A country can only progress when its rural areas gets adequate facilities to live a decent life. Though the urban areas of many cities in India are showing rapid growth and progress with time, there has been very little difference in the rural areas.
Amidst these circumstances, 35 year old Marta Vanduzer-Snow, who hails from Boston, United States of America, has been selflessly building toilets and roads in two villages in Uttar Pradesh, Rae Bareli and Amethi. Interestingly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are the MPs of Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies respectively.
Marta has built 82 low-cost evapotranspiration toilets in homes and 1 in a school, one 10 feet wide & 400 feet long road which is one of the area’s first permeable roads. She is also carrying out various projects in these areas, in the fields of education, transportation, agriculture, health etc.
This indeed is a remarkable gesture from this lady, who came out selflessly in aid for a place with which she never had any connection previously. The best part about this entire thing is, the expenditure of all these projects is being carried out by one individual, herself.
“I spent my 20s thinking and working for social change from a desk, as a researcher, and at a policy level. These past few years, working with my hands, seeing what has been made at the end of the day is its own, is an incredibly special reward.”
“The contribution made from a day’s work is clear. I first came to India in 2004 for a book project; it was an honor and tremendous privilege to learn from some of India’s leading minds. Years later, knowing I wanted to develop this idea, I thought India would be the perfect place“, says Marta.
Many of you might think why is she doing all this in India, coming all the way from United States. For that, she said “I could do very little back home compared to what I am doing and can do, here in India due to the dollar value. India gives me the opportunity to touch people’s lives in a much greater scale. So I just packed my bags and moved.
“I feel it’s irrelevant where, but as long as I can do my bit of contribution to make this world a better place to live in, I think my job is done“, she says with all her passion.”
