By Quaid Najmi, IANS
Mumbai : Delta Air Lines Thursday marked the first anniversary of its Mumbai-New York direct flights without cakes, champagnes or a party. Instead, it took up a unique project to commemorate the milestone – building homes for a few poor families on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Forty staff volunteers from the airline and six frequent flyers who took up the project were joined in the morning by the US Consul General in Mumbai, Michael S. Owen and his wife Annerieke who turned up at the construction site at Nagewadi village, inhabited by 500, near Karjat, around 90 km northeast from here.
Wearing a backpack, jeans and a T-shirt, the Owens picked and carried a small load of bricks and dug into a slushy cement mixture to join the Delta volunteers in constructing a wall for one house.
They laid the bricks atop each other, plastered it with cement, smoothed it, and provided the finishing touches to the new, simple but permanent home.
Tired but cheerful and famished, the Owens took a quick wash to enjoy an open-air buffet lunch that was laid out nearby.
Young, giggling village belles drew colourful rangolis at the venue, giving a festive touch to the occasion.
A few brief speeches followed Owen handing over the house keys to the grateful beneficiaries, plus a basic household kit comprising steel utensils and other articles.
A small gathering comprising officials from the US consulate, Delta, social workers and villagers cheered and clapped. Each Delta volunteer and customer got a certificate from Owen for participating in the project.
These eight homes, each measuring around 360 square feet (33.50 sq. metres), are part of Delta’s $1,00,000 commitment to build 100 homes in 2007-2008 for the poor in Maharashtra, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Scarlet Pressley-Brown, director of Delta’s Force for Global Good (DFGG), told IANS from the construction site that all staff volunteers, who invested personal time and money of up to Rs.1,400 each and six Delta customers from the US reached Nagewadi Monday to build the houses.
For four days, the volunteers sweated in the dust and grime of the remote village, eight hours daily and finally completed the work, in time for the visiting US diplomat. They were assisted in the venture by the Karjat-based non- NGO Academy of Development Science (ADS).
Interestingly, the six customers are Delta’s frequent flyers who ‘bid’ for participating in the project. “They sacrificed an international holiday by volunteering for this venture,” Scarlet said.
“This is Habitat’s third joint programme with Delta this year. We have worked to provide homes in Ghana and South Africa,” said Habitat CEO Peter Selvarajan, who was present at Nagewadi. The criteria for selecting the villagers whose homes were to be constructed were decided by Habitat in consultation with local NGOs.
The beneficiaries are local peasants owning barely 0.2-0.5 hectares of land on which they cultivate rice or vegetables for six months. The remaining months, they toil on other farms as casual labour, averaging a monthly income ranging between $50-$75 – barely enough to support their families.
Most Nagewadi houses are rustic, made of reed and plastered with cow dung. Heavy rains leave these dwellings battered. They need to be replaced or repaired twice each year, a tall order considering their meagre income.
“Many homes are dark and without windows, the floors are dusty as they are plastered with dry cow dung and leaky roofs are the norm in monsoons,” said Smita Premkumar, one of the staff volunteers and the airline’s general manager for Global Product Development.
The source of drinking water is far away and nature’s calls are answered in the open surroundings, she added.
Not anymore. The beneficiaries are now proud owners of all-weather permanent homes made of bricks, stone or concrete for the plinth, mud for the floors and wooden roofs topped with clay tiles.
As Owen handed over the keys of the new homes, smiles of joy lit the faces of each beneficiary: Leela Parshubhala, Chebi Vithal Thorat, Khushi Bhau Thorat, Shanthi Palu Thorat, Chebi Shankar Kambli, Chandra Valku Bhala, Bhudi Parshu Thorat and Dharmi Bhudhaji Thorat.
Habitat for Humanity has been working in India for the past 24 years, building or renovating nearly 12,000 homes. It also provided 1,700 homes in tsunami-hit areas, considered one of its largest country programmes.