The Tale of Two Courageous Girls


Earlier this year, Alumni CINI Australia Staff Member, Hollie Cavanagh, travelled to West Bengal for the 50th Anniversary of CINI. Her story was shared at our Annual Mother’s Day Celebration High Tea Fundraiser to an audience of 100. Her story is one of empowerment, strength, resilience and change, as she followed the lives of two little girls from 2019 to 2024.


I’d like to start by adding my acknowledgement of the traditional custodians of the beautiful country we meet on today, the Wadjuk people of the Noongar Nation who have nurtured these lands since the beginning of time.  I pay my respect and gratitude to elders past, present and emerging, extending this to all First Nations people across the place now known as Australia and particularly to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who join us here today.  May their deep and enduring connection to country and culture, always remain.

I live with my imperfect yet loving and loyal husband and our 2 often flawed yet warm and sometimes adoring adolescent kids and, our middle aged yet utterly adorable maltese shitzu dog.  We live in a peaceful, safe community thick with the love and support of family and friends, on a backdrop of mostly solid acceptance and opportunity.  Don’t get me wrong, my life and that of my family hasn’t been, nor is it now, without genuine challenge and trauma…but on the whole and outside looking in, mine is the life of a pretty ordinary whitefella living a mostly charmed life on the coast of beautiful Wadjuk country.

But between 2017 and 2023, I had the very EXTRA-ordinary privilege of working closely with Jennie (who you’ll hear from later) and CINI Australia – and while those years are over, I know for sure that I can never depart myself from it, because of the utterly captivating, faultlessly enduring efforts it continues to make, delivering life-changing programs of empowerment to the most vulnerable communities I will ever know.

This knowing deepened even further after my 2nd visit to CINI India, earlier this year, together with some of the Board members.  We were inspired by the 50th Anniversary celebrations and humbled by the warm welcomes that met us upon arrival at every community we visited.

Seeing CINI in action in India, is a deeply profound experience – visiting the communities, meeting the families and children, and hearing about the impact that CINI is having on their lives.  CINI operates at an unbelievable scale – seeing first hand the enduring commitment and passion of the CINI staff and frontline workers who stop at nothing meet the needs of every vulnerable individual they encounter, is nothing short of astounding.  CINI is absolutely making a real difference in the lives of many.

As you’ll hear or may already know, the most direct impact CINI has is on the pre-natal mother, the newborn baby, child and adolescent stages of life.  Just from 5 years of working with CINI and 2 visits to India, I’ve been witness to countless stories of change from every one of these life stages.  So, it’s near impossible to choose what story to share, from which program impacting which family in what community…But as a parent of 2 teenagers, it’s the stories of transformation and empowerment of young people that resonate deeply with me right now.

So, I’m going to share the story of 2 girls we met during our February 2019 visit to India, at a support group meeting for HIV effected families and young people.  In this picture these girls are the same age that my daughter is now.  But by the age of 14, Arufa and Jasmina (names have been changed) had been dealt a very different hand to the tiktok-ing teens of Perth.

Arufa was sick for a long time before she learned that she was HIV positive.  When she first found out, she blamed herself, she felt alone and scared and didn’t believe anyone would care that she was sick.  When CINI outreach workers first came to her village, she wasn’t convinced that they could be of any help.  But with further counselling and education, she eventually accepted the support of CINI and over the coming years, her strength and confidence grew.

Arufa’s Story

Jasmina’s mum died of HIV when she was a baby and her father took her brother and, being the burdensome girl child, Jasmina was left behind with her mother’s family.  When we met her in 2019 she’d been attending CINI’s HIV support program for 2 years – at the time, she told us how CINI had taught her how to stay healthy and strong.

Five years on, in February this year, we met these girls again.

Arufa, now works as a mentor for groups of adolescent girls, just like she is here…she’s effectively paying forward the skills and confidence that she gained with CINI’s support, to the next generation of girls attending their HIV support programs.  When we met this group, Arufa was sitting front and centre, telling us (a large group of tall white strangers) her story, with the help of Suchi, our CINI chaperone and translator.  She spoke with unmistakable clarity, confidence and excitement for her future, as the girls behind her hung on her every word (as did we).  Arufa blushed as she shared the news of her (choice) marriage and proudly spoke of her work as a tailor – a skill she also gained through the CINI lifeskills program.

When Jasmina recently turned 18, she made the difficult choice to run away from her family as they were planning her arranged marriage (so she would no longer be their responsibility).  Also escaping the physical and emotional abuse of relatives, she bravely left with nothing but a small bag of personal belongings and went straight to CINI to seek immediate support. 

If she hadn’t been engaged with CINI’s support program for as long as she had, Jasmina would have remained disempowered and convinced she was without choice.  Instead, she took her rightful path and with CINI’s support has secured affordable accommodation and a traineeship to build her skills for future employment and a life of independence.  In this photo, she too was telling us her story (again with our impeccable translator, Suchi) with authentic confidence and the knowledge that she has made the right choice and has the steady backing of CINI to follow through.  Before we left India, we visited Jasmina at the café where she’s completing her traineeship and she proudly took our orders, and served us our meals.

And this gorgeous woman behind her is CINI outreach and support worker Deepa – she is a firm and bold feature in all these support groups and programs – so fierce and steadfast ensuring that vulnerable young women, like Arufa and Jasmina demand nothing less than genuine and empowered self-determination.

These are just 2 of the countless stories of change that I’ve seen since I first became involved with CINI 7 years ago.  That’s just 7 years -out of FIFTY – they’ve been doing this for 50 years and they’re bloody good at it.  CINI responds to whole spectrums of disadvantage and vulnerability – from the children rescued from being trafficked across the border to the flood effected regions high up in the mountains – countless programs across the most vulnerable communities with a reach that goes from the most remote and isolated villages of West Bengal to the densest inner city urban areas of Kolkata. 

It’s a response that creates palpable excitement in a newly empowered adolescent and maintains the dignity of a new mum rejected by a community that doesn’t yet know that HIV is not a touchable disease.  It’s these stories that are confronting and inspiring all in the same view, and the passion and care of the CINI’s enduring response that will keep this spectacular organisation firmly in the deepest part of my heart and soul, for the rest of my days.

Hollie x


Help Stop The Spread of COVID and Save Lives

Child in Need Institute, India has launched an urgent response to the COVID disaster in India.  As the catastrophe engulfs the country and the health system is overwhelmed,  preventing COVID transmission is critical. 

Families desperately need practical information and assistance to prevent further devastation from COVID.  CINI has 47 years’ experience reaching families in the city slums and rural villages.  It’s field workers are trusted in areas where resources are scarce and poverty is severe. They are the best people to spread these urgent and lifesaving public health messages.

Our appeal will fund the emergency COVID response and CINI Australia’s ongoing community development programs in rural villages and with families affected by HIV/AIDS. These programs address poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and child marriage which have worsened with the devastating impact COVID on already vulnerable families.

Donate at https://mothers-day-celebration-2021-ciniaustralia.raisely.com/donate

Or by direct debit at CINI Australia, Child In Need India Gift Fund: BSB 036 306 AC 344863Donations are tax deductible

Christmas Appeal 2020

Donations to CINI Australia are now tax deductible

This year’s Christmas Appeal is more important than ever as India continues to be severely affected by COVID-19

DONATE ONLINE
 Donate in lieu of a Christmas gift or Secret Santa

When COVID struck, CINI quickly identified the greatest needs in their communities. A huge response was mounted. Food parcels were distributed throughout the state. As the lockdown eases CINI is now responding to worsened poverty, malnutrition, interrupted schooling and diminished safety of children.
Our committed field workers are again working in more than 94 villages.


COVID-19 pandemic response

Thank you for supporting our Mothers Day event. CINI has been providing emergency food and soap to families who can’t otherwise access enough for their children.This means we can keep our important community development and HIV programs running as much as possible through the lockdown. The teams will be ready to start again as the lock down eases.

Mother’s Day Fundraiser Raffle Prizes 2020

Everyone who donates to CINI Australia’s Mother’s Day Covid Crisis Appeal will go in the draw for one of 9 beautiful prizes kindly donated by generous local businesses.

Please contribute to this appeal that will fund CINI’s emergency response to the lockdown in India. Families are being provided with packages of essential basic food supplies to help them survive this difficult time as well as soap, sanitizer and education about ho to keep safe.

Emergency Response to Covid-19

CINI responded quickly to the strict pandemic lockdown imposed in mid March in India. Infection numbers still continue to rise and the lockdown is being eased. Life has been extremely difficult for daily wage earners who rely on finding work each day to feed their families. A a result of no income and closed markets, access to food has been limited. CINI and quickly Nutrimix production and made packages of essential dry food rations. They have delivered these to 10s of thousands of families throughout the state.

Emergency ration packages

Christmas Appeal 2018

In 2018 CINI Australia’s impact in India has continued enhancing the live of families socially and economically through health, nutrition and education programs.

With your support, CINI Australia can continue to fund these empowering programs that are enabling entire communities to create positive, sustainable inter-generational change.

Just in the last 6 months the CINI Australia-funded IICCHAA program has reached over 200 families effected by HIV/AIDs.  This program included home visits, nutrition, health and hygiene support, community awareness, linkages with financial security support offered by local government schemes, education scholarships, housing assistance – the list goes on.

Hundreds more families have been affected by CINI Australia’s Child Friendly Communities program.  This powerful method of development is delivered to all parts of the community: local government, services and families. It includes improving nutrition, health and hygiene  for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and malnourished children; self help groups, supported by health workers track vulnerable households and adolescents learn about their rights to education and safety. Building empowerment and representation in local government gives women a say in what matters most to them and a voice in determining the future of their communities.

The 2018 Christmas Appeal is the first of many vital steps towards reaching our 2019 program budget by March.

We would be very grateful if you could please share this and consider re-directing gift-givers to our cause in lieu of gifts this Christmas.

Follow this link to contribute to the Christmas Appeal 

Print your own CINI Australia Gift Certificate to give in lieu of a present

or a Secret Santa Poster or Christmas Party Poster

to help with your  fundraising

Sunday 25th November 6pm – Come along

Book your tickets now at www.trybooking.com/XUIT

and read about the movie starring Emma Thompson

Tickets $25

Please join us for  great evening at

Windsor Cinema, 98 Stirling Highway, Nedlands.

Nibbles & Drinks (extra) at 6, movie at 6:30

We are fundraising for CINI Australia’s village program with the women and children of Chainagar, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal.

Read more about the Child Friendly Communities program that this event is supporting

New Board Members Needed – Update: Success!

We will soon be introducing our new members

2 New Volunteer Board members were Needed

 It is 8 years since the launch of CINI Australia and it is time to expand our board

Would you like to contribute to positive change for women and children in India?

Your help in Australia will empower families in India to break the cycle of poverty.

Do you have 6 – 8 hours per month to join our enthusiastic, hands-on board?

CINI Australia is a registered not for profit and charity supporting sustainable development in India

since 2011. Our programs focus on health, nutrition, education and child protection.

We are seeking two volunteer board members with the enthusiasm, resources and skills to expand our support base and to achieve our goal of financial sustainability. Experience in fundraising and/or publicity would be an advantage.

For more information or to apply please

email Peter at admin@ciniaustralia.org by 24thAugust 2018

Mother’s Day 2018 Celebration High Tea & Fundraiser 12th May

 

 

 

 

 

Bookings are now open

Come celebrate with a delicious afternoon tea and a glass of sparkling wine. There will be a raffle, silent auction, door prize and a Mother’s Day gift stall. Have a glimpse of India.

You will hear the latest update from CINI Australia’s projects in India and how your support is helping young mothers give their children a better chance in life and giving communities the skills to build a path out of poverty.

Tickets $55-full, $40-concession or $400-table of 8. (wine extra)

Bookings and more informationat: http://www.trybooking.com/UOFP

Education Centres for Children

Many of CINI education centers in the slums are supported through “Educate A Child Sponsorships”.

We visited these inspiring centers in Kolkata and Siliguri. Often the environment around the center is confronting and very poor with very little resources for families. The centers are a single room with mats or desks and a colourful posters provided by CINI. The local community provides the venue, often a school, club or sports center. Classes follow the Government curriculum as well as providing the chance to play and create.

An essential aspect is protection. This could not have been clearer than when I visited a center near Kolkata’s Park Street area, not far from the elegant shops and big restaurants.

The centre was a buzz of activity as children arrived back from school. The room was small, hot and humid. The ceiling fans didn’t work. No one complained. One child offered me a fan. The children, 6 to 13 years were busy doing their maths and Bengali, reading, copying from the black boards under the guidance of a kind and focused teacher. The children obviously felt safe and nurtured.

I asked if I could visit where the home. We walked down an alley to the railway line – home. There were hundreds of dwellings made from tarps and bamboo along the track, women were preparing food between the tracks, toddlers were playing under their eye. The women in their twenties told me they’d always live there; they hadn’t been to school and their houses were falling apart. There was no running water, they cary it in from the government supply truck in plastic bottles. There are no toilets.

The center provides so much that is essential: safety, help with school, some where to draw, dance and play including safety and the chance at education.

In Siliguri CINI has 4 slum education centers and CINI works in 50 of the Siliguri’s 186 slums.

Many families who migrate from poorer state such as Bihar& Jharkhand end up in slums on very low incomes.  Here were 2 teachers with 50 happy children, 5 to 16 years, class 1 to 8, speaking Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Nepali. Amazing!

If you would like to support these centres, an ” educate A Child” sponsorship is $10 per month

Go to Sponsorships

Sponsor A Mother & Her Baby

During  our February visit to CINI we went to see CINI’s Sponsor A Mother and Her Baby program. Some of our Australian donors are sponsoring mothers in the villages of Diamond Harbour district, South of Kolkata, where the Hooghly River enters the Bay of Bengal.

After reaching as far as the vehicle could take us we continued on foot through the village surrounded by padi fields. We passed ponds, tube wells, mud huts, and an occasional brick house. Most people have “joint families” were the daughters-in-law join their husband’s family. Cooking is done together by the women of the family on clay stoves built into the ground.

For the last four years, I have met up with Millie, supervisor of the local health workers. She guides these village women in caring for mothers and children

These “self-help-group” woman are trained by CINI and help about 90 women and children each. Twice a month they visit pregnant mums providing support and education. They make sure they get to the antenatal clinic, understand why hospital births is safer and importantly, help the young mother in those first few years of her babies life. This has a huge effect on preventing malnutrition and childhood illness.

Soumitas, the health worker took us visit Naseema (name changed), in Giopalpur village. She was 7 months pregnant with her first baby. She is 24 years and in spite of weighing 35 kilograms, was well. She was having regular antenatal care and taking her iron. She lives in a joint family and her husband is a daily labourer, which is unreliable and low income work. Her confidence with the health worker was evident.

Naseema’s mother was probably also  malnourished and anaemic from childhood. As a result, Naseema is under weight and her baby ‘at risk’.  Through “Sponsor A Mother” she receives close attention and support for the “first 1000 days”. We can expect her baby to be born safely in hospital, weigh at least 2.5kg, be better able to resist childhood illness and develop normally. This is the point of change for the next generation.

If you would like to give a hand to young mother from early pregnancy until her baby is two years old go to Sponsorships

 

Christmas Appeal 2017

.. to raise $5000 by Christmas for Kolkata’s children.

with gifts that give twice and last forever

CINI Australia wishes you all a very Happy Christmas

& thank you for your support to reach many families in need.

With Christmas celebrations, holidays and gifts for those we love,

we think of others who don’t have so much, so …

 CINI Australia aims to raise $5000 for

Kolkata’s children by Christmas

In 2015-16 CINI identified over 11,000 girls out of school and helped more than 7,000 get back into education.

Being out of school puts children at risk. Not only are they missing out on essential schooling, which is one of the most effective ways to get out of poverty, it means that they are on the streets, in child labour and very vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Living in poverty is hard work for children: no books in their one-room homes and working to help their families survive. A child’s “Right To Play” is lost in this struggle.

Children in Kolkata’s slums come to CINI’s education centers for 4 hours a day. CINI’s dedicated teachers make sure that they are managing their school work. It is a place where they can ‘just be children’ and can play, dance and create in safety.

Many of the adolescents who attended the centers, return to help the next children, because they understand more than anyone, the enormous benefit of this support.

Please include these children in your Christmas plans

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year to you all

Make a secure on line contribution at

http://www.givenow.com.au/CINIA2017xmasappeal

 

Mother’s Day Celebration High Tea Fundraiser 13th May 2017

Saturday 13th May: High Tea & Fundraiser

Bookings are now open for CINI Australia’s 4th Annual Mother’s Day Celebration

Make it a Very Happy Mother’s Day. This is an opportunity to help young mothers in India provide their children with many of the things we take for granted: health care, good nutrition, schooling and safety. CINI’s programs start at conception, continue through childhood into adolescents, the parents of the next generation.

CINI (India) Recognised For “CINI Method”

HCL Technologies, one of India’s top IT companies, awards  HCL Grants in Health, Environment and Education.

It is a CSR commitment by HCL through the HCL Foundation,  contributing to rural development by strengthening NGOs.

CINI was awarded the grant in the Health category. It is in recognition of the experimental work carried out by CINI over the past decades in involving poor communities in participatory governance processes hinging on the convergence  in the areas of health, nutrition, education and protection. The CINI Method relies on the joint involvement of government service providers, Panchayati Raj Institutions ( Local government), and women and children’s groups.   The grant will help improve health and nutrition outcomes for children, adolescents and women in the districts of Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas and Murshidabad in West Bengal through building Child Friendly Communities, applying the CINI Method.

2015 Nepal Earth quake Appeal

Child In Need Institute responded immediately to the need in Nepal by sending their Nepali speaking staff with trucks of essential supplies across the border from the north Bengal unit in Siliguri. They have collaborated with a Nepali NGO that they known from previous child protection work.

CINI has a history of effectively responding to natural disasters within this region.
It has the capacity to rapidly mobilize assistance with local knowledge, experience and language. It has the advantage of access by road from its northern unit in Siliguri, less than 500 kilometers from Kathmandu.

If you would like to assist those in need in Nepal through Child In Need Institute you can donate at CINI Australia’s Nepal page with Give Now