A group of friends travelling from a foreign land  could not  bear to see the miseries of children in Indian slums. They decided to do  something, take a first step in making a difference to at least a few lives, if not all. They formed a group, sensitised their own people in another country about  India’s conditions, raised funds, and established Inde et Nous, which is French for India  and We.

To cull out more facts about Inde et  Nous and to track the progress it has made so far, Veronica Cerrer, on CauseBecause’s behalf, spoke to Dominic  Fortin, the initiator of the concept that is now a successfully running
non-government organisation.

It was monsoon in India. In a little  house in Dehradun, the capital city of the northern state of Uttarakhand,  Dominic Fortin sat in front of her computer sipping on her morning coffee. She  was slightly relieved that we were able to see and hear each other over Skype. It  was raining, but the bright blue hue of Dominic’s room and the conversation  that we were having distracted us from the dreariness outside.

Dominic is part of a small organisation  called Inde et Nous. It was co-founded with her friend  Laurent Camboulin, Philippe Duranleau and her mother Monic Brodeur. Inde et Nous  will complete two years of existence in August 2013.

Dominic spent a total of a year and a  half in India before Inde et Nous. She fell in love with the country and its children, so she joined one NGO. ‘It didn’t go very well with that association.  It was not meant for me,’ Dominic confesses.

She didn’t like the way children were  being treated  in that NGO, so she went back to her hometown of Sainte-Thérèse  in Quebec, Canada, and shared her experience with family and friends. That’s  when they decided to establish their own organisation. Currently, there in are  three branches of Inde et Nous ” in Canada, France and Switzerland, all under the  association Sobhagyam.

‘Sobhagyam means to be fortunate, to  have hope. It’s an innocent word but it means a lot of things, we cannot put a  finger on one thing in English. To be fortunate, to have love, to have hope,’  Dominic says.

Inde et Nous receives sponsorships for  children between the ages of four and 12. The sponsors provide for a child’s tuition  to attend Sneha Doon Academy, where they are taught English, Hindi, math,  science, environmental studies and social science. The children also attend an  after-school learning centre where a dedicated teacher, Suman Negi, and four  volunteers (including Dominic and Laurent) review the day’s lessons and prepare  the children for upcoming tests. On Saturdays, the children play games and engage  in other entertaining activities.

The centre is very small. There is one  closed room for Suman and open rooms for the volunteers, who teach on the floor,  along with a little kitchen where Anita, the cook, makes one healthy meal for  each child.

The organisation also provides them  with doctor visits, medication, clothes and other basic essentials. ‘We provide  everything they need because all the children, except for two families, are the  poorest of the poorest in the slum,’ Dominic informs.

There are about 8,000 people in the slums of Dehradun and more than 2,000 children do not go to school. ‘So far we have 37 of them. We have to begin somewhere, no?’ Dominic says with a smile.

Home life

The homes in the slums are mostly made of wood and many lack doors, letting the elements in. Half of the homes have no  electricity; the other half have one light bulb. There are no water facilities.  The majority of the children have to walk between 500 metres and 800 metres to get  water. These conditions create a host of health problems for the children.

The children with distended bellies  full of worms take tablets. During the monsoon season, skin problems from the  humidity and the cough or flu are common. Their illnesses are complicated by  their poor diets, consisting mainly of rice, lentils and chapatis (Indian  flat bread).

Dr Baldev Verma comes once in every three  months to check all the children. If a child is sick between those visits, he  or she is taken directly to Dr Verma. No appointment is needed. Dr Verma knows these kids are an exception. If more than one child is sick, he comes to the centre  himself. He also provides medication to the organisation for a fair price.

Inde  et Nous also emphasises health education for the children and their parents.  One little boy, Dashrat, cut his feet  and needed six stitches. His mother, who was given medication for the infected  foot, crushed and rubbed it directly on the wound causing greater harm. ‘They really  like to be barefoot and when they wear shoes they feel very strange… Every time  they come without shoes, we send them back home to put them on,’ Dominic says.

Successes

When asked about Inde et Nous’s early  successes, Dominic shared those little yet significant milestones that are
changing the lives of those 37 lucky kids at the centre.

In April, Inde et Nous had a successful  music fundraiser in Sainte-Thérèse. They also achieved two of their earliest  goals: to be able to give each child the Hepatitis A vaccine and to build a gas  kitchen in the learning centre, a difficult task in the slums.

Last year, all the children succeeded  and got into their upper classes. Dominic adds that about seven of them got
first, second and third spots in school. Even the children who struggle or have  high absentee rates”like Raju, who collects plastics and paper on the streets  to help his parents”improved their scores.

‘It’s quite amazing to see their background, where they come from. They  are so strong mentally, to not go to play with their friends, to go to school  instead. I think they’re amazing,’ Dominic says.

Hopes for the future

The sponsors not only enable the  children to attend school, they also provide money for their future. Inde et Nous hopes that each sponsor will continue to provide for their child until  they are old enough to take on professional work and have a bit of money to  start a new life. The organisation is also saving money for children keen to  attend upper studies, like Jalinder and Somni, who ask for something new to  learn everyday.

While the organisation’s resources are  spread thin, next year Inde et Nous hopes to take in 50 more children.  Among the 2,000 children in Dehradun’s  slums that do not go to school, 50 may seem like a small number, but to those children it’s like getting a new  life.