Posted: 30/03/2009
The General Director of ICCO, Jack Van Ham, along with Bram Van Leeuwen (Advisor), Jan Pieter Wieldraaijer (Executive Secretary to the Director), Joyce Van Horn (Communication Programme Co-ordinator) and Esther Snabel (Communications) visited us earlier this week. Stephen Verwer and Andre Van der Stowe, the Director and journalist with Lokaalmondiaal also accompanied them on the visit.
The group visited Kanchan Basti, a slum located in the industrial area of Mayapuri. As most of the group were visiting India for the first time, seeing the condition of the slum was a shocking experience for them. Although several of them had been to some poor countries earlier, the level of poverty seen in Kanchan Basti was difficult for them to digest. The heat did not deter the group who went right into the slum and met the residents, talked to them and listened carefully as they discussed their problems. The members also visited Asha's centre at Mayapuri and saw the activities going on there, including the computer literacy programme and the immunisation of children under the age of five.
The group then visited the Asha centre at Ekta Vihar, a slum in which Asha has been working for the last 20 years. The staff, women and the children from the community warmly welcomed them. They met a group of college students who are often referred to as ‘The History Makers' for being the first group of students from the slums to ever attend college.
The visitors were impressed by the way Asha has been helping slum dwellers with the microcredit scheme and were all the more excited to hear about the high percentage of repayment - all but 1% of the beneficiaries have managed to repay their loans at the agreed rate and timescales. The average default rate for middle class families is 6-7%!
The members of ‘Bal Mandal' and ‘Yuva Mandal' (children's and young people's groups) also explained their activities to the visitors. They visited a few members who had taken loans to improve their houses and were delighted to see the big changes in their lives. The members then came back to Asha's headquarters for tea and short presentation.
ICCO is a valued supporter of Asha's work, and all the staff and beneficiaries were grateful for the chance to meet Jack and the team, and to show them how ICCO's funding is making a difference to the lives of so many people in slum communities.
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Thanks to Asha, we have been able to get land rights in our own names and so we don’t have to be afraid of being evicted. Most people in slums never own their own homes and so we feel very privileged.
Narayani, Ekta Vihar
