How it all began?

I (Atousa) was invited to a charity event in Milton Keynes, where i was introduced to an Indian based charity. This charity was one like i had never heard about before. They would ask retired career women and house wives to dedicate one room in their homes to 'street children'.Street children are children who are from very poor backgrounds whose parents do not have the means to educate them and so they do not go to school. These women educate the children in very basic life skills such how to get dressed, how to eat, how to pray and other very basic things.

i was so touched by what i saw and started thinking when ever will these children learn about more interesting things like, Space Physics, Biology, Literature? It was at this point that i felt i could make a change by creating a dream.

I have followed my own dream since i was a child and so i believe having a dream is very important. I believe the dream you choose to follow as a child can change your future. I remember when i was a little girl my mother would tell me stories of historical figures like Great Dariush, the Great King of Persia. My dream was to meet those people so i asked my mother how i can meet them, she said one thing which shaped my life. she said i could meet these people if i invented a time machine.

Inventing a time machine became my dream. All the decisions i made in my life thereafter were based on this dream.

i am planning to go to India taking the worm's eye view approach. What i essentially mean is, i do not expect to make a huge difference such as change the whole educational system of India, all i want is to do is inspire at least one dream in at least one child.

i was having coffee in one of Leicester's relaxing venues!, when me and a friend got chatting. Harj was as exited as i was when she heard about what i was planning. she said she would like to come with me but i thought she didn't mean it as many people before had said the same thing. But Harj was definitely serious. we spend the next few weeks discussing and throwing ideas around until finally we came up with a concrete plan and everything looked like it was going ahead.

What is it all about?

This is about the passion of two very active and compassionate individuals who have been lucky enough to have the opportunities in life to succeed, we feel it is important to help those who are less fortunate in the world, as so much talent is going unrecognized through no fault of their own. We come from two very different backgrounds one from the field of Science and one from the field of Criminology.

Atousa Goudarzi is a final year PhD student in Radio and Space Plasma Physics group at the University of Leicester. She is working on the effects of solar wind on the Earth magnetosphere. Her contribution to the project will be to train and educate teachers and students respectively in the subject of Space Physics.

Harjeet Chakira is a postgraduate in Clinical Criminology from the University of Leicester. She is currently working in the field of domestic violence with Asian women and children. Her contribution to the project will be to visit young women studying in colleges and universities and highlight the issue of domestic violence, its nature, extent and effects in the UK and other countries.
we are planning to do a bit of traveling, mainly to third world countries and offer our expertise for free.

In order to take the first step we are planning to travel to India on first of January 2007.

Why India?