Balancing Act

Most of the students supported by Kanasu Trust come from tribal communities. As indigenous people living in forest areas, they have little notion of "personal", and everything is usually shared by all. No child goes hungry, as long as there is a grain of food in the hamlet. How do we balance this notion of extended "family", within the modern notions of savings?

N has been in Bangalore for more than three years. Working his way up from office boy, doing his BCom by correspondence. In this time, he has helped S, his younger sister who had recently dropped out of school, to resume her studies. S is now doing her 10th. B, another younger sister who had dropped out many years back, is also with him now in the city, working and earning a living. In this, he has had our help, and that of his younger brother.

However, his savings in this time is nil. Every couple of months, his parents visit him and take away all his cash. He is earning a decent income now, and should start saving, but his father fell down and hurt himself. He rushed home, and gave them all he had. Then, his uncle fell sick, so he took a loan and gave them money. Subsequently, another relative needed money, and he took his sister's earnings to help them out. And so, the story goes on...

How now, do we balance his community's notion of "us" against his own need to "save" for the uncertain future in the big bad city?
-- Budget a certain amount for "family" and "extended family", and save the rest?
-- Take away his entire income so that he actually has nothing left to help them?

Ideas welcome!

Meeting the students

We have had three sets of meetings this year.

1. We called some of the students over for a one-on-one to Bangalore early this year.

2. We traveled to Basavanagudi, Konankere, Kamagere to meet some of the students and their families.

3. We invited all the Bangalore-based students to meet us over lunch and snacks on June 12-13.

Reports coming soon...

Grandmother strikes again

Remember the girl who would be pickled?
The grandmother strikes again. This time it is to go the temple, to worship the family god, can't miss the ceremony, etc. etc.

Hope the child survives this academic year at least.

Follow up reports

In the past two months, we've managed to meet almost every student (except two) we are supporting this year. It took a bit of travel, but between the three of us, we managed it!

1. B.R. Hills
2. Kollegal
3. Mysore + Chamarajanagar
4. Bangalore
5. H.D. Kote
6. K.R. Nagar
7. Melkote
8. Hanur
9. Srimangala, Kodagu (pending)
10. Ponnampet, Kodagu (pending)

Reports will be posted asap.