Teen uses vacations to help world's poorest kids
Vishal Jain recalls humanitarian trips to Bangalore, Belize
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

Vishal Jain works with poor children in Belize during his spring break this year. The trip inspired the East Brunswick teen to take a humanitarian trip to Bangalore this summer.

EAST BRUNSWICK - Vishal Jain, a 16-year-old East Brunswick High School student, doesn't just have a vision of a better world. He's working to make it a reality.

Vishal spent his spring break and part of his summer in two of the poorest sections of the world, volunteering to help children in need.

Earlier this summer, Vishal, who was accompanied by his mother, Sangeeta, visited a slum on the outskirts of Bangalore, India. He visited the town community center daily, spending hours helping children learn math and other subjects, and working with them to build Legos, doing arts and crafts, and playing games.

"I was astonished at how they reacted when I opened a box of Legos on my first visit," he said. "They all attacked the Lego box and took as many pieces as they could."

Vishal, who is of Indian descent, said that although Bangalore "has become India's Silicon Valley, with top IT companies, high-end stores, shopping malls, hotels" and other modern luxuries, the outskirts remain very poor.

"These children have barely any clothes or shoes, and live in mud homes with poor sanitation," he said.

"The school provides them with uniforms to wear to school and a free lunch and snack, which is more than what they may get at home," he said.

Vishal became involved through Pratham, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that strives to educate underprivileged children in India.

"The goal of Pratham is to ensure that every child is in school and learning well," he said.

Pratham has received grants and support from companies such as Hewlett Packard, Juniper Networks and Microsoft to create schools, libraries and computer centers in the poorest areas on India.

One of the problems in India that struck both Vishal and his mother was the use of child labor. Families are often forced to take high-interest loans and are unable to pay them back, so the children work for the business from which they took the loan.

One of Pratham's goals, Vishal said, is to eliminate child labor.

Vishal met an inspiring 8-year-old boy named Pushpotam, who supports his family by begging in the streets in the early morning and evening. Despite his poverty, he gets to school on time and receives high grades.

"I gave him words of encouragement," Vishal said. "I felt very proud to meet such a courageous child who fights his karma to make a difference in his life."

In the afternoons, Vishal spent a lot of time with children ages 8-10, many of whom understood English. He gave them lessons in math and performed science experiments with them.

"Some days the electricity went out, but the students remained eager to sit and learn through the darkness," he said.

The trip to Bangalore was borne from an earlier humanitarian trip that Vishal and his friend Vikram Sarath took to the Central America country of Belize, where they also worked with poverty-stricken children. Vishal held a fundraiser at his house before the trip, which he took during spring break in April, and used the funds to buy coloring supplies, thread and classroom posters. He distributed those items to three schools in Belize.

"The schools were very poor compared to the schools here," Vishal said. "However, the children always had smiles on their faces, despite their living conditions."

For example, he said, one school was built on top of a swamp, and whenever the kids played with a ball, it went into the swamp, which was filled with garbage, urine, bacteria and dirt.

At another school where the paint was old, Vishal and his friend helped to repaint the school so that the building would be protected from damage from the weather.

"We played soccer, read stories and gave encouragement to study hard," Vishal said. "Seeing these children happy brought a smile to my face. It reminded me of the reason I do my mission, which was to improve the world."