Just wanted to give you a quick update on the MUSIC WITH MEANING project that i’ve been working on over the last couple of months!
With all of your support in buying my CD’s and Tipping me at my shows we’ve been able to pull together over $1,000 dollars of support for the Dreamland Refugee School in New Delhi, India.
There are children in India who are getting an education because of your support. There are children in India, who are getting opportunities that no one in their families have gotten before now. There are children in India, who are gaining the tools needed to change the direction of their lives and the lives of those around them.
Thank you for your help! Please continue to pray for this project. Things in India are getting worse day by day. Please take the time to look for ways to support education for all in India, especially when there are those in India that are looking to take it away.
Early in the month of November, I went with a group of people to India to work with an organization called Truth Seekers International. We went to work the local people on Caste Reconciliation projects around the New Delhi Area of India, specifically with the lower castes and Dalits (Untouchables).
One of the projects that we were apart of was to go to a refugee school, that Truth Seekers is helping run on the outskirts of New Delhi, and work with the children and the teachers for a day. I was able to lead the kids in music and sing some songs for them, as well as wash their feet. It was a beautiful scene in such humble settings.
Below is an excerpt from the Truth Seekers website about the school and what it is looking at accomplishing.
“In New Delhi some nomadic Muslims have pitched bamboo and tarp tents on an empty plot of dust. There is no running water, electricity, bathrooms, grass, nor any trees. In June, daytime temperatures will reach 100F (40C), and later the monsoons flood the land.
Truthseekers International meet with the leaders of this outcast community and learned that no one was literate nor was in school. We pitched our own tent to start their first ever school. With additional support, we’ve been able to rent a building that can withstand the monsoon rains. The benefit of literacy is beginning manifest itself and many children make their way to Dream Land School every day.
Dream Land School is just one of many schools that Truthseekers has supported and helped get started. With your support, we have the ability to start many more.”
I had the privilege of talking to several diplomats during my trip and each one of them told me the same thing.
“The biggest thing that someone from outside the country of India can do for the Other Backward Castes of India is to support them through EDUCATION.”
After seeing this school and hearing about its lack of financial support I decided to do what I could to help keep this school going. I decided that the money that is made from my shows, from tips and merchandise, will be donated to this school and the organization that helps run it.
So if you see me playing music and you throw something in the tip jar just know where your money is going this holiday season. It is going towards the future of young children and helping alter the once inevitable course of poverty and injustice in the caste system of India.
Would you be interested in supporting this school? Please email me at contactleprofesseur@gmail.com for more information and a link to where you can donate directly.
Over the next couple of months, I will be posting more about the school and the story behind its creation.
Today I want to introduce you to the man behind DREAMLAND School in New Delhi, India, that I am trying to help support with my music. I first met Kamalakar Deshpande when I went to India to work with Truth Seekers International on Caste Reconciliation projects around the countries capital. He was very friendly, but in a reserved, quiet way. He took the group that I was with to see the school that he had started and we spent some time with the kids that are currently enrolled there. I was blown away. The school was in a very humble state, but the children and the teachers were in such high spirits.
Working To Inspire The Next GenerationsLater, when I was talking with friends of Kamalakar, I found out just how important education was to this man and to the people around him. Several times the school has run out of money. In order to save the school and to keep the dream of educating the refugees of New Delhi alive, Kamalakar has sold his own possessions. And then after he sold all that he owns, he has gone as far as to take out loans to make sure that the children of the slums have the education they need to make their futures brighter. He has sacrificed many of his own comforts to make his dream of education for all in India a reality. I wanted to share with you his story in his own words so that you can understand a little bit better about why I am trying to support this school and the dream of one Indian man looking to change the lives of so many through education.
Kamalakar Deshpande. Founder of KAM PUBLIC SCHOOL.
My name is Kamalakar Deshpande. I am born into an outcaste family. When I was 12 we my family went through a financial crisis, so they sent me to Christian Boarding school for my education. That was first time in my life I came to know about Jesus Christ.
After this I was still searching for the purpose of my life. So I went to bible college and I completed a bachelors in Theology in 2004. I started working for the Rehab center. But I had no peace in my heart and was still searching for the Gods purpose in my life. I had heard of Rev. Sunil Sardar and his ministry, Truthseekers International, a lot. I heard that Rev. Sunil Sardar was in New Delhi and had an office there, so I went to visit him and he welcomed me to join his ministry. Since 2004 I have been working with him on the mission of caste reconciliation and the Kingdom of BaliRaja Jesus.
During that time I encountered the Nomadic people of India and God gave me concern for them. These Nomadic people are refugees in our own country. They don’t have social status and recognition. They just don’t exist. So, ultimately their children are cornered at the suburb slums and get involved in the crime and rag picking.
God showed me the need for the education in that community. These people captured my heart and I decided to start school for them. We started the school for Nomadic children in 2009 in a simple shed and we had 120 students. We barely could provide for them the needed supplies, but God was gracious enough to keep this school running against all odds.
After some time we’ve had to shift some children to Christian Boarding schools, after their elementary school, for further studies. Now we have 30 remaining students in our school. We have four untrained teachers to take care of them. Every day our school starts with the prayer and bible teaching. Children are being raised in the faith. But there are always needs to be fulfilled. So we Dreamland School request all of Christ follower to raise huge prayer support and of course the moral support. We are giving the oppourtunitiees to church and organizations to get involved in the upliftment of this marginalized group.
Prayer Points
Please pray for the School supplies, rent , teachers salaries, desk bench, renovation of the school and all the needed things God will provide through his divine intervention.
Thank you
Please contact us on mahabaliraja@gmail.com
A little bit more information about the school itself.
KAM PUBLIC SCHOOL was founded in the year 2009 by Kamalakar Despande, a man known as the educationalist of the poorest of the poor-the Gypsies of India, known as the Banjara, it is the denotified nomadic tribes of India. In India today, over 7 crores, or 70 Million, of Banjara tribes are living in the most deplorable state, employing vagabond acrobatics, without any dwelling place, without employment and still worst without any education, hence till date Banjara tribes are without any voice, political status and basic rights in the modern society of India.
Kamalakar Despande alone with his own resources set up a school for the children of the Banjara tribes with a true vision and mission in Banjara Basti, Khubram Park, Prem Nagar-2, Nangloi, Dellhi-110041.
To bring education, in good quality English and native language to the Banjara tribes.
To distribute books, study materials, clothes, shoes and also provide nutrition meal and other literature to spread the message of a free and empowering quality good English education.
To raise up leaders from among the Banjara tribes and to bring their voice to the Government and other societies of India.
To establish good quality English schools and institution to train young women, men and children from underprivileged Banjara tribes and to use good quality English education.
To mobilize networks of Banjara tribes throughout India.
To organise open good quality English schools and institutions throughout India for Banjara tribes transformation with the message of truth.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Come to India and see what Kamalakar Despande is doing among your brothers and sisters who are seekers of the truth, children of one God.
Educate yourself and your country about the injustice of caste discrimination that still exists on the basis of birth and is sanctioned by unholy upper castes and till date even Indian Government keeping quite.
Pray for our forgotten brothers and sisters and their children.
Ask how you can donate your resources to the cause of establishing kingdom of
truth, love, freedom, dignity, equality and equity that will restore peace to the nation of India through education.
