For, those of you how know Haneef, bingo; you know who I am going to talk of! Haneef Lakdawala, is the head of an NGO Sanchetna (I mentioned here albeit in a different context) in Ahmedabad. If it still did not click, Haneef is the winner of the CNN-IBN Relience Real Heroes Award. When I was watching the award function on television a few days back, I jumped with joy, and found myself telling my dad like a small kid, “I know him, he is Mr. Haneef dad, I met him just last month while I was visiting his organization for work!”
He was just Haneef to me when I met him. I have traveled excessively on account of work, visited so many NGOs and met so many people. And then, he was just another person that I was bound that I was bound to forget. But this was different – today, to me, he is somebody more than the man who runs Sanchetna. It is different since his work has today reached every household in the country, thanks to the well deserved accolades he won at the award function. Having been felicitated like that, mind you, is something!
I thought I’d write more about Haneef and the organization that he runs – Sanchetna – one of the respected NGOs in Ahmedabad. Sanchetna, is a small organization that works in riot hit parts of Ahmedabad. For those who are uninformed; after the 2002 riots, when homes were reduced to ashes and people lived in fear without a home or an iota of hope they formed new colonies – illegal slums! These slums were new then, just land on the outskirts of Ahmedabad – no public facilities were available, no doctors with probably only charlatans at their disposal, with their ration cards cindered – no food security – in fact they were no longer legal citizens! Then builders came in, built small homes and rented it to them – a debt! And mind you, this was the story on both the sides. Haneef works in such riot hit slums and through his community workers he helps them get public health facilities that they are entitled to. And for communal harmony – Hindu Muslim cricket clubs!
For sanguine seekers like me, Haneef is a hope in an otherwise depressing, often frustrating field of Development. A hope that ones work is recognized. A hope that there is now one organization less that will say ‘perpetual penury mam’. A hope tomorrow will be better in spite of the odds – somewhere. My rationale for this – seeing Haneef receive the prize, made me believe that the award was actually given out to those that deserve. And when I saw the other awardees my belief in the sincerity of the CNN-IBN’s efforts amplified. And for this I salute, both to the awardees and to CNN-IBN. Somewhere at the back of my mind I can hear Martin Luther King:
“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But whatever you do, keep on moving towards your goal.”
He was just Haneef to me when I met him. I have traveled excessively on account of work, visited so many NGOs and met so many people. And then, he was just another person that I was bound that I was bound to forget. But this was different – today, to me, he is somebody more than the man who runs Sanchetna. It is different since his work has today reached every household in the country, thanks to the well deserved accolades he won at the award function. Having been felicitated like that, mind you, is something!
I thought I’d write more about Haneef and the organization that he runs – Sanchetna – one of the respected NGOs in Ahmedabad. Sanchetna, is a small organization that works in riot hit parts of Ahmedabad. For those who are uninformed; after the 2002 riots, when homes were reduced to ashes and people lived in fear without a home or an iota of hope they formed new colonies – illegal slums! These slums were new then, just land on the outskirts of Ahmedabad – no public facilities were available, no doctors with probably only charlatans at their disposal, with their ration cards cindered – no food security – in fact they were no longer legal citizens! Then builders came in, built small homes and rented it to them – a debt! And mind you, this was the story on both the sides. Haneef works in such riot hit slums and through his community workers he helps them get public health facilities that they are entitled to. And for communal harmony – Hindu Muslim cricket clubs!
For sanguine seekers like me, Haneef is a hope in an otherwise depressing, often frustrating field of Development. A hope that ones work is recognized. A hope that there is now one organization less that will say ‘perpetual penury mam’. A hope tomorrow will be better in spite of the odds – somewhere. My rationale for this – seeing Haneef receive the prize, made me believe that the award was actually given out to those that deserve. And when I saw the other awardees my belief in the sincerity of the CNN-IBN’s efforts amplified. And for this I salute, both to the awardees and to CNN-IBN. Somewhere at the back of my mind I can hear Martin Luther King:
“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But whatever you do, keep on moving towards your goal.”
Here are some photographs of my visit
Haneef talking to Dan and Beth from the Gates Foundation
Haneef with his team - Sanchetna
Bombay Hotel Slum
And then I remember what we used to recite (or rather forced to…) in school
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land
W H Longfellow
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