Every day, Aseem Asha Usman, 34, a resident of Jamia Nagar area in Delhi follows a busy schedule. Starting early afternoon, he holds art classes, computer classes, photography and videography training for neighbourhood children at his home-cum-centre. Few hours later, he travels all the way to Seelampur to teach girl students the same skills. This has been the daily routine for Aseem for the last five years, when he started Aseem Asha Foundation.
Aseem, a post graduate in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia and a cultural festival organiser, started this foundation after his experience with few orphans who were Godhra carnage victims. They were sheltered in Batla House area and Aseem taught them drawing and introduced them to Sufi music. The change he witnessed in these children prompted him to continue giving formal training to other children in his area and Seelampur.
“I saw the change in their lives. They were content and stable. It was then that I thought I should give the same training to other children who otherwise have no means to gain extra knowledge,” says Aseem.
He had worked with people like Muzaffar Ali, Jatin Das and AR Rahman prior to this initiative. “All these people taught me the significance of art in some way or the other. I decided to implement the same in all the programmes I conduct,” says he.
Aseem introduced two programmes under his foundation. “One is community media initiative and the other is Flying Birds India. Community media initiative is about educating girls in Seelampur, who are from reserved sections and don’t know much about the outside world. We teach them computers and culture and highlight the significance of communal harmony. We do it through the medium of art, like painting, music, drawing, rangoli, henna and filmmaking. Flying Birds India is about teaching photography and videography. It is for students in the Jamia Nagar area. Many of them were school drop-outs but then they enrolled themselves back in school after getting guidance. Now, some of them are even getting scholarships to further their skills,” says Aseem.
Aseem’s students use a simple digital camera and a handycam for making documentaries and films. They have made short movies on social issues, shot photographs, spread the message of communal harmony and have addressed various conferences at different levels. Some of the issues that his students have addressed include domestic violence, gender discrimination, water scarcity and malaria. “One of my students, Mushtaq, started coming to the centre to learn computers and filmmaking. He has become so good at filmmaking that he makes complete movies,” says Aseem.
Mushtaq’s movie on water scarcity went to a number of film festivals and has recently been invited to the Seventh Film Festival on Water Issues. His movie on malaria was screened at many hospitals and now they are about to complete a song-video on the life of AR Rahman where the song is sung by Sufi singer Rashmi Agarwal.