The One Love Project

THE ONE LOVE PROJECT : OUR STORY

The One Love Project was born when a group of friends on their travels through India, saw the desperate need to provide a safe and creative haven for the gypsy street children they encountered in Pushkar.

In 2013 these friends lost their hearts and souls to the beautiful people and ancient culture of the Holy City of Pushkar but were saddened by what they experienced at first hand. They saw the same old story, so common in poorest India, destitute families sending their brightest children to acquire a few words of European language in order to beg from Pushkar’s seasonal tourists or sift through piles of rubbish to trade in for a few rupees. In the local community young and vulnerable children are expected to help support their families from a very early age. These children are destined to be trapped by intergenerational poverty due to a lack education combined with the constraints of their caste system, they just can't access the opportunities that could enable them to break free from this cycle of poverty.

They met Vijay and became close friends while volunteering at a similar project. Vijay highlighted the problems his caste children face with intergenerational poverty. A year later they returned and decided to collaborate with Vijay and create a safe space for children to spend time after school to keep them off the streets and to be creative.

The One Love Project is the result of the collaborative efforts of this group of friends and has focused on several tent based communities camped beside the Holy City of Pushkar. The Project began in 2014 when we built from scratch an educational creative space in the heart of the camp with the agreement and support of the families that lived there. This tented enclosure included a classroom for homework tuition, a creative space and a kitchen built from bamboo and canvas for 16 children who were sponsored to attend school as a result of a generous donation, with as many as 20 younger siblings and friends who joined us too!

Each day after school and during holidays the children attend The One Love Project rather than return to the streets. We send our children to a small private school called Parashar, which charges 5,000 rupees a year, roughly 4 pounds a month, a cost out of reach of most gypsy families. Parashar give extra help to our children who enter both illiterate and at a variety of ages, but only when the Project feels a street child is ready for the rigors of formal education. Their tuition is also supported by the Project with the provision of Homework Supervision from a qualified local teacher. Each child who attends our Project also receives daily a healthy meal, which their families are truly grateful for.

We launched a pendant called The One Love Pendant with profits going directly towards the project, marketed and sold through Gypsy East at events, through Facebook and via ASOS. This pendant has become established as both our logo and the symbol of our school featuring a heart style mandala.

On our first anniversary we launched The One Love Sustainable Project. We worked with the families of our One Love children to make a product that would be both beautiful, sustainable and commercially successful and so our hand stitched Kantha Quilts and bunting from recycled silk sari scraps were created. These we have sold successfully at festivals, retail outlets and on Facebook, donating 50% of the proceeds of the sales to the Sustainable Project and 50% to the One Love School.

In our second year we began a child sponsorship scheme allowing people to donate towards the educational, welfare and medical costs of sending an individual child through The One Love Project to Parashaschool, this was designed to create a relationship with our children and share in their personal development through email, video and photographic updates.

Sponsoring a child’s education and welfare is the most powerful way we feel you can fight poverty and inequality.
We believe that once you give a child access to education, a healthy diet and the opportunity to be creative they are empowered to change their world.
The One Love Project’s commitment to their future in education is fundamental in creating long-term, sustainable and effective change in their community.

Nearly three years on we have moved from our leaky canvas school room and now run our Project in a safe and secure permanent building. We currently sponsor a total 32 children to attend school and provide weekly art and music classes along side a healthy meal, clean water, ceremonial gifts, uniform, medical care and a loving support network which extends to all the children’s families. Many more of their brothers and sisters join in the pre and after school activities eager for the day that they will be wearing school uniform too.

The One Love Project aims to focus on learning through creativity and respecting the indigenous culture of the Rajasthani gypsies, the Project is run by former street children, who by caste are also musicians, puppeteers, artists and dancers. This is an essential and rare source of employment open to them. As staff at The Project they have the opportunity to share their culture, passion and talents for drumming, acting, singing, dancing and crafts.

The One Love Project hopes that rather than a career of begging or scavenging on the streets of Pushkar, our children will be both educated and stimulated in a creative way reflecting their rich cultural heritage. Music, dancing, happiness and laughter are right at the heart of One Love. The name has been taken from the famous Bob Marley track, as he is revered with guru status by the locals, to keep sharing his message of love, peace and equality. We want to bring hope and a brighter future to these children, continue to provide a sanctury full of fun, music, laughter and potential. Secure with love and support they will be empowered to rise above their social circumstances and look forward to making a great contribution to Pushkar's future.

Head to www.theoneloveproject.org.uk for more information on our commitment to work in the field of social justice.

Our charity is a not-for-profit organisation recognised as charitable by HMRC for tax purposes

We want to every child to receive an education regardless of gender or caste, redefine voluntourism and break intergenerational poverty in Pushkar’s marginalised communities.

Through our program of child sponsorship we aim to provide a secure educational environment, nutrition and medical support for more children in partnership with Parasha Shiksha Niketan School, Pushkar, Rajasthan.






VOLUNTOURISM

Voluntourism is an issue we question and although we have partaken in the act over the past few years to raise awareness for our cause and to let tourists come and visit the children and share some love and skills.
We now recognise the damage this can do. Although there’s usually lots of laughter and fun, it is disruptive for the children that we spend a long time settling into an educational routine after their feral existence on the streets of Pushkar. The children are also forming bonds with visiting adults who give so generously in material and emotional terms but for only a short period of time. This can distort our children’s perception of Westerners.
We also need to assess who is benefitting from these visits. Is the volunteer benefiting in personal growth and experience at the expense of separation issues and disrupted routines of the children involved?
We now consolidate all our volunteering to the months of mid February to mid March. We are looking for specific skill sets to help us generate a big change to the children’s lives through infrastructure and maintenance projects during these weeks .
We advise you to fundraise before coming and then you can help fund projects that you have a particular interest in to help the Project’s children. There are so many creative ways to fundraise from hosting a 'Supper Club' to 'Shaving your head', holding a “One Love Party or Music event' to 'Auctioning off Art' or donating percentage sales from your business, please contact us to discuss creative fundraising activities as we are happy to share our knowledge and experiences.

• Doctors/ Nurses / Holistic Therapists
• Permaculture practitioners
• TEFL trained teachers
• Yoga and Sports Teachers (We would love to set up a sustainable sports program for the girls of the community)
• Art Teacher / Creative Workshops
• Western and Indian Music Tuition
• Carpentry/Electrical/Handi-man
• Vegan Chef/Nutritionist