Narnie doesn’t really stand out from the average tourist in Pushkar, she turns up quietly and leaves quietly, her flaming red dreadlocks at odds with her subtle use of space.
She is an artist in her life in Spain but here in India she has 41 children of whom she is extremely proud. Born in Germany but settling and working in Spain as a jeweller, Narnie was moved by the conditions of the street children of India during her travels.
Now there are a lot of well meaning foreigners in India, keen to set up NGO’s and to help in some way. I have to admit that I have always felt a bit cynical about people who travel the world looking for people to help when there will be people in their own community back at home in just as dire situations. Charity begins at home, my mother always said and The World begins at your doorstep is a favorite saying of my own invention. I am also guilty of being quite cynical of orphanages in Asia having seen many operating in Nepal as agencies for child trafficking and other hideous crimes.
I also get a rather uncomfortable feeling when people who have started NGO’s in town are lauded like visiting Gods not by the people they help but by the people who administer the funds. The downside of any charity is that it needs systems and accountability and people to administer the thing and administration takes a slice of the funding pie no matter which way you look at it.
But at the end of the day there is that kid on the street and there is no food in it’s little tummy or hope for its future and who could remain actively ignorant about that? Establishing an NGO in India is like the labors of Hercules only with lots more paperwork. Narnie has managed this with help from her family and friends and the support of her business partner, as effortlessly as an Angel sent to earth on a mission. She has two orphanages in the nearby city of Jaipur where twenty boys and twenty girls are housed separately. The children are all orphans or have escaped from abuse and poverty.
All except the babies go to school, as well as learning crafts that will help support them into the future. One of their ongoing projects is teaching girls to be professional dancers and teachers of dance, something that keeps them fit and happy as children and will hopefully lead them into a career in the future.
I admire Narnie not so much for what she is doing which is a lot, it costs thirty euro each month for each child she has in her care and while she accepts donations in her quiet self effacing way, she doesn’t speak about the funds unless you press her. She would much rather talk about the children and their potential, their problems and their adorability like any mother and thats what I admire her for.
Photo Credit: http://www.childsrights.es/index.php