Lighting up lives

It was divine intervention that made her start The Light of Life Trust (LOLT), feels Villy Doctor, former head of the department of psychology at Sophia College, Bombay. The soft spoken 58-year-old psychologist told The Times of India (TOI) of September 13, 2009 that her NGO (nongovernmental organization) aims at empowering rural children. With her team of social workers, teachers and volunteers Doctor now works out of zilla parishad schools and 29 centers in Karjat, Nerul, Khopoli, Khandas, Mandgaon and Alibaug, all in Maharashtra. Doctor hopes that LOLT will spread to needy areas in Rajasthan and Orissa as well.

Early in the coming year Jagruti, a new center for orphans, destitute women and senior citizens will be inaugurated in Karjat. She chose Karjat because it is close to Bombay where she lives and suits LOLT’s "rural-centric focus,” she informed TOI. Jagruti will comprise small family units where, for example "one destitute woman can take care of eight orphans and abandoned senior citizens can become surrogate grandparents to the orphans.”

Villy Doctor: rural welfare Photo: LOLT website

Created by architect Karan Grover, this is a green project which will use minimum electricity. The brickwork blends in with the local village environment, so as not to intimidate the inhabitants. It will also have "a stress management center, a soul spa of sorts, where managers from the corporate world can come and talk to the children and de-stress in the process,” Doctor informed TOI.

When asked what LOLT has achieved in the past five years, Doctor explained that most of the students are first generation learners. One student from their Khandas center, who had studied without electricity wanted to pursue electrical engineering and take electricity back to her village, which is close to Karjat, Doctor mentioned. "She was awarded a scholarship and now motivates other girls to study. Another student, whose mother is a flower seller in Alibaug is now an air-hostess… Many other students are not doing the jobs their parents did, like selling vegetables.”

Doctor told TOI that students from a prestigious south Bombay school who visited the Karjat, Mohili and Nerul centers for a social studies project have decided to come back and volunteer with LOLT. With emphasis on "education, empowerment and employability” the centers inculcate the reading habit as well as hold vocational training programs like sewing, farming, housekeeping, candle-making, vermiculture and catering. Professional teachers impart instruction in art and music.

In drought-hit districts like Vidarbha and Marathwada, where LOLT has recently expanded its activities, people live in tough conditions and parental resistance is greater. Malnutrition deaths are high and child marriage and child labor persist. Many NGOs have failed because of the primitive land and aggressive people who do not respect education, Doctor told TOI. But LOLT plans to start a center in Nandurbar, a poor tribal district there, where it hopes to spread the light.