Peace. Justice. Reconciliation: A WINDOW INTO THE HMI COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Henry Martyn Institute, Hyderabad, where I currently serve as ELCA missionary has three program areas: academic, conflict transformation, and community development. Each of these three areas represents a unique embodiment of the institute’s mission and vision: “Peace as Goal. Justice as Perspective. Reconciliation as Methodology.”

Three HMI Program Areas

In its academic program, the institute educates residential Indian Christian students as well as groups visiting from abroad about India’s other religions, their history, theology, and spirituality. HMI is unique in that students can learn directly from practitioners of other religions, not from other Christians teaching those topics.
In its conflict transformation program, HMI develops resource materials and holds training events that facilitate learning, capacity building, and empowerment. HMI staff networks with other NGOs, scholars, and activists working in the areas of human rights, ecological farming, non-violent social change, and gender justice. The institute also develops printed resources that can be used by these groups in their local work all over India. In its workshops, participants gain deeper insights and learn practical skills for doing peace and justice work.
In its community development program, Henry Martyn Institute works on the ground in several local, economically depressed Hyderabad neighborhoods which are notorious for tensions between Muslim and Hindu residents.

Community Development Program

I recently had the opportunity to accompany a group of Protestant pastors from the Netherlands on some of their outings. The photos are from a visit to two of HMI’s three Aman Shanti Community Centers. The name “Aman Shanti” itself is interesting: Aman is Arabic for peace. Shanti means peace, too, but in Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hindus. Thus, the name itself is an expression of the goal of these community centers, namely, peace building among Hindu and Muslim members of the community.

Aman Shanti Community Center in Sultan Shahi

HMI operates three community centers, all located in densely populated, riot-prone neighborhoods of Hyderabad’s old city. The tree neighborhoods are Sultan Shahi, Shanker Nagar, and Chandrayagutta. In all three communities, the alleys are narrow, houses tiny, and incomes low, actually incredibly low. I was told, for example, that the typical monthly family income is somewhere around 5,000 to 6,000 Indian rupees (or $75 to $90). From that amount, the family has to pay for housing, transportation, clothing, food, and everything else! No wonder that even small rumors about alleged injustices or disrespect can lead to tensions, riots, and curfews. Often neighbors of different religious communities do not interact with each other, even if they live just a street apart.

Philosophy & Strategy

The Aman Shanti Community Centers seek to address this situation and offer ways out of poverty and religious tensions. The main focus of these centers is to give a common space for Hindus and Muslims to come together, interact, learn different skills, and thereby develop better relationships across the faith and caste barriers.

Aman Shanti Community Center in Chandrayagutta

The community development is coordinated by a staff of two trained social workers: Jahan Ara Begum and Abdul Majid Shaik. In addition, HMI employs part-time staff at each of the centers: teachers, program coordinators, and medical staff. The unique feature is that each center decides on the priorities and programs it seeks to offer. Hence, each center varies a bit in size and in the programs that it offers.

HMI Sultan Shahi Staff shows Embroidery Work

Aman Shanti Community Center in Sultan Shahi

Visitor Examining Sewing Pattern Book

The oldest and largest of the centers, located in the Sultan Shai neighborhood and strategically on the border between Muslim and Hindu streets. It operates an elementary school (nursery through grade 4) for about 125 children. Tuition is incredibly low, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. Both Muslim and Hindu children attend. In addition to the school, the center offers programs for women (mornings and afternoons) and men (evenings).

HMI Sewing Student Practicing

Women can learn sewing, embroidery, typing, and henna design (a marketable skill in high demand at weddings). While a few former sewing students have started their own business, graduates typically use their new skills to sew their own and their daughters’ clothes and thereby save money. Men can learn typing as well as air conditioning and automotive repair.

The Physician Demonstrating her Supplies

The center also sponsors interfaith celebrations of Hindu and Muslim festivals and outings for sewing class students and the participants in the young men’s group. The center also operates a low-cost clinic. Five times a week, a female general medicine physician comes in for 2 hours, sees patients, prescribes medicines, and/or makes referrals. In addition, center staff also canvasses the community door-to-door to educate women on maternal health, pregnancy check-ups, infant health, STDs, and HIV/Aids.

Students at Aman Shanti Center, Chandrayagutta

The other two centers offer similar programs, with the exception that they offer after-school tutoring instead of elementary school education. The common strategy that all three centers share is that community development is used as an instrument to promote interfaith peace and harmony. The three centers provide a lens through which one can see the rest of the interfaith ministry of Henry Martyn Institute. Clearly, interfaith relations are, first and foremost, not a matter for conferences and books, but a matter of real live and improved relations among neighbors. Henry Martyn Institute aims at bringing interfaith from the head to the heart and hands ... and we, ELCA members, are supporting this work.