Meet "Balaknama" - The World's First Newspaper run by Street Children

I just came to know about “Balaknama” - A Newspaper run by the Delhi Street Children, which focuses on the lives and struggles of street kids.

The name says it all - Balaknama translates to “Voice of Children”; it’s an effort from a bunch of street children sharing great passion to write and reach the crowd. It’s my shame that I didn’t know about this newspaper so far, which has been in circulation since 2003. Happy that I came to know at least by now and I thought I should share it with you all.

Delhi's slum kids are one of the most abandoned people of India. Child marriage, Forced Child labor, begging, drug, sexual abuse, police violence are some of the bad tribulations these street children battle everyday L. Thanks to the efforts of CHETNA ( NGO), now these kids have turned into amateur journalists and reporters who write articles about the struggles of being slum kids and feature them in their newspaper.

Balaknama has a team of 60 reporters, most of them are based in the slums of Delhi and near-by states of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These young writers gets some basic training on story telling and composing articles from Chetna. Most of these children are working on odd jobs during the day to earn for their food, and later in the evening they spend their time to write for the newspaper.

This is a truly inspiring, these children are striving hard to bring their pressing issues into limelight, while empowering themselves through this newspaper. Good efforts like these should definitely be appreciated and supported.  #balaknama #delhi #streetkids #chetna

Please see the video to know more:

A Flood of Inspirations

Chennai has faced one of the worst floods in the history. There were hundreds of people drowned in the water and crores of materials went in the loss. Many have gone without food, water and basic amenities for days. Entire homes have been washed away for many. Without any difference, rich and poor ran into community centers overnight, for basic shelter!

It feels really miserable to think about the tragic situations of Chennai floods!. But, amongst all these destruction and desperation, one thing that certainly made us proud and inspired was the “humanity among people”

People proved that the humanity is still alive. They proved that they didn't need any direction from the government or any organization to help themselves and to help their struggling neighbor! They just listened and did what their heart said!!

Many prepared food and distributed to all those strangers stranded in the waters; Trucks of supplies and support arrived from all over Tamil Nadu and from all neighboring states; So many young volunteers came out for rescue, risking their own lives.

From cinema theaters to temples/shrines/mosques opened up their doors for people in need; Some cinema heroes turned real life heroes too!; Heard stories of a woman who dared to deliver milk, even when there was a hip level of water on the streets…

I can keep listing many stories of inspiration during the flood. But, one thing that really made me to think was this video interview of an old lady from the Harrington Road area of Chennai.

Her house was completely washed away in the floods. She didn’t have anything to eat or to change; but still with her smile, she just taught all of us that It isn't that hard to be happy even during your most difficult times!! Her smile would have touched and inspired many of us for sure, who are cribbing even for small issues and break down easily.

  

Money can undoubtedly help you attain your goals, provide you comfort, make life more enjoyable, and shall give some feel of confidence for your future, but merely having the money doesn’t guarantee fulfillment in life! You don’t need to be rich - to be happy. And, this old lady just proved it right!

This article is posted for #SpreadTheVibe, a contest by IndiBlogger in association with Youth Ki Awaaz.  For more inspiring stories from fellow bloggers, visit http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/