In 2017, I was selected as a volunteer field worker to travel to India, provide wellness checks, photograph and interview 300 children for educational scholarships. This trip was lifechanging experience, and a dream come true. Children sponsored through Save a Child live in established Residential Homes in Delhi, Kolkata, Barrackpore and rural West Bengal. The Homes receive children who may have been abandoned, orphaned or come from a poor family unable to cope. As they grow up, good grades in school open up the opportunity for further education. Equally, teenagers can learn practical skills for reliable employment. This was an opportunity or a lifetime to travel as an international photographer, while securing donations and access to quality education.
"The gift of knowledge is the highest gift in the world."
— Swami Vivekananda
This was inspiring volunteer work, traveling from New Delhi’s Institution for the Blind and Jain Bal Ashram, to Barrackpore where we spent several days at the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission and finally Kolkata where we interviewed women and children at All Bengal Women’s Union.
The experience helped me understand cultural nuances of a quickly developing India, while uplifting those most in need. It helped me to see the strength of community and the people working tirelessly to suppress immoral human trafficking by offering housing, food, educational and skill-based training to women and children who have suffered greatly.
After our mission was complete, I took an overnight train from Kolkata to Varanasi (Benaras) a city on the Ganges River in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. This was an eye-opening experience where I witnessed cremation and the sacred Ganga Aarti and exploring this ancient city.
