Memories of the Seva Sangam

Some of the Early Fundraisers: Children of Kamala Chari and grand children of G.Thanjammal
Kalpana Iyer, Sandhya Jagannathan, Arjun Chari, Aruna Rao, Shobana Rajan

Shobana (Chari) Rajan

Upon receipt of an award from Zonta International for work with the Kitchener-Waterloo Sexual Assault Support Centre, Ms. Shobana Rajan was asked to speak of herself and instead shared the following memory of the early development of the Seva Sangam.

When asked to say something about myself, I immediately thought of the work of my grandmother and mother in India, women who were strong feminists in a culture in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s in small town India, where strong women were rare commodities! My grandmother and a few women in my hometown started an orphanage for orphaned girls and for women who were widows, ostracized and shunned by society.

The goal was to give these women some training, in cottage industry crafts such as weaving, working a printing press and giving them an education that would help them to become self-sufficient. The orphanage started with 7 girls in a thatched roof hut.

Most of the funds needed to run the agency came from donations and fund-raising, for which all of the kids in the family of the organizers were roped into participating! I remember many a fundraising event where my brother, sisters, friends and myself were performers – you name it, we performed as dancers, actors, in pageants – anything to raise money!

By the time my grandmother was ready to hand over the running of the orphanage to someone else, the ideal choice seemed to be my mother. My mother had already been volunteering by going out into the village setting up lunch programs for kids in schools, making sure kids stayed in school, getting donations to run programs etc.. All of this was done by going in a jeep driven by a stranger, through isolated territory while managing a home of 11 people at the same time. It must have given her the strength to then take over the running of the orphanage.

By the time my mother passed away in 1981, she had developed this institution into an accredited high school, with over 350 students from the community, including about 150 girls from the orphanage. She had raised funds for a building that housed the women and girls, and a separate building for the high school. Women who graduated went on to become teachers, teacher’s aides etc., and were supported by scholarships and donations, all through the work of women like my mother in the community. Many of the women who worked in the school were past residents of the orphanage. Yes, that is what is had become!

My mother’s idea of volunteering was 60-80 hours a week, she was on call for any crisis at that institution, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Now with that in my background, how could I not volunteer, and with the examples they set for me in the feminist movement! It is in my blood.

I want to close with this quote from Jann Arden’s book, Selected Journals of Jann Arden.

Try to be good to other people, and I am telling you, it takes a lot of effort most days. People are struggling. Know that. Be good to them. You won’t believe what starts happening to your own life. It opens up into this light. Things start going on around you that seemed impossible. Good things.

Also know that sometimes, good things…seem like bad things. You won’t know that until much later. Bear with it. Life is unfolding.

Thank you.