to support the existing ones. There have been many such organisations which started off but couldnt sustain due to many issues and others are moving forward but with many obstacles, why do we have to reinvent the cycle again. Why not help these lingering ones and provide them the support to reach more people. There are many which need more support and are doing their best in improving and sustaining. 3. Old Age home has its own set of problems totally different from orphanges.. so have to channelise on both of them separately to do justice to the idea. Administration of this is very hectic and challenging. Need to have dedicated employees as the labour in bed sick people is very high and medically it would be challenging making sure there is no spread of infections. And more over food has to be taken care based on the individual's medical state and the most important thing is there will be very less gratitude from the people we are helping as thats their state of mind where they only crave for their own people. 4. Would the model solve the root cause of it or are we just being intermediary to help those affected? Shouldnt we target the root cause then? What is our aim with this project? Is it providing a role model place for a kid's development? or is it to help the orphans (sorry for the term but just helps me out making my point more clear)? If its for reaching out the kids development to make them better citizens and not just for a few of them then i feel working on making the govt schools more productive and inspiring is the best way to reach the grass roots and impact many kids to become good citizens. 5. What is it that we want to acheive through this project? Be one more model helping the destitute people or be one to show solutions to the most people and kids for a better tomorrow? My views on this is already answered in the above points. Point is self-sustaining models can still be build with the help of govt-schools and make these models reach deeper into the villages. Best Regards Chaitanya
