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I didn't know what Damayanthi was talking
about. But I knew something was off ... her eyes were watery in
class today.
Damayanthi is one of my biggest helpers. She always stays late
after workshops to help me put everything away. With just enough
bossiness to get everyone to clean up, she organizes the beads
in the cupboard, neatly rearranging things I think are fine to
make them even more organized. She loves helping to teach the
other girls and every time I see her she looks at me and tells
me I am her best friend. My heart melts when she says that. Her
best friend. A photo of me, her, and her gorgeous chubby baby is
framed next to her bed. Her baby is the bossy one. She’s also
the one with a big smile that makes everyone else smile around
her.
Damayanthi always walks me to the gate before I leave, carrying
her daughter on her hip and calling “good luck!” over and over
as I pass through. That seems to be her favorite saying in
English - a cheerful phrase of optimism. She is one of the lucky
girls who will get to return to live with her mother, her mother
happily taking her baby in as well.
“Life is so intense for them and therefore
life is so intense at Ma-Sevana. We all feel each other's joys
and pains.”
Damayanthi first told me she was going home in a few weeks. She
looked happy. Then she told me that her father was gone. I
thought she meant that he had been put in jail, which would
allow her to go home. But, a few hours later when I met with the
counselor, I learned that her father was not the man who raped
her, and that Damayanthi's father passed away the previous
weekend. The funeral took place immediately. Sarvodaya tried to
help her to go to the funeral but the probation office was
closed for a holiday. They couldn’t get the approval to take her
back to her home village, so Damayanthi missed her father’s
funeral. She hadn't seen him in years, and she missed the final
opportunity to say goodbye.
“My. Dad. Gone.” I won't forget her words. I find it
unbelievable what these girls go through. Life is so intense for
them and therefore life is so intense at Ma-Sevana. We all feel
each other's joys and pains.
Damayanthi will likely return home in three weeks. She wants to
continue beading and to teach others around her.
It is essential that we follow up with these girls, that those
individuals who take them into their homes know that they are
responsible for treating them respectfully. The girls need to
know that there are people who care about them and to whom they
can turn if need be.
It's hot here now. We have several new girls in Ma-Sevana. They
were delighted to receive their own boxes of beads and caught on
quite quickly to making jewelry. We are changing seasons with a
new intensity of heat and torrential downpours at night. The
seasons of Ma-Sevana are also changing faster than ever,
especially for Damayanthi. But I know with her strength,
courage, and optimistic outlook, she will pull through. |
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Alia Whitney-Johnson is a student at MIT in
Boston. She is helping girls at Ma-Sevana learn the craft of jewelry
making. |
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