My Nonprofit Reviews

Barely a month before my trip to visit family in New Delhi, I learned about the Children International's Teresa Tilden center during a CI SF Bay area luncheon meeting. Being a part of CI for the last 2 years, I have always wondered how CI worked at the ground level and this was a perfect opportunity to find that out!

I met up with the CI staff in New Delhi and was immediately struck by their warm personalities. As we walked around on a tour of the community center, I was pleasantly surprised by how well planned and organized everything was: the nutrition center, the health clinic with the orderly health checkups, the well stocked library and an up to date computer center. The thing that struck me the most was the genuine passion and caring nature of every one who worked there. The center acts like an oasis of hope to the community (which we visited later) where children run bare foot in a neighborhood overwhelmed by poverty, chaos and garbage.

I also took part in some of the activities that the center hosts for the children. The first was the computer literacy class; I was highly impressed by the smart kids, who haven't touched a computer before in their lives, showing me how they use MS paint! In the library session that followed, 7-8 year olds read out loud from books, some with confidence, some with sheepishness; but all of them incredibly adorable! Then I had a career counseling session with the youth of the community; discussing their ambitions as they looked for jobs, hoping to break out of poverty. It was heartbreaking to see the teenagers coming to terms with the reality of the outside world, but also heartening to see how CI has provided them hope where they now feel they can achieve their dreams.

The true enormity of the task on CI's plate hit me then: helping children break out of the circle of poverty can't be done with education alone. I was very encouraged to see CI taking steps to address the fact that the children need support and help in all aspects of their lives: physical and mental health, a stress free social environment and support from surrounding communities. The whole staff is passionate, dedicated and employ ingenious ideas to solve problems; tie ups with local medical centers and job agencies provide the much needed support. All in all, I came back with optimism, a sense of pride to be associated with CI and an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to all the people involved in this effort. I am signing up to sponsor another child soon.

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