Introduction

An introduction to the book I’m writing

I was riding on the back of my friend’s motorbike. We were taking powdered milk for a baby in the snake village. I had no idea what that meant, but Tinku had been talking about it since I’d arrived some three weeks earlier, to stay with him and his family in their tribal village in Purulia district, West Bengal, India. Now, on the brink of my departure, the job had to be done. My world was about to blow open in ways I could never have imagined.

I was about to step into a world so far removed from my perception of reality that it was beyond imagination. Have you ever had that feeling of - Ok, it's up to me then!? My life was about to change, and dramatically. Some fifteen years down the track, and I'm still on that road.

We navigated our way down a dirt track of craters and collapse to a small community of a dozen tiny mud brick, thatched homes. I stepped off the back of Tinku’s motorbike into the dry, dusty village, where a few girls, young teenagers, were standing around, one holding a tiny bundle – the baby. Confused, I asked where the women were. They were out collecting firewood for their cooking. And where were the men? They had gone into Purulia to do snake-charming, to beg for money. And why were these girls not at school? They are ostracized at school, even by the teachers, so they don’t go.

As we approached the girls, I saw the tiniest baby I had ever seen. He was sleeping, a tiny little black thing. Tinku spoke with the girls and handed over the powdered milk. Suddenly there was a wailing sound - a loud shriek. I turned to see an elderly woman running out of one of the homes and across the village into a very small shelter of some sort. My friend told me she was saying that she wanted to die.

What do you do when you're confronted with a tiny elderly woman who is in abject misery? She's not in a nursing home, as are all the people we know. She's freezing, in a dog kennel, having been rejected by the people in her village. This was a whole new world to me.

It turned out that she had tuberculosis of the bowels, highly infectious and deadly. Since marrying into this village as a young teenager, she'd been living with her husband's family long after his death. And now, with children in the home, they could no longer keep her. Nobody had any money, and they were overcrowded as it was. No wonder she wanted to die! - ostracised, living in a kennel, freezing in winter in her soiled thin cotton sari. I would want to die too.

It struck me that I could do something to help bridge the gap between these people and my world, back here in suburban Australia. They were living in worse conditions than our family pets have!

And so it began, with a few photos, a few friends, a few donations, a few houses. And here we are now, so many years later, still going. And yes, we have helped bridge the gap, but the job's not finished. The 'I' very quickly became 'we'. The 'I' in question was living on unemployment benefits at the time, so money was not a thing I could give. But my community stepped in, and step by step events happened, money was raised, children received safe housing and food and education, and people from a cluster of local villagers have gained access to free medical care and small business training, women have received training and families have been transformed.

It was Tinku's dream all along - he was just waiting for the vision to land. And it did, in me. Together we created Prabhat Alloi - "the home of a new dawn".

It hasn't been easy. It's really taken ongoing dedication and nurturing, and carrying on through all the struggles involving money, and also, yes, relationships. I was the bridge between two cultures and two governments, and accountability and safety has provided the hardest challenge and caused the biggest rifts. I had no training and no money. But here we are, many years down the track, still going. The only thing I had going for me was the willingness to step in and the determination to follow my commitment.

In being the bridge between two worlds I have been pulled in many ways, trying to satisfy people and conditions at both ends. At the same time, it gave me insights into worlds that few people see, and changed my life in ways I would never have imagined possible. And most of all, I have never been alone in this journey. The joyful thing is that others came in, inspired by the work, sharing the road at every step.

Despite the challenges, we have provided opportunities for hundreds of people living in poverty. Children who were at risk of being trafficked have now graduated from university. We have given people a chance at life. It's not skills and connections that are needed - it's passionate dedication to a cause. I firmly believe that if you care deeply enough about a cause for others, you can do it. The bottom line is, according to my spiritual teacher’s advice: when you get a good idea, act on it straight away. That's what I did. You can too.

This is my first attempt at writing a book. Does this sound like something you'd like to read? If so, what else would you want included in it? Are there any questions you have that you'd like to have answered? I'd love to hear from you!