Nurturing Mumbai Dreams

The full story in Hadassah, written by Rahel Musleah, can be found here.

The slums of Mumbai would probably not rank very high on a list of places that strengthen Jewish identity and encourage Jewish peoplehood. But it is here, against fields of dirt pocked with litter, rags, rocks and excrement as far as the eye can see, that young Jewish volunteers from around the world work together with their Indian Jewish peers toward a quintessentially Jewish goal: feeding the hungry—literally, emotionally and educationally.
In one of several one-room schoolhouses in Kalwa, a small town on Mumbai’s outskirts, 20 children ranging in age from 4 to 12 sit cross-legged on a cement floor covered with a colorful thin rug. The only light comes from the open door and a hole in the corrugated tin roof. An English alphabet chart hangs on the wall near a clock, a gift from volunteers. The children are gleeful and eager, oblivious to the stark poverty around them.  Some are dressed in school uniforms, natty in their white shirts and ties, their plastic satchels festooned with cartoon characters.