I was transferred from Holy Family Church, Andheri, on June 1, 2009. At present, I am working in a new educational Programme of the Jesuits for slum children and the empowerment of women in the slums of Mumbai, at a place called Kalwa. It is known as REAP (Reach Education Action Programme) and was started by Fr. Trevor Miranda, a 56-year-old Mimbai Jesuit. He began in a very humble way, with one small class for the street children around Churchgate Station, in the St. Xavier’s Boys’ Academy (one of our elite schools in South Mumbai ), in 1997. Today, REAP has grown well beyond his expectations, to cover slums and footpaths spanning vast areas in the remote northern suburbs of Mumbai, along the Central Railway Line. In 2005, when I was still in Guyana, REAP received international recognition in the form of the OPUS AWARD of 1 million US dollars from Marquette University in the US. Fr. Trevor travelled there, together with two or three of our humble teachers from the slum areas, to receive this Award and an honorary Doctorate degree. Right now, REAP conducts over 300 ‘balwadis’ (nurseries and KGs) plus several classes from Stds. I to V (after which these students are admitted into government schools); classes for Std. VIII; and now, a few classes for Std. X (enabling students to appear for the National Open School leaving examination).

By conducting classes in small huts, old sheds,  and a few temple-spaces within slums, at their very doorsteps or inside their small huts, REAP tries to rescue these helpless children from child labour and give them a chance to get an education; otherwise their parents would never send them to school. In these humble classrooms, the children (10-25) squat upon mats placed on the floor. Our teachers are quite regular, even during the rainy season, and there are supervisors who go round visiting their classes to guide them and report on their performance.  In addition, REAP has around 200 self-help groups for the empowerment of women. Our women-animators, who are themselves from the slums, organize these women and motivate them to save money in the banks, to get bank loans, and to organize demonstrations to municipal and government offices or police-stations to get justice for the people. REAP caters to around 9,000 slum and street children, empowers hundreds of women, and has built up the self-confidence of over 300 teachers and women social workers, who now comprise its staff. As for my own work, I am presently  attending various meetings with our teachers, supervisors, coordinators and office staff so as to acquaint myself with the work REAP is doing. I have been put in charge of the non-formal classes (I to V) and the teacher-training programmes. Soon I also hope to teach English and Maths to the higher classes and spoken English to our teachers. Most of them time we speak in Marathi (the local language) or in Hindi (the national language).

I am living in a first-floor flat with another Jesuit priest, Fr. Bob (Robert) Menezes, in a 4-storey building 5 minutes from Kalwa Railway Station and just opposite the 7-storey building in which we have our main office, on the 5th floor,  where Fr. Trevor resides in the adjoining flat. From the 5th floor we are lucky to have a soothing view of the beautiful hill behind the Kalwa Railway Station. The three of us also help out with Masses and various Church services in the parishes and convents in the surrounding areas along the Central Railway. Some of the scenes we witness daily are not very different from those in the Oscar-winning film, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.  I have already come to like the work and the people we are working with, the flat in which I live, and the surroundings. We have simple, mostly vegetarian food, while the work we do is satisfying. I feel quite relaxed, as there is much less tension and responsibility than in a large and complex parish. 
Fr. JOE M DIAS, S.J. 
Mumbai, India