Compassionate Engagement

Rahul Brown, the mentor USC sent with us to Hubli, emphasized the importance of compassionate engagement in our projects to be able to succeed. Despite having the best well researched and planned business models, a project of social impact that we are here to achieve will fail if we do not practice compassion. To aid us with our interactions with the community, he gave us a small comb and nail clippers to use in the field. When children come to ask for alms, it can break your heart to refuse as most of the time they gather and give to a higher child exploitation organization. Instead of ignoring them, try showing some care and compassion by combing their hair or clipping their nails to teach them about hygiene and the importance of keeping hands and nails clean.

Last night, I was fortunate to have my first experience using my hair comb. A young girl, about 7 years old and her older sister were asking us for money as we stepped out of CCD (Cafe Coffee Day). I opened my purse but instead of taking out money as I'm sure they expected, I took my hair comb out of the plastic bag I keep it in. I showed it to the younger girl and motioned with it across her hair to show her what I intended to do. She grabbed the comb, stuck it in her hair, and ran away giggling. After getting over the initial amusement and shock, I ran after her and explained that I wanted to comb her hair and make her look pretty. The sisters were confused that I was offering to provide a service instead of giving something physical to them. I started combing the front of the younger sister's hair and she could hardly contain her excitement as she quickly took out her hair tie to unravel her ponytail. It took me about 3 minutes but I was able to detangle most of her oily unkept hair and smoothed it out for her and showed her and her sister how lovely she looked. As we were leaving, the older girl kept asking for money but the younger girl seemed to have understood and valued the act and smiled, waved and yelled "Bye Tapasya."

As I sanitized my hands, cleaned the hair out of the comb, and put it away in its bag, ready to use for the next child, I couldn't get past how grateful the girl was and how quickly she stopped begging when I interacted with her. I hope this is the first of many successful acts of engagement we get to practice not only over the next few months while we are in Hubli, but throughout our lives.

~ Tapasya