Photos courtesy of Lisa Hwang (Left to right) Recent UCLA
graduates Lisa Hwang, Bahar Kumar
and Tracey Tuyen display one of their meals during
their travel to northern India to help impoverished
communities.
By Dharshani Dharmawardena
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For some people who have never visited India, the Taj Mahal,
Mendhi, also known as Henna, and “The Simpsons”
character Apu selling hot dogs at Kwik-E Mart complete their view
of the former Crown Jewel of the British Empire.
“It’s not that, it’s not about the silk or the
Mendhi,” said Bahar Kumar, a UCLA alumna (’99).
“This is what the West gets bombarded with.”
The real beauty of India shines through when people learn to see
the world through locals’ eyes, she said.
“There’s something about people living off the
land,” Kumar said. “We realized we had to strike
internal balance and acknowledge reality.”
As one of four women chosen by the International Development
Studies Program, Kumar traveled to northern India for four months
last year with a donor-funded non-governmental organization called
Buddha Educational Charitable Society, which fosters educational
and medicinal services in the region.
Kumar, Lisa Hwang, Tracey Tuyen, and Sarah Borchelt, all UCLA
alumnae (’99), participated in community development work
that ranged from community health to rural education and NGO
administrative development, Hwang said.
 Tracey Tuyen tells stories to a group of
children in a village near Bodh-Gaya, India last spring. Living in
this area meant living in the very heart and soul of India, Kumar
said. But, it also meant seeing the fragility of life, especially
in a part of the world where poverty runs rampant.
“I heard this moaning outside near the (outpatient clinic)
““ two women were crying,” she said. “I saw a baby
wrapped up on a bench and heard the doctor say he couldn’t do
anything.”
Left alone near water, the baby had drowned before anybody could
come to his rescue.
“That was the first time I’d seen a little infant
pass away in a few minutes,” she said.
Robert and Jennifer Chartoff spearheaded the program in an
effort to educate “untouchable” children in Bodh-Gaya,
Bihar, which is considered holy land.
As Buddhists, the couple went on to perform
“dharma,” or religious duty: helping people improve
their lives.
Ten years later, they spoke to Joshua Muldavin, chair of the
International Departmental Studies Program at UCLA, and came up
with the idea to have IDS students go participate in the program as
field experience.
The Chartoffs initially started the Jennifer School, which
teaches children from age 6 to 15, but now have extended
educational services to six village schools for students of
kindergarten age, and have also added health care services.
In addition to education, the program now addresses broader
developmental issues, including health education, agriculture and
water sources, Muldavin said.
Taking part in the program gave the women field service
experience, letting them see firsthand what they learned in lecture
halls about economy and society at work in real life, Hwang
said.
It taught them limits and deep respect for the culture as well,
Kumar said, adding that learning to deal with how women were
treated proved to be a challenge.
“We had to learn that even if we were all feminists we
couldn’t just go over there and proclaim to them to break
their chains,” she said. “We had to learn to not be
frustrated, to understand, and to value the power they have and how
they deal with their situations.”
Women in many of the villages have to deal with drunken
husbands, bury children, tend to fields and keep the community
together.
“You have to step back and look at the bigger picture, at
how contained they are,” Kumar said. “It tells you the
strength of the human spirit.”
Teaching at the schools involved more than just instructing the
children, she continued. It meant talking to the teachers as
well.
Often, Hwang, Kumar and the other two participants would talk
with the teachers and older students trying to decipher the roots
of problems in their lives, like tracing poverty back to the caste
system and lack of education.
“We wanted them to put a mental picture into why things
were the way they were,” Hwang said. “It was
fascinating to see why poverty exists.”
The women also tried to integrate Western modes of teaching,
like playing games and using toys, into the village schools where
students usually learn by lecture-type instruction, Kumar said.
“Ultimately, they did not think very highly of that sort
of teaching,” she said. “Real learning was very
disciplined, where the teacher speaks and the students
listen.”
“They were totally defending their way of teaching, saying
that just because it works in the States doesn’t mean
it’ll work in India,” Hwang said.
She added that although American modes of teaching may not have
convinced teachers, the time spent on discussion will prove worth
while.
“We taught them to think about learning in a different
way,” Hwang said. “It opened things up for
discussion.”
At the end of their stay, the women received the ultimate gift
from the villagers, who initially felt a little cautious of their
presence in the community.
“When we left, they gave us what they give to their
sisters or their daughters on their wedding day,” Kumar
said.
The villagers presented the women with Buddhist statues, suits
of Indian dress, and other gifts, integrating them into their
community.
“India has some of the poorest people in the world, but
they came together, they pooled together to do this for us,”
she continued. “There was nothing we could say.”
There will be a meeting about the program Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. in
Bunche Palm Court.