Global Changemakers

If you’ve watched Slumdog Millionaire – a Danny Boyle directed movie – which went on to win eight Oscars, seven British Academy awards, along with many others recently, then you’d probably have heard about Azharuddin Ismail Sheikh, who played young Salim in the movie (Salim is the older brother of Jamal who goes on to win millions of Indian Rupees.) Readers’ Digest statistics figures that the movie has gained over 200 million US Dollars till date, with Hollywood insiders believing that its earnings could fly over 300 million dollars in near future.

But the movie’s record earnings, apparently, has no significance whatsoever, to Azhar’s life. At the time when he was picked up as one of the lead actors in the movie, he lived in a feeble house in the Indian City of Mumbai- and even weeks after he went to Los Angeles to attend the Oscar Awards function to receive prestigious awards for the movie, he still lives in the same old house- which is without a proper roof- and gets bitten by rats so very frequently that he cannot get a good nights’ sleep.

Rumours had it that the Danny- the Director had even set up a trust for Azhar, and that the Indian government had announced to provide the little boy with an apartment. But all these words seem to have been never fulfilled, the Readers’ Digest points out further.

I found this exceedingly unfair. While it was Azhar’s uncanny acting ability that subjected Slumdog Millionaire with countless accolades and a handsome monetary return, the little actors’ future is still uncertain, and insecure.

Along with financial support from Global Changemakers, I am currently doing an education project in two districts of Nepal, which is about experimenting a new method of classroom environment and education-imparting method on primary school going children. My project is all about working with these children, and eliminating barriers (through interactive study programs) that tend to disrupt their effective learning environment. Azhar’s adversity was an eye opener that made me think of the Community Action Project that I do here in Nepal- and the fate of the children that we work with if we do the project for just a year or two- take them for field trips, make their academic life easier (and fascinating, perhaps), make them more accustomed to a scientific method of education- and then just vanish, forcing them to the same, old, hard way to get themselves educated?

This prompted me to think about how I was going to make the project sustain in its own accord in the long run- and continue it for years to come. With my education project, it was lucky that we were headed in the right direction- we’ve got recognized by the Nepal Government and have garnered support of some Inter-Governmental organizations as well as institutions that could some way or the other; aid us in making the project more effective. With the lesson I have learnt from Slumdog Millionaires’ sequel, I have now thought of seeking multiple partners that are committed in supporting the project for a longer term.

I am not sure if the Slumdog story and CAP sustainability issue has any Freudian connection, but there is one thing I am particularly sure of: a lot of people from the Global Changemakers network will be coming up, and implementing their own version of Community Action Projects in the next few months. The Slumdog Millionaire misfortune point out the trade-offs people whom we work with have to bear if post-program consequences are not given a thought right from the beginning. This lesson, hopefully, will be something for all of us to ponder upon…