Fall 2009 Interns, September 18

Welcome to the Maitri intern blog!

My name is Will Thompson, a senior at the University of Utah majoring in history and political science. From August 28 to November 30, I along with my friend and fellow student Dave Heyborne (a psychology major) will be interning with Maitri, a New Delhi-based NGO. Maitri (Hindi for "Loving-Kindness") was founded in 2005 by Lt. General Bhopinder Singh (ret'd.), former Director General of the Assam Rifles, and his wife, Winnie, in an effort to counteract the spread of HIV among India's uniformed personnel and to provide support to those infected and their families. Since then, Maitri's mission has expanded to include a variety of projects aimed at promoting the health and wellbeing of some of India's most marginalized and vulnerable populations, including HIV/AIDS education, domestic violence prevention, poverty alleviation, supplemental education programs, and free health clinics.
This is our third week living in India, and the experience so far has been amazing. Neither Dave nor I have lived overseas, and while New Delhi has been a bit bewildering and disorienting at times, the predominant sensation I have experienced has been fascination. New Delhi, it goes without saying, is profoundly different than Salt Lake. The first thing that one notices is the population density- walking through the markets and shopping districts conveys at times the sense (clichéd though it may be) of wading through a sea of humanity. The pressures produced by this population density are readily visible in the urban slums which, exist side-by-side (and in some cases, mixed-in with) with much more affluent neighborhoods in a way that never occurs in the United States. As an American going abroad for the first time, seeing this poverty was a shock. While I knew intellectually that these were the sorts of conditions in which the world's poorest 1 billion lived, it's impossible to understand the harsh, physical reality of this deprivation without seeing and interacting with the people who live under those conditions. The experience served to highlight for me the importance of Maitri's work with these communities, as improving the health and education level of slum residents is essential if the cycle of poverty is to be broken.
Most of the work that Dave and I have been doing for Maitri so far has consisted of web design and drafting, though we will soon be working on a regular basis with the children in Maitri's supplemental education program teaching basic English and life skills, as well as being involved with Project Jagriti, providing safe sex and substance abuse education to high school students. Working at Maitri has been great, the staff have all been very friendly and willing to help us figure out how to get around and generally live in New Delhi. I am really excited and grateful for the opportunity to work here, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester.