Rupa Chapalgaonkar meets the founders of Borderless World Foundation, who work with orphaned girls in J & K
 

Nearly 80,000 children have been orphaned in the state of Jammu and Kashmir due to violence. In Kupwara district alone there are 24,000 orphans. With terrorism having reached its highest in the State, this figure is bound to rise further.  

Dying perhaps could have been an easier option to escape the tyranny of life for children who have lost their parents. Among the orphans boys are picked up by militants and the girls are left to the mercy of relatives.  

To save these girls from further crumble, Borderless World Foundation (BWF) comes as a breath of fresh air. It is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) that has established a home for girl orphans in the terrorism- hit district of Kupwara. Situated in village Sulkoote in Kupwara, BWF has done an exemplary job.

The home, called Baser-e-Tabassum (Abode of Smiles) that was launched 4 years ago, today provides shelter to ten girl orphans.

 "Before coming to the home, the girls were completely cut off from normal life, like many other children in J& K" remembers Bharti Mamani, president, BWF.  

The girls today can speak English and know what a computer does. Earlier their life was confined to only collecting firewood, milking goats and doing household chores at the homes of their mentors. Thanks to BWF.

As pride flows aplenty on the faces of the members of the BWF, who narrate the stories of their children (inmates of Baser-e-Tabassum), they still cannot forget their days of struggle in Kupwara.  

Bharati who was a student of Psychology first went to Kashmir in the year 1998 with a classmate to do a preliminary survey on the impact of violence on Kashmiri children. The study revealed startling facts. There were more than a million children in the State who dropped out of school and thousands orphaned.  Back in Pune, she joined an NGO that worked for Kashmir from Pune. This is where she met Adik.

However, gradually both understood that working from Pune was not sufficient. They had to be in J &K.  Off they went to Kupwara then and decided to do some field work in J&K. Four  years of fieldwork in the village, where they also had frequent encounters with  militants, paid off. "We traveled extensively in the extremely dangerous parts of J & K. Even army officers warned us about not doing so. Luckily we were spared by the militants" recalls Bharati.

After these four years, the two along with others registered themselves as an NGO in Pune and set up the home in Sulkoote. However, just doing fieldwork and being there forever were two completely different situations. Fearing spying, the maulvis of the village issued a 'fatwa' asking the villagers to isolate the strangers. They thought that being Hindus we had come to propagate our religion" tells Adik.  But, BWF had a  definite mission and they intended to fulfill it.

Anyhow Success came but gradually. BET admitted 5 girl orphans when they started off. "These girls were mentally shattered. Physically they were literally decayed" explains. Lice in their hair and worms falling out of their mouths, the girls were in a dismal  state. "We had to shave off their heads to free them of the lice, pick up the worms from the floor and force them to learn" explains Bharati.  

Six- year old Zahida Ali Najar now introduces herself as Dr Zahida and Jameela wants to help the orphans when she grows up. The locals too have now extended  their support and want them to expand. "They want us to launch a school for the girls, so that they do not have to travel a far distance" reveals Adik. The BWF is now looking out for sponsors for expansion.

Press Trust Of India

The Indian Express, April 29, 2003

The Tribune, April 30th, 2003

State Times, April 29th, 2003

Statesman, April 29th, 2003

WITH a mission to serve Jammu and Kashmir, a Pune - based NGO, Borderless World Foundation (BWF) has provided a 'human touch ' to orphans by setting up the first residential home for them in North Kashmir.

"We have set up the first residential home in Kupwara District of North Kashmir to take care of innocent children, who have been orphaned by 13 years of turmoil in the state', Borderless World Foundation President Bharati Mamani told PTI here today.

Named Basera-e-Tabassum (Abode Of Smiles), the campus houses 17 children, girls between age group of four to ten years, said Mamani, who runs the home along with a another worker, Adik Kadam in village Sulkoote, once the hotbed of militants in Kupwara District.

Mamani, herself an orphan, said over 80,000 children have been orphaned due to the ongoing turmoil and turbulence in the State.

"Children's mind seems to be frozen and they are Left to themselves to bear the unbearable and understand the explicable", she said adding they had urged J & K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed to assist them in their endeavor to rehabilitate orphans.

President gives nod to set up residential school

Indian Express February 15th, 2004

WHEN society treats a child as an 'orphan' at every step, he or she grows up with feelings of insecurity and abandonment. Not so at Basera-e-Tabassum (Abode Of Smiles) though. Set up by two Puneiites at the border at Jammu & Kashmir two and half years ago, the organization now has the President of India's nod to set up a residential school.

The Borderless World Foundation (BWF) is a Non Governmental Organization with a commitment to provide a 'human touch' to the strife-torn border areas. With its base in Pune, the founders Bharati Mamani and others were shocked to realize that an approximate 80000 children have been orphaned due to the ongoing turmoil in Jammu & Kashmir.

"These Children have dropped out of childhood," says mamani, Their minds seem to be frozen and when it comes to the girl child, she has to bear much more due to gender - based socio - cultural and moral policing.

Situated in Sulkoote village, Kupwara district, J & K, the Basera-e-Tabassum  (B-E-T) today has 15 children in the age group of 3 to 11 years. While B-E-T works Towards physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of these children, the BWF plans to add more smiles to B-E-T, an approximate 500 smiles.

Times Of India January 1st 2004

It's known as the Basera-E-Tabassum (Abode Of Smiles) and houses 10 girls from the age group of 4-10, it is located in a village called Sulkoote in Kupwara District. Had it not been for this home, these girls would have been a part of as many as 24000 orphans in Jammu & Kashmir. This Home was established on May 12, 2002, by Pune's Bharati Mamani and Adik Kadam. This is their Story.

Working in Kashmir has been a real challenge. You don't know what's going to happen the next minute. But for me and my colleague Adik, our guiding force has been god, for even the Army officers are surprised to see us living among the civilians without any problem.

The district where we are running our home for the girls is a hotbed for militants and the environment around is always tense. The hard stares, fear of insecurity all get in the way, but work is work and it is our commitment.

We realized that talking of bringing peace to Kashmir was very far from reality. The world is talking about it and both nations are adopting various steps and means to "bring peace to Kashmir. After attending a series of seminars and conferences, we began to winder that apart from the political efforts, weather something more was needed. With that sense in mind we started our work in Kashmir in 1998.

Our first visit was an eye-opener. Basic values were lost in the fighting. We decided to work for the deprived, the abandoned and the underprivileged.

As individuals we could do nothing, Working for other NGOs didn't  bring any contentment, as these organizations have their own ways of working with limitations, which is not feasible for an area like Kashmir. We had innumerable ups and downs. We met so many kinds of people from all walks of life and even militants. These militants have observed us 'work there, wandering without any worry of a possible death. They have let us work, as we just want to carry out humanitarian work. We took them as tests we had to pass if we wanted to do what our hearts told u. Now I realize what my father had warned me of. But there was nothing deterring our determination. We registered ourselves as Borderless World Foundation with the pune charity commissioner (March 2002) after five years of fieldwork. We approached many people for funds for our maiden project - opening a residential school / home for orphan girls in the frontier district of Kupwara, where there were as many as 24000 orphans.

It was not really good experience as people in India have their own ideas and opinions regarding Kashmir. But it is said that this tired and weary world is alive because of those few noble individuals who give their bit to mankind by doing acts of kindness. As God would have it, we got a generous donor who agreed to sponsor our first year's project of starting a home for 10 orphan girls. We are ever grateful to them.

In Kupwara we ware to face new challenges. Being non locals we were under suspicion and doubts from the locals. But we were blessed with the Divine's guidance and we firmly believed this had to happen.

Our friends from Srinagar negotiated with the locals and our previous work in that district took care of it all. In Kupwara, we have an 11-member committee who have solved many of our problems. People have seen us going to those areas where no one would want to go. They do know that we were there on a humanitarian mission and were in no way affected by any conflict. Our non Political stand won us huge local support.

Now, in our home, we have 10 girls. They were in a very bad condition when we found them. They had no concept of life. They were living because they had to. Today, after spending over a year in their new home they know how to dream.

They tell those who pity them," Please don't call us orphans. We are God's Children and we have a didi and bhaiya". I think we have made our life . Today they go to a private school. Once the strength of our home goes to up to 50 children, we will start our own school. Right now we have employed four locals to run the home because we feel it's their project and we are there just to support them. We would want our mission to become a people's movement for the people.

We know we are not enough to adopt all 24000 orphaned children. But somewhere, someone has to make a start. Then the rest will happen by itself. This is what we told many organizations who felt we would sideline them. We are not here to compete with anyone.

It is matter of owning the moral responsibility of supporting the people on our borders as they suffer due to our foreign policies, be it J & K or the Northeast.

We met President A P J Abdul Kalam on August 29. It was Godsend and went on for 30 minutes. He was very interested and told us to keep one thing in mind that 'When God is with us, who can be against us?'

We are sure that peace will prevail and when these children grow up, they will know that peace within will bring peace into this world.

As told to Prachi Bari