One of The Storydancer Project’s long-term partnerships is the Hope Project, in Delhi, India located inside of the Nizamuddin Basti, a slum area near the commemorated tomb of the great Sufi Nizamuddin Auliya. The Hope Project support programs are located in very poor areas.
Over the past few years, The Storydancer Project has been working with the Hope Medical Mobile Health Units in the Trans-Yamuna areas, or the region referred to as “the areas across the Yamuna River,” one of the holy rivers of India, and home to hundreds of thousands of people. I traveled at the very beginning of this New Year, with Asha, Hope Project Social Worker and TSP Consultant for all of our programs with Hope Project.
Our first visit was to Zafarabad, one of the Trans-Yamuna areas, to meet Shahana, Hope Project teacher of Cutting and Tailoring and TSP trained Facilitator. Shahana beautifully led the students in many of the exercises. These young women are very bright, able to speak English quite well, and interested in the benefits of these TAKE A MINUTE® exercises. She had really studied the training video we had provided, and had chosen some of the newer exercises. The students understood, and loved the experience. I led some other exercises as well. I really want to support the facilitators this year. I know, the students and their teachers want me to talk and teach, so I do, yet I wish to see our facilitators empowered to use the exercises themselves. To date, I can say these facilitator trainings are really working and better than I expected. I told them about the importance of practicing often, and that repetition of an exercise you know and like can be a good thing- it doesn’t always have to be something different.
After the visit to Zafarabad, we continued to Velcome, also in the Trans-Yamuna area. Following Asha, our program Consultant, through the narrow and often very dark gullies, we came to the classroom that is used for all the Hope Project support classes in Velcome. There, we met with TSP Facilitator, Omeira, who teaches both Cutting and Tailoring and Beauty Culture. I always like coming to Velcome. I don’t know why. People here are very poor, and often to outsiders, hidden away. I find the students bright and filled with enthusiasm and thoughtfulness. At the end of the session, led by Omeira and myself together, one student asked a question that gets asked of me in almost every area we visit inside the Hope Project partnership, “Is there any exercise for height growth?” When I first encountered this question, years ago, I was thrown into confusion. I had to learn that women and girls consider height a symbol for a good marriage. In this session, when I was asked the very same question from a shorter student, I was able to open a discussion about our families, our genes, and the way we grow up. At one point, I found myself speaking about how some people that I know in the US who are tall, wish they were shorter, and some people I know who are short, wish they were taller. One of the taller students in the present group raised her hand, and shyly told us all that she wished she wasn’t so tall. Everyone laughed together. There was a kind of recognition in the air, and an innate understanding that things are ‘as they are.’ This is something that can happen during the exercise sessions. An open atmosphere is present, and we feel, as they say here, that ‘our mind is fresh and we feel relaxed.’ When the mind feels fresh, and the body and heart feel relaxed, the discussion becomes charged with ideas that have been hidden, and become shared.
Joy is present once again.
—Zuleikha onsite in Delhi, India, January 4, 2026
thestorydancerproject.org
