Director Desk
Our Past
Already in the year 2000 I started my charitable work and planted some hundred trees in the school in Alipur (Delhi) that I have attended from age 6 to 16. Since around the year 2000 I went once or twice a year to India, I couldn’t care for the trees myself, so I donated some thousand Rupees to an NGO. The head of this NGO assured me, that they will plant trees for this money. As a proof he wanted to send photos and videos. There were mixed feelings about it: On the one hand I was glad that I found somebody, on the other hand there was a little doubt, because many friends in India persuaded me that it would be wasted money. (In addition to these opinions I myself was skeptical: The NGO had a big room full of computers and workers, even though their main task was to provide education for poor kids…)
Some time later I requested to see those videos and photos, but the head of the NGO told me he will provide everything, just I had to be patient. As the time came that I myself flew to India another time, I decided not to meet with them – I simply didn’t want to create a bad conscience. Yet I over and over again requested them to show me proof of their work, but the answer remained the same. So once I went there without announcing myself and what they told me was pretty surprising. Seemingly there had been a fire in their NGO and everything was burnt: Trees, photos, videos. Was that really convincing? The trees burnt as well?
I retreated from charity, yet the interest was still on. 2014 my feelings and plans came to a conclusion: There was a need to found a NGO myself with the name „Julia and Anjali Manovigyanchikitsa“, but the process turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought: Many visits to the civil services were necessary, processes stagnated and again and again I was told to visit another civil service to get my NGO listed. One time they wouldn’t even let me enter the administration building, since I needed a proof of being Indian – however I am German citizen with extended VISA as a PIO (Persion of Indian Origin). So all this work took time…
Finally after another two years and some 16000 Rupees, 2016 the NGO was founded. The Anjali and Julia Free Education Trust. For many reasons the actual work could not be started, so I asked my brother – the head of the trust – to start some charity work that felt meaningful. He organized a cleaning of the sanitary sewer, which costed 150000 Rupees (You can check out the videos below).
Nevertheless after this procedure the work of the NGO was halted and the actual goals unachieved. The head Mr. Ved Prakash was busy with his own affairs, and so I reached out to the media. I created an announciation in the Hindustan Times, an indian newspaper, which costed arround 10000 Rupees to find people that would support my work in the NGO. Approximately a hundred people replied, however only six to seven people stayed after I explained the work of the NGO and that there was no salary to be received through this work. The NGO simply wouldn’t be able to support the workers financially. Originally the plan was to fly to India to talk to the people and start the work, but since only so few where up to do the real work, I decided for a video conference. Some people, like Mr. Bharat, seemed comitted, so the next step to build an educational opportunity for poor children was in finding a teacher. Again I made an announcement in the newspaper (costs arround 6000 Rupees), and some 15 to 20 instructors answered.