On the 6^th and 7^th of this month we organised a 48 hour workshop with and for the residents of New Transit Camp in Dharavi. We have spent now nearly 3 months working with the children at the Dharavi Shelter, creating a new platform for art and expression, learning about the residents’ lives and thoughts and sharing this space for learning and growing.

We have been engaged in activities ranging from drawing and painting, animation screening, dance, visits to the city, as well as improving the current space we inhabit. What has been very special from the start of this small initiative, is that we have closely worked with the residents of the community, always seeking elders advice and understanding the communities´ aspirations and hopes for the shelter, and we have been working hard to try and achieve them.

The 48 hour event we organised in Dharavi had two main aims, one was to gain some more funds for our dreams for the site to include a space for a library and a computer room, as well funds for more activities, and the other was to raise more awareness and get more people involved in the shelter and its activities.

The event was incredible, not because we raised a lot of money (because we honestly didn’t!) but because together with the effort of so many volunteers and the community we engaged in two days of sharing, learning and lots of fun with so many new creative activities with the children.

The first 24 hours

So the first day, after setting up the artwork for sale and organising the hall, we began our daytime activities. The children engaged in a drawing competition facilitated by Common Room artists Khushnam and Anitra. This was followed by a clay workshop by a group of youth from neighbouring ‘Khumbarwada’ (a part of Dharavi where Gujarati potters live and work) who made little toys and objects out of clay. In the afternoon, a painting workshop was conducted by American artist Alison Reeves and in addition to this, Sejal and Snowy, also conducted a mural painting workshop with a group of children inside the Shelter. They painted the walls with blackboard paint to enable the space to be used for learning in the future.

In addition to all the art activities, Sudharak Olwe, from the Times of India Group, and his team of photographers also exhibited the photographic work they have been doing in Dharavi and made a presentation about their future work. Now their team is interested in commencing a photography workshop with the children so that the children document their environment and neighbourhood streets.

In this space, we also displayed an Austrian exhibition which documented ´cultures of living´ through images of homes and people which were photographed and then exchanged to later emerge as a book.

At the event, Italian and German and students from Liebniz University that had been working in Dharavi for a week learning about the history of the houses, presented back to the community what they had learnt and what they wished to work on in the future. The work was exhibited in the main hall enabling community residents to discuss and critique what they saw. It was an extremely valuable opportunity for sharing and learning as well as generating discussions about people’s stories, their creative efforts and their aspirations.

Lastly, the evening ended with a beautiful musical performance by sitar player Madhusudhan Kumar who was accompanied by his tabla player. The musicians called on the participation of the children and beckoned them onto stage to give them an introduction to classical Indian rhythms. The children sang and screamed to their hearts content!

The last 24 hours

The second day began with new energy and new volunteers. Roy, Avani, Parul and Steve, brought with themselves lots of paper plates, feathers, glitter and paints and conducted an extremely enjoyable mask making activity with the children. In addition to this an Italian photographer, that has travelled around India for quite many months, dropped by to show his work to the children and learn about their opinions and thoughts about what they saw. The Khumbars, dropped by again as well, this time to demonstrate to the audience, their pot making skills on the spinning wheel. In addition Yashmi and Namta did an incredible mural painting workshop with the children in the entrance wall of the shelter, where they joined in a collaborative effort to paint a tree with many branches and gathered the children to write their names all around it.

In the early evening, we were joined by the Capoeria group in Mumbai, who came to conduct a small class and perform their beautiful art at the event. Rezah Massah, the professor of the team, imbibed the audience with uplifting energy and gathered the children to do some capoeira exercises. This was then followed by a brilliant performance from the team.

Koli (the fishermen folk and original residents of Dharavi and the city) set up a stall and sold delicious fish treats for the hungry bellies throughout the evening. People mingled, gathered, shared, learnt, danced, smiled, participated and most importantly enjoyed themselves!

The final activity for the event was the much waited dance competition the children had been practicing for weeks. Paul’s wife (who owns the shelter and has encouraged us to work there) took over the stage and presented the dancers show. This was followed by a prize distribution and lots of music, dancing and fun!

The event was a great opportunity for us to reach out to more people that came to learn about the Shelter, but most importantly for the children and  residents to engage in a 2 day art event that brought people from outside to step into Dharavi for the first time and learn what this place is really about; a place where ambitions are strong, and aspirations are high, where children have an incredible energy and a capacity to learn and swallow the world if given the opportunity, where the worlds future artists and creative minds exist, where people have the will, the strength and heart to make things change for the better by themselves. A place that needs to be legitimized so that people can synergize all their positive energy into working towards their future rather than battling against a system by which they are deemed illegal, by a system that doesn’t collaborate with the residents to understand who they really are, by a system that wants to use a ‘tabula rasa’ approach and force them all to start from zero all over again.

On the 6^th and 7^th of this month we organised a 48 hour workshop with and for the residents of New Transit Camp in Dharavi. We have spent now nearly 3 months working with the children at the Dharavi Shelter, creating a new platform for art and expression, learning about the residents’ lives and thoughts and sharing this space for learning and growing.

We have been engaged in activities ranging from drawing and painting, animation screening, dance, visits to the city, as well as improving the current space we inhabit. What has been very special from the start of this small initiative, is that we have closely worked with the residents of the community, always seeking elders advice and understanding the communities´ aspirations and hopes for the shelter, and we have been working hard to try and achieve them.

The 48 hour event we organised in Dharavi had two main aims, one was to gain some more funds for our dreams for the site to include a space for a library and a computer room, as well funds for more activities, and the other was to raise more awareness and get more people involved in the shelter and its activities.

The event was incredible, not because we raised a lot of money (because we honestly didn’t!) but because together with the effort of so many volunteers and the community we engaged in two days of sharing, learning and lots of fun with so many new creative activities with the children.

The first 24 hours

So the first day, after setting up the artwork for sale and organising the hall, we began our daytime activities. The children engaged in a drawing competition facilitated by Common Room artists Khushnam and Anitra. This was followed by a clay workshop by a group of youth from neighbouring ‘Khumbarwada’ (a part of Dharavi where Gujarati potters live and work) who made little toys and objects out of clay. In the afternoon, a painting workshop was conducted by American artist Alison Reeves and in addition to this, Sejal and Snowy, also conducted a mural painting workshop with a group of children inside the Shelter. They painted the walls with blackboard paint to enable the space to be used for learning in the future.

In addition to all the art activities, Sudharak Olwe, from the Times of India Group, and his team of photographers also exhibited the photographic work they have been doing in Dharavi and made a presentation about their future work. Now their team is interested in commencing a photography workshop with the children so that the children document their environment and neighbourhood streets.

In this space, we also displayed an Austrian exhibition which documented ´cultures of living´ through images of homes and people which were photographed and then exchanged to later emerge as a book.

At the event, Italian and German and students from Liebniz University that had been working in Dharavi for a week learning about the history of the houses, presented back to the community what they had learnt and what they wished to work on in the future. The work was exhibited in the main hall enabling community residents to discuss and critique what they saw. It was an extremely valuable opportunity for sharing and learning as well as generating discussions about people’s stories, their creative efforts and their aspirations.

Lastly, the evening ended with a beautiful musical performance by sitar player Madhusudhan Kumar who was accompanied by his tabla player. The musicians called on the participation of the children and beckoned them onto stage to give them an introduction to classical Indian rhythms. The children sang and screamed to their hearts content!

The last 24 hours

The second day began with new energy and new volunteers. Roy, Avani, Parul and Steve, brought with themselves lots of paper plates, feathers, glitter and paints and conducted an extremely enjoyable mask making activity with the children. In addition to this an Italian photographer, that has travelled around India for quite many months, dropped by to show his work to the children and learn about their opinions and thoughts about what they saw. The Khumbars, dropped by again as well, this time to demonstrate to the audience, their pot making skills on the spinning wheel. In addition Khushnam and her friend did an incredible mural painting workshop with the children in the entrance wall of the shelter, where they joined in a collaborative effort to paint a tree with many branches and gathered the children to write their names all around it.

In the early evening, we were joined by the Capoeria group in Mumbai, who came to conduct a small class and perform their beautiful art at the event. Rezah Massah, the professor of the team, imbibed the audience with uplifting energy and gathered the children to do some capoeira exercises. This was then followed by a brilliant performance from the team.

Koli (the fishermen folk and original residents of Dharavi and the city) set up a stall and sold delicious fish treats for the hungry bellies throughout the evening. People mingled, gathered, shared, learnt, danced, smiled, participated and most importantly enjoyed themselves!

The final activity for the event was the much waited dance competition the children had been practicing for weeks. Paul’s wife (who owns the shelter and has encouraged us to work there) took over the stage and presented the dancers show. This was followed by a prize distribution and lots of music, dancing and fun!

The event was a great opportunity for us to reach out to more people that came to learn about the Shelter, but most importantly for the children and  residents to engage in a 2 day art event that brought people from outside to step into Dharavi for the first time and learn what this place is really about; a place where ambitions are strong, and aspirations are high, where children have an incredible energy and a capacity to learn and swallow the world if given the opportunity, where the worlds future artists and creative minds exist, where people have the will, the strength and heart to make things change for the better by themselves. A place that needs to be legitimized so that people can synergize all their positive energy into working towards their future rather than battling against a system by which they are deemed illegal, by a system that doesn’t collaborate with the residents to understand who they really are, by a system that wants to use a ‘tabula rasa’ approach and force them all to start from zero all over again.

Participants at Work

Art has been a favoured tool in the hands of sensitive pedagogues. Our small initiative in Dharavi takes art seriously – for its own sake. We are sure that our little moves will ferret out tremendous talent from the rich locality in which it is situated. Many children coming to the Shelter also go to regular schools but love its special focus – which allows them to channelize the rich experience of living life in the city into new creative expressions. We want all kinds of artists to walk this street, visit the Shelter and inspire them to relate to artistic practices in passionate ways.

At the same time one part of us wants to extend this space into other terrains as well. After all, there are those who also value the learning dimension inbuilt into artistic expression. We have special sessions where the acts of drawing and expression specifically help reflect on the streets, homes, lives and communities of all those who belong there, by using creative landmarks and creating new uses of space. We would like to blur the boundaries between art and craft, science and maths and let the imagination translate into learning new skills – whether it be plumbing, water management, construction and roofing. Skills that are best learned in this special part of the city, which can sprout a building with so little resources within a week. We would like to take the Shelter into a space where elders and children converse across community, class, gender and ethnic divides and learn about the intricacies that made the locality of Dharavi so rich, so that the aspirations of the newer generation get energized in fresher ways.

We would love more visitors – from around the world – to come and interact and learn and inspire. We are pretty sure that much learning will take place in the Shelter, a learning that combines expression, knowledge, creativity and science about living in cities.

Pay us a visit soon!

The Shelter at Dharavi is gaining greater momentum with its various creative activities and more and more new children flocking into the shelter to see what is going on and requesting drawing classes. The energy and enthusiasm is incredible making our work seem even more worthwhile and significant.

We have now already painted the new entrance to the shelter, which was a creative and collaborative mural painting produced by many of the children of Dharavi.

Now in the weeks to come we are hoping to keep on developing and improving the entire site so that the shelter grows and becomes a dynamic and multi-use space that is used by not only the children, but also the elders, youth and women. We want to see the space grow in a participatory manner, with people contributing by painting its walls, planting flowers and shrubs, building a fun play area with re-used materials and thus making the space entirely their own. Already we have seen how the children have self-organised themselves, taking charge of clearing out the space, organising the room, taking a register of all new children coming in and ensuring the doors are all locked when they leave.

Our dreams for the site now include building on what already exists and creating a vibrant space for creative social exchange, learning and interaction. We would like to have a library, a café, a play area for children and a garden and as Paul’s motivation of creating this space is a testimony to the willingness of Dharavi residents to improve their living standards, we would like this place to become a symbol of this in the way that it is created too. Using materials from Dharavi itself and using the skills and ideas from its residents we would like to assist by building a play area from disused car tyres, making a wall from glass bottles from Dharavi’s compound 13 recycling area, decorating the patio with pots made in neighbouring Khumbarwada and planting mangrove saplings in the garden as a symbol of the land where Dharavi originated.

Please take a look at our poster (below) with some of the ideas of the activities we would like to carry out at the Shelter and the costs for each activity. Your donations can make these dreams come true?

Click here to enlarge the flyer

[Version française]

The Dharavi Shelter is a space dedicated to children and elderly residents living in New Transit Camp Nagar in Dharavi, Mumbai, India.

Drawing workshop at the Dharavi Shelter. Click here for more photos.

Dharavi’s New Transit Camp is a lively neighbourhood with a diverse population. See more photos.

URBZ Office in Dharavi NewTransit Camp.

URBZ members Dipti (architect) and Himanshu S (artist) with Paul Raphael in the back of the Dharavi Shelter, taking about future plans for a bookstore/library with a tea room on top.

Plan for a simple brick structure next to the Shelter which could host a library/bookstore and a small team room on top.

We are giving art classes to about 50 children every Sunday and would like to expand our activities. In addition to the drawing workshops, we want to screen movies and offer lunch to the children attending the shelter. Subsequently, we would like to offer photography and computer classes. We are looking for support to purchase art material, buy chairs, tables and shelves, offer lunch to 50 to 60 street children every day, hire a part-time animator and build a bookstore/library and a tearoom for all the residents. Even very small amounts can help the shelter a lot. For instance for $2 we can buy a nice crayon box, for $20 we can offer a simple lunch for 60 kids, with $200 we can purchase plastic tables and chairs for the shelter and with $2,000 we can build a new brick structure to host the library!

The context:

Dharavi is one of Mumbai’s most celebrated and misunderstood neighbourhoods. The media often wrongly describes it as the largest slum in Asia. Recently, the award winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ bestowed lots of global attention on it since several of its defining moments were shot in Dharavi’s dense and labyrinthine streets. Hundreds of thousands of migrants came to Dharavi over four generations ago with little else but a fierce desire to survive and live a life of dignity. Through their enterprise they transformed a piece of marshy land into a highly productive neighbourhood – an economic powerhouse, by all accounts but also a place of cultural hybridization, social emancipation and urbanistic innovation. Unfortunately, the city of Mumbai did not always empathize with Dharavi’s potential. Dharavi still suffers from lack of infra-structural support, continued social prejudices and the exigencies of electoral politics.

URBZ members have been working in Dharavi for a few years, notably organizing participatory workshops and urban design studios, researching and writing about its organic development and its architectural organization, and advocating against the Dharavi Redevelopment Project initiated by the Government of Maharashtra. In February 2008, we launched www.dharavi.org which soon became the most comprehensive source of information on Dharavi and an active social network used by many in Dharavi and from the rest of the world. It was visited 200,000 times since its launch.

In September 2009, we opened an office in New Transit Camp, which is a very dynamic and crowded neighourhood in Dharavi. The population of New Transit Camp is extremely mixed with Christians, Muslims and Hindus, many of whom originally came from the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and live side by side. Our landlord, Paul Raphael is an active member of the Communal Harmony movement which started after the 1992-1993 Bombay riots. He is deeply involved in the social life of the neighbourhood. Just as we moved into our new office, Paul inherited a 200 m2 plot of land a few meters down the street. He asked us to help create a social club which would host activities for children and the elderly.

We would like to share this project with more people who could help us realize it. Our dream is to see this little patch evolve into a dynamic and animated space in which children, the elderly and all those concerned, use it create a public sphere within Dharavi which demonstrates the special spirit of this unique part of Mumbai’s history. We would also like this space to become a bridge between residents of Dharavi and visitors from outside. Once the basic needs are covered (material for the classes, lunch for the kids and a salary for an animator), we would like to open a team room open to all elderly, youth, locals and outsiders. It goes without saying that all the contributors to the Shelter’s project will be more than welcome to visit us in Dharavi, when they travel to India!

Paul’s motivation of creating this space is a testimony to the willingness of Dharavi residents to improve their living standards. It is very special to see how children respond with so much electric enthusiasm to the tiniest gestures we can make. It will be as special to actually start documenting the experiences of the several elderly residents who have lived in Dharavi all their lives, once the space starts getting used by them as well.

Do help us in any which way you can and come and see this little space grow through your support. Donations can be made by credit card, via our Paypal account (just click on the link below), by check  or by wire transfer via partner organizations in the US and Japan (see instructions).

Checks can be written to American India Foundation  which has US tax deductable status (501-C3).  On the left it should say that they are for Asia Initiatives URBZ project. A message should be sent to URBZ giving the amount and date the check sent. The address is given below:

Mr. Venkatesh Raghavendra

CFO, American India Foundation

216, E. 45th Street, 7th Floor,

New York, NY 10017

Alternatively, bank transfers can be made in Japan to Asia Initiatives.  A message should be sent to URBZ giving the amount and date the check sent. The bank transfer information is given below:

Bank Name:  Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

(ミツイスミトモギンコウ)

Branch:  Roppongi Branch #619

(ロッポンギ　シテン)

Account:  Saving

(フツウ)

Account #:  7399351

Account Name:  Tokutei_hieirikatsudo_hojin Asia Initiatives

(トクテイヒエイリカツドウホウジン　アジア　イニシアティブズ)

THANK YOU!