A question I have been asked often is – “What is working in Dharavi like?” Once you assume that there is no expectation of dreariness, it is quite a valid question. At the risk of generalising, most “well-off” Indians don’t dream of working or even going to the infamous slum of Dharavi on a regular …
Even before I knew it was definitely going to happen, I couldn’t resist spilling to everyone who’d listen that I might be moving to Mumbai. Something had been niggling away in my mind for years telling me to make this sort of leap, but why leave so many friends and family behind? Why move hundreds …
As well as welcoming the Mumbai monsoon, June also sees children across India return to school. Gathering at the school gates with butterflies of anxiety and excitement, returning to old friends, meeting new teachers; whether you’re in Mumbai or Manchester, so much about this experience is universal.
April 25th 2016 was a special day at Reality Gives. At 9am, six women gathered nervously in our Ashayen Community Centre and began their three week intensive English Teacher Training Program. The first of its kind, this course was the culmination of a lot of hard work and the realisation of a long held dream. …
![[Interview] What Brought The Director of Studies From a Renowned London Language School To Dharavi?](https://realitygives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Blog-Post-20160428-1344x756.jpg)
In the middle of this month we welcomed Jessica Conway to Dharavi, where she will be working closely with our Educational Programs Director, Jonny Clarke, on our English Teacher Training program. This three week course, started on the 25th April and aims to prepare teachers to deliver our English curriculum to people living and working in Dharavi. A really exciting …
This week children across India don their satchels (often larger than they themselves are), polish their shoes until they can see their faces in them and begin the new school year with a sense of nerves, anticipation and, hopefully, excitement. What many of these children won’t realise is that their teachers are feeling much the …
A few weeks ago Jayne Gorman, a UK based travel blogger contacted us to inform us she wanted to blog about Reality. Having visited us during the last four and a half years, which she has spent travelling the globe from Goa to the Vatican, San Francisco to Mumbai, Jayne explained that in that time …
![[Interview] “Go Kiss the World”](https://realitygives.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Blog-Post-20140422-YEP.jpg)
In February we sat down to interview several students who had just begun our Youth Empowerment Program to understand their motivations for joining the program and discuss hopes and aspirations for where it might lead. Now, two months later we caught up with Hajira (who is currently two months into the program) and Shabana (a …
While an overwhelming amount of respondents to Nieck’s interview questions were positive, we also received some feedback about areas in which we need to improve. The people of Chamda Bazaar, Dharavi (a poorer area of Dharavi inhabited mainly by Muslims who work in the leather industry, skinning, shaving, equalising, dyeing, embossing and texturing the animal …
On the last Sunday of January in the late afternoon, students from Reality Gives programs sit hushed in a room watching intently as their peers strut their stuff upon the stage that is the Reality Tours and Travel Reception Centre, their expressive faces lit by a sole beam of light. The room is packed with …
