Article about SMH in The Sunday Express

The Sunday Express
April 11, 2010

MAMOON AKHTAR, was a student of a reputed English-medium school in Howrah. When he was in Class IX his parents could no longer pay his school fees and as a result he had to drop out of school. Now, decades after the incident, Mammon has not forgotten the pains of being forced to quit school. At present he runs a school in Tikiapara in Howrah with about 2,000 students who just pay Rs 5 per month. Mamoon, who used to work as a librarian and give private tuition, started the Samaritan Health Mission (SHM) from his own savings and donations.

In the beginning, the financial condition of SHM was precarious and the annual budget was as low as Rs 38,000 per annum. Out of this, Mamoon and his friends contributed Rs10,000 and the rest Rs 28,000 was collected out of door-to-door collection from houses in the locality and from some small offices. It was an uphill task and required persistent and tireless efforts. He also motivated the local college-going poor girls of the locality to offer their services by teaching these children on the payment of a nominal honorarium of Rs 100 per month.

The noble mission of Mamoon at 127, Noor Md Munshi Lane in Howrah created quite a ripple among the right thinking people of Tikiapara. They realised the importance of education and wanted their children to be well educated. SHM believes that anything given free of cost will lose its value and importance. Therefore, for all its programmes, it charges a nominal fees and this has ensured the involvement of guardians, especially mothers. All of them are happy to be a part of the system. SHM, within a span of six years, has brought about an educational revolution as it were in the neighbourhood. The story of these eventful six years is that 3,000 children are back to school – they are continuing their education and are marching from strength to strength. The children of SHM are being trained in such a way that they develop a feeling of compassion for their fellow human beings and uphold secular views and love for their Motherland. SHM believes that children will serve the nation better, they will be part of its progress, and will break the barriers of caste, creed and religion.

Mamoon charges a nominal fee of Rs 5 from the children per month. He says that children should learn that nothing is free in the world and everything comes at a price. Mamoon, after dropping out in Class IX, so far has managed to pass his Higher Secondary examination only.

The organisation is involved in a number of projects. It has ventured into almost every domain that can help people access some form of education and employment. The projects include vocational training for poor girls and widows, literacy programme of formal school from Class I-IV for the underprivileged children, Samaritan Kindergarten, Computer Literacy Programme for poor meritorious girls who do not have access to computer education, sponsorship programme for orphan boys and girls for education from the primary level till Class X and further studies.

The help for Mamoon comes as people know about his work. Organizations and caring friends have come to his aid. Even the American Consulate has been attracted to his work. In March the Consul General, Beth Payne, will inaugurate a project of SHM in Howrah. As the efforts by Mamoon grow from strength to strength, he says that there are many responsibilities and a large number of underprivileged masses to be taken care of. His quest only goes on with only one aim that no child should be deprived of schooling even if he has limited resources.

Dear Friends,

Indian Confederation of NGO’s (ICONGO) New Delhi, annually gives award to honour the people in various fields working selflessly for the upliftment of the poorest of the poor.

In 2009, Br. Jerry Almeida founder of ICONGO visited Kolkata. He is a very close friend of Br. Vinyak and Br. Vinyak and Uncle proposed the name of Mamoon for the award in the field of education, health and women empowerment.

ICONGO selected Mamoon’s nomination and conferred the award of KARMAVEER – 2009. Mamoon was called to New Delhi to receive the award on 26th of December 2009.

SHM dedicate this award to Br. Vinyak and Uncle, they are the real Karmaveer who are working tirelessly behind the curtain.

The Karmaveer Puraskaar are National People’s Awards for Citizen Social Justice and Action instituted by the citizens and people of India. These awards are instituted by iCONGO- Confederation of NGOs – a Public-Private-People partnership in association with other partners from industry, media, government, students, SMEs and other sectors as a part of the Right every Wrong Movement. All the awardees are dubbed ‘The Noble Laureates’. These awards seek to celebrate and inspire individual citizen social responsibility, justice and action initiatives and are held every year on 26 November, the day the Indian Constitutional Pledge was signed.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Mamoon Akhtar featured with some of his students

This article was published in The Times of India Special Report, 25th December 2005.

KING UNCLE

Drug peddling is a way of life at Tikiapara, a dirty slum in Howrah. Even the children here were not spared – their parents used them to hand out packets of brown sugar to customers. But not any more.

For the first time in their lives, these children are learning to smile, thanks to Mamoon uncle, a librarian in a local school till recently. The 32-year-old good Samaritan grew up in the same slum and was exposed to the same miseries. But he successfully convinced the parents of the 400-odd children not to involve them in drug peddling. Instead, these children now attend a school run by home at his house. “I will continue to see that these children don’t get back to drug peddling and they get some education,” says Mamoon. Khoob bhalo, we say!

THE TIMES OF INDIA SPECIAL REPORT-25th DEC-2005

Students at the Samaritan girl school

An English Medium School for the poor girls of all Communities

A dream comes true

The 26th May-2008 is one of the remarkable days for Samaritan Help Mission. By the help and support from the well-wishers and friends, Samaritan Help Mission succeeded in establishing an English medium school for the poor girls of all communities.

Those poor parents who never dreamt of sending their child to an English Medium School are proud and they are happy to find wonderful progress among the children.

This is a very proud moment for Samaritan Help Mission as well as for the poor inhabitants of Tikiapara, that for the first time these children will be wearing school uniforms, shoes and will be sitting on benches with desks.

Mamoon Akhtar

Mamoon Akhtar receiving the National Integeration Award in 2007

You will be happy to read that I was given the National Integration Award on 26th Jan-2007 at Ahmednagar (Maharastra). This award was for promoting communal harmony among youths of all religions. I try to teach them to dedicate their time and work to the progress of India by building a bridge of universal brotherhood and tolerance, and by working for the most neglected people in society on the basis of HELP PEOPLE ON NEED NOT ON CREED.

At the awards ceremony I delivered a speech to an audience of youth about the importance of caring for their own parents, because I believe that unless we love our own mother, we cannot love our motherland. I believe that the trophies gather dust and the sound of the clap fades away, but the real award is the feeling that comes from serving humanity from the lap of the mother till the death bed.

Mamoon Akhtar featured with some of his students

My name is Mamoon Akhtar. I grew up, and still reside, in a slum in India called Tikiapara. It’s in Howrah, across the river Hooghly from Kolkata. I love this place, and the people in it, and I’m trying to do what I can to help the people here, especially the children.

My real involvement began in 1999, when I was 29 years old. A little boy came to my house asking for help. A druglord was beating his mother because she refused to sell drugs for him. My friends and I were able to get him to stop, then I asked the boy what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to learn how to read. So I invited him to come over to my house where I would teach him to read. When he showed up he brought five other children with him. And that was how it all began. With a lot of help from my good friends in the community and people like you, we have made a real difference, but what drives me on is that there is still so much we can do.

Samaritan Help Mission: Summary

Right now we have three small schools teaching over 450 students in the Tikiapara slums of Howrah District (near Kolkata), West Bengal, India. We are in the process of starting another school in a very poor district called Bankra, where the children all work making the paper rolls that thread is wrapped around. They don’t attend school at all, because there are no schools there. All of the children we help live in dangerous areas where there are drug peddlars and other criminal activities. Adults are rickshaw drivers, labourers, house workers and factory workers. Many children work in dirty, dangerous conditions with harmful chemicals and so on. Without education they have no future, or at least a very bleak future.

As the years went by, I began to realize that to help children you can’t just adopt the child, you must adopt the whole family. Recently, we started some programs for the local women, who would otherwise be forced to work in menial jobs, . We teach dressmaking, embroidery, fabric painting and cosmetology. We also teach computer skills (with donated computers) to girls and young women. All of our teachers are volunteers–students from local high schools and colleges, who are paid only for their expenses (though we hope to change this someday soon).

Teaching Religious Tolerance: Helping Each Other

One of the things that is very important to me at the schools is to teach children of all backgrounds and faiths to work together and support each other, and to help all of the women in the community equally. Our motto is to “help people on need, not on creed.” I am happy to say that, just recently, our school was recognized for its leadership with integration with an important award. The population of the community is 80% Muslim and 20% Non-Muslim (my background is also Muslim, though I support the great teachings of all faiths. At the core of all great teachings is compassion and caring for others.). In fact, we have had to face some resistance from the extreme side of the religious community. Not everyone supports secular teaching. Fortunately there are also many community members who do support our work. Education is important, because in the vacuum created by a lack of education, Muslim children are easy targets for religious fanatics. We want all children to join their neighbours, regardless of background, to build a better and more prosperous India together.

Why I Care: I Was Forced to Leave School at Age 14

One of the reasons why it’s so important to me to help children is because, when I was 14, I was forced to leave school. My father had lost his job so I couldn’t pay the fees. A year later my father died. I had to work in a shoe factory then an iron factory to support my family. And none of this was easy because I had polio when I was 12 and it damaged the function of my left hand. While working, I continued my studies part time and managed to eventually complete my grade 12. Still, I worked as a labourer until 1999. At that point I was very fortunate to be offered a job in a local library. The man running the school was impressed with my community work. This job allowed me to work only four hours per day, leaving enough time to also run the school. Of course, the pay was not much, but it was enough, and I used half my salary to run the school.

Our Teachers

Our teachers are one of our greatest resources. They are local college and high school students who come to teach on a volunteer basis (we do pay a small honorariam so they can continue their own education). Without their commitment, it would not be possible for our schools to help as many children as they do! The Volunteers are from every caste, and have a deep love of the children.

Our Mission

Our mission is help every child we can to become educated and literate, so they will have a real future and be able to support their families and communities. Also, by educating all the children, we can slowly begin to eradicate the drug problem in these ares, that exist only because there are no other opportunities. We also want to help girl children in particular to have a strong future, and women so they will be able to care for themselves and their families with dignity.
We have achieved quite a lot in only a few years. But I have very big dreams! I want to help many more children, and many more in the community. I know this will not happen fast, but if we come together in different ways, through learning partnerships and other partnerships, I believe we can change the lives of many children for the better. I hope you will join me in this dream!