Odanadi-uk.org

Last night we went to the official launch of the charity which my niece helped to set up. She is now a trustee. It was a fabulous occasion in London's Docklands/Canary wharf at the Docklands Museum which has been concerned to address the issues of Slavery in the past. It was particularly apt as this charity Odanadi-uk.org is specifically concerned with present day Slavery. Odanadi-uk is set up to fund-raise and awareness-raise for Odanadi-India who work with the results of Sex-trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse in India. The charity works with women, girls and boys enslaved to the sex-industry, exploited and then subsequently destitute in Mysore, India. They house the children of women forced to become prostitutes.

The evening was very moving because it was intensely personal, we had a very positive and affirming photographic exhibition to look at. We were even given the names and stories of the women. We had a photographer's commentary of the experience of photographing some of the young girls in India. We watched a film of the place and heard more heart-wrenching stories. We were inspired by the founders of the charity in India, listened to a speech by Katherine Hamnett and all the time were reminded of the charity's name 'odanadi' which means 'soul-mate'. The charity has an ethos which is concerned with equality, it is not patronising, does not put any conditions on the money given and insists that people work in a voluntary capacity for the organisation. Therefore all the money goes directly to India without being wasted on admin costs. The venue was given free-of-charge, and everything was done at minimal cost.

What impressed me most was that the founders of Odanadi-India and Odanadi-UK all insisted that this kind of work is concerned with global-solidarity. Words like 'brotherhood', 'sisterhood', 'soul-mates' and other words concerned with intimacy and relationship were used frequently. The founders of Odanadi-India had flown over to speak to their UK fund-raisers, and there was a film made of the charity by a woman who had visited the area to witness for herself the work being done there.

At the end of the evening we were given some little bags made from re-cycled newspaper by the women in India and on each bag was a photo of the project. We were constantly reminded of our connections.

I was also particularly impressed by the aims of the Charity which are to rehabilitate not to encourage dependency and therefore further enslavement and inequality. The charity uses a lot of highly creative ideas, a photography project developed from our discarded cameras, an interactive theatre project, and funding to set up small businesses to encourage and enable the women's independence. The project is passionate about stopping the cycle of abuse which is developed when these people are exploited, working with the children and in training the people in counselling and support work. The families are supported as a whole where appropriate, the children are housed as far as the limited resources of the charity will allow. The consequences of sexual exploitation such as physical illness, mental health issues and the difficulties faced by these women when they wish to get married are all confronted and addressed. The charity is also working tirelessly to raise awareness of the all-pervasive culture of social stigma associated with sexual exploitation.

I left feeling a powerful need to 'do something' and hope to compile a list of contacts for Odanadi-uk so that they can develop links with the Asian community here in Birmingham. I am also going to pray for them daily and ask others to pray too. We have set up a standing order but cannot currently afford to give more. We are thinking of creative ways of supporting this charity.

The heartening thing about this charity and the location of its launch in the heart of our capitalist, finance centre in the middle of a credit crunch was that many of the women who had developed Odanadi-UK had reduced their working hours, taken pay-cuts to work in charity work, even a top clothes designer had designed a t-shirt for nothing. The launch was filled with young middle-class well-connected Londoners and they have a social conscience which many people of my generation are only just discovering.

They are absolutely determined to change the world. They are not religious or pious or pushing an agenda they are just so entirely human. The founders of the UK branch of Odanadi are all gutsy, strong women, feminists at their best determined to fight for their fellow women and bring justice. Idealism is not dead. Thank God

Please visit odanadi-uk.org and see what I mean