Our guest Greg expressed his impression of visit at Red Light Area Project at Nagpur. He says,"My impressions of our visit to the Red light district in Nagpur : Khemadhamma, Tejadhamma, Jonathan, Rajan and I went via car to the red light district of Nagpur to visit the People to People organization on the edge of the red light district. We left at 7pm and had to get there via the market at the edge of the red light district which was absolutely jam packed and seemingly total chaos in the Indian way which seems to work.  There were so many people at the market doing various things, all packed in to what seemed an impossibly small amount of space.

 We arrived at our destination went into a door, removed our shoes and met the children and their   teacher Naazmine Sheikh, it seemed as if we had crossed a barrier when we went through the front door. The children and their teacher greeted us in English and then some of the children recited some poems and songs for us in Hindi, Urdu and Marathi.  The children then presented us with food, some water and a lovely card that they had drawn.

We then presented gifts of pencils, sharpeners and paper pads to the children and Naazmine, these were provided by Jonathan’s Mother who lives Cork in Ireland

This all was a very moving experience and I had to fight back tears seeing these children from the red light visit that have been coming to this school so well behaved and trying so hard to please their guests.

As a child, like many children, I was fascinated by the idea of secret hideouts and of a place that was a safe haven from the dangers of the world. It has struck me that Buddhist Centre’s and in particular this People to People organization situated at the edge of the red light district are safe havens or refuges for people that are not so different from the safe havens that I had imagined as a child .

It also struck me later that this People to People organization and other similar organizations seem to me to be Metta in action where it is desperately needed.  I strongly felt the beauty of such actions during our visit and its affect on the children involved and also the effect that such actions can have on the world.

Greg Schiemer

Dhamma Mitra"