Network
Anoop Jain
Location:
Evanston, USA
University: Northwestern University Class of 2009
Regions of interest: Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, United States, Europe
Skills: work with children, teaching, health, fundraising, environmental issues / alternative energy, construction
Volunteer Activity:
Lha Charitable Trust June 01, 2010 - August 01, 2010
Lha Charitable Trust February 01, 2011 - March 01, 2011
Deep Jyoti February 01, 2011 - March 01, 2011
Lha Charitable Trust June 25, 2010 - August 22, 2012
Stories by this Volunteer
The Beginning of a Beautiful Frenzy
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
August 09, 2011 | 1 comment
First, some contextual cow dung, you know, to fertilize the narrative. Spent the last two weeks sleeping on planks of wood in 100 degree heat with a couple hours of electricity everyday and no running water. We were sharing a plank of wood on the side of the road. Our plank of wood then got moved to an old abandoned storage room. Dimensions of said room were 8 feet by 8 feet and our roommates included tropically sized cockroaches and toads. We followed the monsoon on a 24 hour train ride from Bihar to Delhi where we waited with it patiently at a bus stand for 4 hours before beginning our ascent in to the foothills of the Himalayas.Clean out your ears for this next part. Slurp slurp slurp go...
Numbers Game
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
July 27, 2011
As work slowly but surely moves along at Deep Jyoti, we realize the importance of data tracking. We have started 2 programs so far, tutoring and mid day meals. What we want to keep track of is how many students are taking advantage of our programs, and then eventually, what impacts our programs are having on the students.For both programs, we have started an attendance sheet. This indicates how regularly students are taking advantage of the programs that have started at Deep Jyoti.After a couple of months of solid data we should hopefully start noticing trends. For example, Student A skips every other day, therefore he is not taking advantage of the fruits being provided and the tutoring. Eventually, we would like to start working more closely with the local...
Open For Business!
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
July 17, 2011
I am incredibly happy to announce that the community kitchen for Tibetan refugees is finally open! We opened our doors last week and have been serving 30-40 refugees every day. Refugees can pay 90 Rupees for a weekly meal plan or 15 Rs for an individual meal. Many of the refugees that come to our kitchen qualify for free meals since they have no earning resource. We are only serving a small number of refugees right now because we are interested in monitoring what works well and what doesn't in the context of the functionality of the kitchen. Furthermore, we are only serving one meal a day right now in an attempt to start out small. As time goes on and our program expands, we hope to do two things. Open...
Productive First Day
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
June 29, 2011
Yesterday was a good day. We went to the offices of Navdanya (www.navdanya.org). We went there searching for answers for our sustainable gardening program that we are trying to start. We wanted to learn what crops will grow well in Bihar this time of year, and which crops are the most nutriotionally dense.We spoke with a couple of the office assistants and they helped us set up a meeting with Navdanya's head farmer. He told us that we can all sit down and discuss the program at length. He told us that he will give us the best advice on what seeds to use and how to harvest the given crop. We will also be able to buy seeds from Navdanya. The idea is that once we start growing the...
Here We Go Again!
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
June 25, 2011
Tomorrow I will be heading back to India for the 3rd time this year to continue working with two Omprakash partners, Deep Jyoti and LHA.I don't think I have ever been this excited to go to India. The soup kitchen we are building for Tibetan refugees is almost complete. We are just waiting for the water filter to arrive. Then we can start serving meals to the refugee community. When I get there, I will be able to help by serving meals. In addition to this, I will be spending my time by finalizing our nutrition curriculum. My good friend Joe will be coming with me and will be making some great media content for LHA as well. So stay tuned for that!Things are also moving nicely at Deep Jyoti....
Things to Think About
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
May 30, 2011
Our work is such that at any given time, we might inadvertently be creating a dependency between our beneficiaries and ourselves. These dependencies can take a variety of forms. The most obvious is monetary. When we have raised large sums of money for community initiatives, we are essentially giving away a service for free. For example, we are building four toilets for the children at Deep Jyoti. The families don’t have to pay for any of this; it was money that was raised here in the US.As fundraisers, we must be careful though. We must set our boundaries and reinforce them constantly. We are only able to raise so much in any given period of time. Furthermore, we have very firm intentions for the use of the money we raise....
Time to Reflect
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
March 10, 2011
Coming back to the US after a service trip is always bitter sweet. I look forward to a hot shower and being inside insulated buildings and all the other little things in life that we often take for granted here in North America. But I miss the villagers. I miss the people I work with. I miss the rawness of it all.There is a lot of information that needs to be processed now. I am hoping that over the course of the next few days, I will have some time to sit and just think about what direction all of this work is going in.I think the biggest lesson I have learned from this trip is that I need to be patient. This might sound obnoxious, but I put unrealistic...
Losar-La Tashi Delek!
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
March 05, 2011
Happy Tibetan New Year! This is the year of the Metal Rabbit! I am feeling very good about this year and the work that we are doing with LHA.Kitchen construction is moving along steadily. We have been told by the construction manager that it should be done by May. That would be very good because the next batch of exchange students from Loyola and Tulane will be arriving shortly thereafter. We hope that they will be the first people to use the new facility and the first people to actually serve the refugee population!The education program is moving along nicely as well. Initially we had wanted to present the education program in English; we thought that it would be an additional forum for the refugees to practice their English. After...
Parents Meeting
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
March 04, 2011
Back to the Future
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
March 04, 2011
It has been a while since my last post. Internet is hard to come by in rural India. I was in Bihar for a week. Bihar is a very special place for me. The village I go to, and the whole district for that matter, is so untouched by foreigners. I am an Indian (born in Canada) but I stick out like a sore thumb. My host dad and the neighbors got in to a huge fight one morning because the neighbor was claiming that my host family's goat ate through the one electrical wire that seems to connect our entire part of village to the electrical grid. Not sure what the fuss was about since you get about 15 minutes of electricity anyway, but I suppose, in the village,...
Both Ends Covered
Deep Jyoti, by Anoop Jain
February 15, 2011
After I got back from India last summer, I told a friend that I am going to spend the rest of my life building nutrition centers and toilets. He told me, "well, I guess you have both ends of the human body covered".I am very happy to report that the kitchen is finally starting to look like a kitchen. The marble countertops have been installed and the tiles on the walls have started to go up. Next week the construction workers will start working on the dining room. The skeleton of the dining room is there, but they still need to put in the floor and windows. Other than that, everything is starting to look very nice. We are really hoping that it will all be done by the end...
Kitchen Village
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
February 08, 2011
I am back! Back in Mcleod Ganj working on the kitchen project. Things are going mighty fine here. The construction of the kitchen is moving along slowly, but surely. I am hopeful that it will be done in the next 1-2 months.We have also been working hard on the nutrition class curriculum. Our hope is that we can offer at least one class before the kitchen opens. That will give some context to the purpose of the kitchen and make it more relevant to the community and those who decide to take the class. Right now we envision the class being a 6 week course and participation is voluntary; it is intended for those members of the refugee community who want to learn about diet and health.There is a lot...
Busyness Trip
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
February 02, 2011
I am back in India. It is always funny to me how just 24 hours ago I was in a totally different part of the world. When I came to India last summer, there was a certain degree of poignancy associated with that trip. I knew that I would be discovering an awful lot about myself and about the work that I eventually want to dedicate my life to. That poignancy seems to have vanished. I know exactly why I am here this time around. i have a very firm agenda, and I know exactly what needs to get done. In a sense, this trip is like a business trip. I landed in India and within a couple of hours was on the phone and email setting up meetings. It is...
Back to the Motherland!
by Anoop Jain
December 22, 2010
Thanks to the generosity of the Omprakash Foundation, I will have an incredible opportunity to head back to India to continue working on my public health projects. I head back to India in February 2011 and I can't wait to get back to work!I will spend the first half of my trip working with the LHA. We started raising money to build a nutrition center for a community of Tibetan refugees late 2009. By early 2010, we had raised all of the money. I took the money there this past summer and construction of the facility started this past October. I am really excited because we are hopeful that by the time I return in February, the kitchen will be complete and we will be ready to start serving our...
Demolition!
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
November 18, 2010
I am extremely happy to report that construction has finally started on our community kitchen! Demolition began early last week and the building that was will no longer be. The LHA purchased a big building in 2008 with 12 bedrooms for volunteers. 2 of those bedrooms are currently being demolished in order to make space for the dining room of the community kitchen. I am so excited that this process has finally started. We are hoping that the demolition and subsequent construction will all be finished by late January or early February of 2011. We will finally be able to open our doors and start feeding the refugee population.
Almost There!
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
October 13, 2010
It feels like Christmas Eve. All the excitement and anticipation of what the next morning is going to bring.But I am not talking about Christmas. I am talking about the community kitchen we are trying to build for Tibetan refugees. All the money is there and the final architect plans are almost in place. We are just waiting to file some last building code papers to get filed and then we can start construction! I am extremely excited about this.Once construction begins, we hope that it will take about 3-4 months before the kitchen will actually open and we can start serving members of this incredible community.
Home Sweet Home
by Anoop Jain
September 21, 2010
I am finally back in the US after my two month trip to India! One of my favorite bands is called The Evens. The singer, Ian Mckaye, starts out the second album by singing, "Cut from the cloth and cut quite severely. Is this my world I no longer recognize?" Being back, I definitely am feeling that sense of not belonging.At any rate, my work in India is going very well! The progress on the kitchen has surpassed my expectation by light years, so I am extremely excited about that. Construction will be starting in a couple of weeks. We are hopeful that it will be done by January or February. I will return to India at that point and see the doors open to refugees! I am also working...
Time Flies When You're Having Fun
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
September 10, 2010
It's hard to believe that I have been in India for 2 months and that I am gearing up to head back home in a couple of days. I remember thinking about what my biggest fears were prior to landing in New Delhi; that I wouldn't have enough time to get my work done and that I wouldn't be as productive as I would like to be.I can safely say that I didn't have enough time, BUT, I was definitely far more productive than I thought I would be. The kitchen project is moving along very nicely and I am so excited by its potential. In the beginning, it started out as just a kitchen that would serve one very cheap, nutritious meal to Tibetan refugees every day. I am...
Here Goes Nothing...
Lha Charitable Trust, by Anoop Jain
June 28, 2010
I just quit my job. It feels weird to be sitting at home on a Monday morning, when I could be in some meeting. For the past year, I have been working at an engineering company in Chicago. But for the past year, I have also been working to raise money to build a community kitchen for Tibetan refugees in northern India. While I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity gave me, I finally feel like I am following my passion. The reason I quit my job is to turn this "side" project of mine in to a full time job. Service work has always been the biggest part of my life, and I am so happy that I can finally dedicate every day to it. So here goes nothing. Today is the...