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It will make you sad as this is what is occurring in India and a new video will show you what happens behind the scene of a new look inside the youth of India. A new documentary has been released which follows the lives of underprivileged youth in India and starting in July 2015, almost 100 American high school and college students from all over the U.S. will travel 8500 miles to the Indian cities of Hyderabad, Vadodara, New Delhi, and Indore to provide their at-risk peers, mostly juvenile delinquents and orphans, basic life skills – in the hope that a focus on values such as honesty, kindness and self esteem will help incarcerated youth assimilate back into their societies.
In 2015, Uplift Humanity launched its revolutionary summer program in New Delhi. The organization intends to bring about 30 American students to Delhi to volunteer behind bars.
“The launch of Uplift Humanity in India shows that our organization is truly vested in creating change. We’re launching locations where it matters. New Delhi has one of the highest amount of juvenile crime in India. If we can make a change there, we can make it anywhere,” said Martin Barrow, Director of Strategy at Uplift Humanity India.
When we asked actress Janina Gavankar about her thoughts on lending her voice as she narrated it for the cause she told Urban Asian:
I am always interested in lending myself to charities that help the welfare of my family’s motherland. Uplift Humanity is a new and exciting organization run by bright young philanthropists, and is changing lives, daily. Many organizations are vague in their focus. Uplift Humanity is picking a very specific problem, and finding ways to change it.
The film reveals to audiences what life is really like inside juvenile detention facilities In India and informs audiences of what Uplift Humanity is doing to solve the problem. We asked about how she felt when reading the script and narrating the film – what impacted her the most and what moved her:
What shocked me the most were the staggering statistics. I had no idea this vicious cycle of recidivism was so rampant.
New Delhi marks Uplift Humanity’s fourth location. The foundation was Found in 2010, Uplift Humanity rapidly grew its impact to four locations in just five years of operation. Following the One Step Forward curriculum, a handbook developed by the non-profit organization Uplift Humanity India, the American millennial’s embarking on this life-altering journey will teach their Indian counterparts the importance of proper communication and leadership. Now in its fifth year, Uplift Humanity’s summer programs are starting to create the impact they were designed to make.
“Uplift Humanity is the first U.S. non-profit to send American teenagers directly to India to work in orphanages and juvenile detention centers,” said founder Anish Patel, a business student at New York University. “I created the organization, while a student myself, to give orphans and juveniles in India a second chance.”
Students who have attended the program in the past say the results have been transformational, both for them and their Indian peers.
“At Uplift Humanity India, I learned that the people who seem to be the most insignificant are, in fact, the ones with the most potential and desire to grow as individuals. Through our program, I hope the juveniles and orphans learned that they DO have the power to change the course of their lives and achieve bigger and better things.” – Krishna Dosapati, Vadodara Alumnus – 2014.
However, after three successful cycles of executing the summer program, educators realized that there was too much of a gap between the instruction periods, given that students only travel to India once a year. Therefore, to increase its impact, Uplift Humanity launched The Continuation Program, an initiative that uses local Indian students and teachers, whom Uplift hire, to provide instruction throughout the entire year in India.
“The Continuation Program not only stresses the previously learned life-skills, but also educates juveniles and orphans in skills like English and Computer Literacy, in order to better equip and prepare them once they are released from the facility,” said Neil Shah, the organization’s Director of Public Relations. “The technology curriculum is especially important in India, given that the county has been undergoing a tech revolution since the introduction of outsourcing in huge American back-offices and call centers.”
Uplift Humanity Releases A Look Inside to communicate to audiences what life is really like for orphans and juveniles in India, Uplift Humanity is releasing A Look Inside, a short film that highlights the problem of juvenile recidivism in India. A Look Inside is produced to show to individuals in our society how this sector of India’s population really needs our support.
According to the India’s National Crime Records Bureau, juvenile criminal activity in India increased by over 40% between the years of 2001 and 2009. In fact, more than half of the children in trouble with the law come from families whose household income is less than $500 a year.
“We’re hoping that when audiences view this film, they’ll understand how society has neglected to focus on this sector of the population. Yet, these are the very kids that need our support the most,” said Anish Patel, Founder of Uplift Humanity.
Check out the video and let us know your thought’s on the documentary.
