History

The idea of starting Dil Se came when two Swiss women, Marina Racine and Cristelle Hart, met in the streets of Bombay in 1999. They were both working as volunteers in a home for street kids. During their second visit over there they spoke about their common dream of helping these under privileged children full-time. They would be able to give them an alternative to life on the streets through better hygiene, nutrition and simple kindness. Some of the adolescents from the streets of Bombay wanted to become a part of their plans to create an oasis where children would be respected, loved and listened to.

In June 2000 the association was formed at the Château de Corcelles/Chavornay in Switzerland with a committee of four people. We chose the name Dil Se « from the heart » because we wanted a short name in Hindi, the official Indian language, that would also reflect our objectives.

Dil Se is also the name of an Indian film and the street children we met back then loved dancing to its exciting music. Cristelle and Marina's friends, acquaintances and respective families very quickly gave their support to the project even though there was nothing concrete to show as yet. In a few months they had collected CHF 25,000 and in November of that year Cristelle Hart set off to be the coordinator in India, committing herself to be there for five years.

At the beginning of 2001, we opened our first children’s home in Kochi, as well as a sort of small leisure center in the poor areas of the city. In Tamil Nadu, at the request of some low cast villagers, Dil Se opened two nursery schools in the same year. Rapidly a third one opened in another village. Each group was made up of 25 children, a teacher and a cook. The main accent was put on playing, creativity and basic hygiene.

In 2002, because of the difficulty of finding spaces for long term rent, we decided to build nursery schools and to buy a house for the Kochi home, which would assure a stability for our work with the children. We also started a family support network in Kochi.

In 2003, we opened a foster home for about 15 children in a village close to Madurai.

In April 2005, we created several projects for HIV+ women and children in villages around Madurai. With the growing poverty in rural areas, the teenagers move towards the large cities; they work for several years in very difficult conditions but assure a regular income for their families. Many of them discover their sexuality with prostitutes but then come back to the village to get married. It is often only a few years later that they become sick and realize that they are HIV+. The situation is terrible and many young women soon become widows, HIV+, with several children and in total isolation from the community.

We set up:

• support for 35 HIV+ families (90% are widows with children). Psychological, medical, educational, nutritional support and development of a social network with the close family.
• information days on Aids, through games, role playing and testimonies for the village women. This was 12 Saturdays scattered throughout the year with roughly 100 women present each time.
• public awareness campaigns in villages through theatre and testimonies.
• HIV prevention campaigns for teenagers in the local schools.

In February 2008, we opened an orphanage for HIV affected and infected children.

In June of that same year, Dil Se became a member of FEDEVACO in Lausanne, Switzerland.

At the beginning of 2009, following several months of conflict with our “partners” in Tamil Nadu, we let them continue independently, the running of the nursery schools, the HIV network and the foster home. In Tamil Nadu, we continue to support the HIV orphanage.

In September 2009, we decide to allocate part of our budget to “giving a helping hand”.

In 2010, we decide to create partnerships with two associations who at first were in our Helping Hands project: Women Foundation in Nepal and MEA in Sierra Leone.