India Trip Participants and Volunteers Raise $15,000 for GPM's Educational Programs

In May, Maura Koenig and Miranda Lapides, recent participants on JDC Entwine’s latest “Inside India” trip, organized a fundraiser for GPM. They hosted two Shabbat dinners, one in New York City and one in Washington, DC with a goal of raising $10,000 for GPM’s educational programs at the Joshua Jacob Greenberger Learning Center (JLC) in the slums of Kalwa, and the village of Ashte.

Between the Shabbat dinners, the sale of Masala Mama cookbooks and paintings by local artists from Ashte, and sharing the campaign link across social media, $15,000 was raised! These funds will support our local teachers for the year, monthly teacher trainings, teaching aid kits for classes and desks for children.

The May 3rd NYC Shabbat dinner hosted 70 people, and in DC 30 people attended. Both events provided a delicious Indian meal, a presentation on GPM’s initiatives and the work we do, and caring communities that came together to contribute to a cause that spoke to them. Attendees, whether they were from the Jewish community, the Indian community, friends of GPM, or participants of a JDC Entwine trip, all had one thing in common: they were passionate about the cause.

(Photo Credit: Becca Siegel)

Maura, a Jewish educator in New York, relates her trip experience to the Hebrew word “hineni,” meaning “here I am.” “Hineni means ‘I felt this, I saw this, I was there’,” Maura explained. “Our visit to the slums in and around Mumbai meant so much, with so much to be done, and I wanted to do something about it…and we did. It’s incredible how many people can care about something when you share your story.”

(Photo Credit: Elizabeth Leff)

Miranda, a communications professional in Washington, DC, knew from her first day in the slums that she wanted to help raise money for GPM. “I was inspired by GPM’s work the moment we set foot in the slums, seeing the smiles on the children’s faces in the JLC classrooms, the mothers receiving medical care at the Shravan Health Center, the daily nutritious meals being served and women’s collectives providing financial empowerment to women in the slums,” Miranda said. “I had to bring this experience back home with me and get others excited about it as well.”Maura and Miranda decided that hosting Shabbat dinners would be the most effective way to engage the community and to raise funds. “There’s a very low barrier to entry: come and eat good food and drink good wine (and whiskey!) with good people, and hear a message that is important to the world and the Jewish people,” Maura said.

Thank you so much to Maura and Miranda who conceived these events, and all the Entwine volunteers who helped turn them into a reality. Additionally, a special thank you to Michael Braun, for his generous matching grant. Lastly, many thanks to Greenberger and Cortese families.

A special thank you to all those who contributed as sponsors for the dinners:

Ayurveda Cafe

Breads Bakery

Bread Furst

Coffy Cafe

Indian Delight

JDC Entwine

Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan

Moishe House Without Walls

Nachman, Phulwani, Zimovcak (NPZ) Law Group, P.C.

Rasika West End

Trader Joe’s

WeWork

When an Israeli PhD in Neuroscience and a U.S. Fulbright Physics researcher teach science in the slums

Two international science professionals have been teaching creative science classes at the GPM school in the Kalwa slums. Hagar Grazya Yamin, a mother of 3, originally from Israel and currently based in Mumbai has a B.Sc in biomedical
engineering from the Technion and a PhD in brain sciences from Bar Ilan University while Yanky Landau is a Fulbright student researcher based at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai with a BSc in Math and Physics slotted to attend the California Institute of Technology where he hopes to get his PhD in physics.

Hagar in her class

Both Hagar and Yanky travel 90 minutes through the Mumbai traffic, and trek through the slums, to teach their weekly classes in science to the children attending the GPM Joshua Greenberger Learning Center (JLC). Hagar teaches children attending grades 3 and 4 while Yanky teaches middle school children at the JLC.

Yanky and his class

Hagar has taught creative classes on balance, coordination and the brain exposing the children to wondrous concepts in science while Yanky has opened the children’s eyes to the amazing world of physics. “It is such a great opportunity for the children to receive innovative classes from accomplished people with brilliant minds”, said GPM’s director Kenneth Dsouza, “we tend to think that we need to offer the bare minimum for those in greatest need and here we have experts in their fields teaching our children – that’s a powerful message!”

We are grateful for Hagar and Yanky’s commitment to the children’s education!

Needy Katkari tribal children helped by GPM

In the hamlet, Gawali Pada in the village of Raipur, 19 Katkari tribal children who are very poor and malnourished are faced with a lack of nutrition, education and accessible healthcare. GPM is stepping in to look after them.

Together with the local villagers of Raipur, GPM is taking care of the 19 children whose parents are landless and migrate for half the year in search of work and food. In many cases the children aged 6-14 migrate with them.

The Katkari are nomadic forest people who live throughout the village areas of Maharashtra where GPM works. The Katkari  are landless and are classified by the government as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) - they are the most poor and needy of all the tribes where GPM works.

GPM is on a mission to keep the 19 children in school and well looked after. GPM teacher, Mr Suresh Gawali is a local teacher from the village who is very passionate about providing quality education to the ‘disadvantaged’ children of his village. Classes continue after parents migrate and GPM pays a small stipend to the children’s relatives and family friends that have agreed to host the children in their homes for 6 months a year. GPM now needs to supplement the children with physical items, like clothes, shoes, stationary kits, blankets, towels and hygiene products. The run-down classroom will receive teaching aids, new lighting, basic educational toys and mats to sit on. GPM has been providing a nutritious lunch and afternoon snack for the children but now we need to supply daily dosage of fruits every day – something they need very much.

And this is where GPM needs your help. Please help us give the 19 Katkari children a future by giving them access to quality education, good nutrition, clothing and healthcare. We simply need $2850 to achieve this for the 2018-19 academic year…that’s just $150 a child…for the year!

Please donate generously…We will update you every few months how the children are going in school, their challenges and successes:  https://rootfunding.com/campaigns/helping_katkari_tribal_children

If there is anyone out there who would like to sponsor a boarding home for these children so that GPM can look after the children 24/7 please contact us.

Welcome New Year-long JDC Development Fellow at GPM

Dov Boonin, a recent graduate of Oxford University in London, has joined Gabriel Project

Mumbai (GPM) as the year-long JDC Jewish Service Corps Fellow at GPM. Dov's main focus at GPM is to work on community development initiatives and support international/local volunteer engagement. His position is funded by a generous grant by the UK based Pears Foundation.

The 23-year-old Philosophy Politics and Economics major who also studied for a year in Jerusalem. served was President of Oxford University's Jewish Society, spent a summer running summer camps in local schools in Shanghai, and participated in Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ Ben Azzai Programme for social justice with the organization Tzedek, where he visited Accra and Tamale, Ghana.

“I love learning from people from different countries, and supporting communities,” he says. In his spare time, he loves to read, play badminton and squash, play guitar, and bike-ride. “I also love meeting new people, and so am looking forward to becoming a part of your community.”

Stay Tuned...New Dental Clinic at GPM - Opening November 2018

The first ever dental clinic in the Kalwa slums is being built by GPM, slated to open in November, 2018.

The Martha B. Leigh Community Dental Clinic, located in the Bhaskar Nagar neighborhood in Kalwa, will provide essential treatment for oral diseases such as cavities, extractions, and oral disease. The Clinic, which was made possible thanks to the Martha B. Leigh Charitable Fund, will also provide a holistic, community-based oral-health education program in cooperation with Humble Smile Foundation. As part of the education program, the Clinic will also provide advanced procedures at discounted prices. The dental staff will conduct outreach in the community, going to people’s homes to talk about issues such as limiting sugar, brushing teeth, and using toothpaste. In addition, GPM will provide subsidies for children whose families are unable to pay even the discounted costs. Anyone who has a severe dental issue will be referred to experts outside of the slum.

"As part of our approach of working holistically with families and communities, we discovered that there is a real need for a dental clinic in the slums," explains GPM Founding Director, Jacob Sztokman. GPM found that many children have severe dental problems such as rotting teeth, oral deformities, oral hygiene problems, and even losing teeth -- because until now, there was not a single qualified dentist in the entire Kalwa slum of 200,000 people. Residents of the slum need to travel far distances for dental care, if they could afford it. "It seems that dental care has come to be considered a great luxury in the Kalwa slum because of how difficult it is to attain. But this should not be the case. Dentistry, especially for children, is not a luxury but a vital necessity," Mr. Sztokman says.

Dental problems can cause great pain and distress, as well as risks of infections and other diseases. In addition, the failure to attend to children’s dental needs can have consequences for the children later in life. It can affect not only self-confidence and appearance, but also the ability to get a decent job. Consultations with medical and dental organizations have indeed confirmed that a children’s dental clinic is a vital necessity for the community.

The two-room clinic, which is currently undergoing renovations, will be part of the Shravan Medical Center that serves 10,000 clients each year. It will be equipped with a dental chair,  dental apparatus and equipment, autoclave, x-ray machine, dental supplies, electricity back-up generator and a good water supply.

The Dental Clinic, which was designed in consultation with Dr. Darren Weiss and Dr. Aachal Devi of  the Humble Smile Foundation, will be staffed by a local dentist, a dental hygienist, an outreach coordinator (a community educator), and an administrative coordinator. GPM is also inviting dentists from around India and also around the world to volunteer at the clinic providing specialty services.

The "before" photo: Dr Darren Weiss, Dr Aachal Devi and Jacob Sztokman at the site of the  medical center that will house the Martha B Leigh Community Dental Clinic and the Shravan Health Centre

Renovations for the new Dental Clinic taking place end of August 2018

Israeli soldiers "Heroes for Life" volunteer with GPM

For the second year in a row, Heroes For Life (HFL), an group of recently-released IDF soldiers who are dedicated to "giving back" to vulnerable populations around the world, volunteered over the summer with GPM. The Israeli organization capitalizes on the many post-army adults who travel to

India every year and offers them a venue to volunteer and give back to vulnerable populations during their travels.

HFL participants taught in our classes in the slums and also they sent a cohort to the remote tribal village of Ashte where GPM operates a range of development programs. In Ashte, the HFL group taught GPM classes in government schools that are partnering with GPM ras well as in the GPM Love2Learn pre-school. Additionally, HFL took upon itself to renovate the GPM Preschool, paint its interior and exterior, and create educational materials for the students.

HFL participants also taught middle-school students at the GPM Joshua Greenberger Learning Center in the Kalwa slums and were introduced to GPM development initiatives in the slum community.

"The HFL volunteers are extremely passionate, hard working and well trained educationally before arriving in India" said Leron Kehimkar of GPM. "They add so much excitement to the classrooms the children love the innovative and fun way to learn."

"We had a great time volunteering in GPM’s centers," said Dafna Shamgar, HFL Coordinator. "We felt the meaning and importance of our stay every day when we came to classes and experienced how many wonderful things we could do together. We thank GPM for the opportunity and the cooperation that will continue."

GPM distributes $18,000-worth of free medicines in the Kalwa slum

When Gabriel Project Mumbai opened the Shravan Health Center in August 2015 one of the main goals of the clinic was to provide discounted and free medicines and treatment alongside quality health care. 

Over three years of operation, GPM has distributed $18,000 worth of free and heavily discounted medicines to the residents of the Kalwa slums. These medicines, which include antibiotics, vaccines, antihistamines, pain killers and other essentials, were provided as part of the health care that doctors of the Shravan Health Center give the Kalwa community of 200,000 residents.

"Accessible quality healthcare is a human right," says GPM Founding Director Jacob Sztokman, "and we are so honored to be able to provide this service to the people of Kalwa."

"Manisha" came to GPM's Shravan Health Center for treatment. She suffers from chronic pain all over her body. The doctors prescribed several different medications to help with her manage the pain. Since this woman was unable to pay for them, they were given to her FREE of cost.