1st January 2020 gives TARA its new Director

Pascal Fautrat, Founder and Director of TARA who dedicated 13 years of his life to the programs has decided to retire from his role of Director after much introspection. Our Deputy Director Caroline aka Basanti accepted to take over the position, starting from 1st January. As Pascal and Basanti have been working together for many years now, the transition is happening smoothly and positively. Pascal wishes to join the Administrative Council of CHAYA France and shall visit TARA very regularly to keep leading the team and stay in touch with the children who are very close to his heart.

The Journey from Caroline to Basanti

Often on our website, we talk about the growth of the children placed under our care but TARA also enables adult to grow! So here’s the journey of Basanti who came to us in the year 2010 and is successing Pascal as the new Director of TARA:

“I remember the first day at TARA in 2010. I arrived in the middle of the staff meeting in the afternoon: four people were putting out their energy, their knowledge and their professionalism to change the life of 16 boys. I was welcomed warmly and was assigned a mission right away. I came to TARA for an internship as a part of my academics at Sciences Po Toulouse. I wanted to have a concrete international experience. I felt satisfied! Everything was making sense: the mission, the ethics, the organisation. I had the possibility to do something really useful in this world. The experience lasted for six months and it ended up changing my life. I came back to France just to realise that I have finally found my way. I finished my studies from Sciences Po Toulouse and then I shifted to study social work. This provoked several reactions from people around me who were quite surprised on my decision.

I visited TARA as much as I could during my studies. Post this period, I received a job proposal to become Program Manager in 2014. I felt relieved and rewarded as I had worked for many years just to achieve this. After receiving my employment visa, I went to New Delhi to establish TARA Girls. I also took care of TARA Big Birds, our program working towards the betterment of children who have been with us since their childhood and have turned 18. The team I set up at TARA Girls was able to function on their own without my assistance and hence, I took over TARA Boys in 2016. With time, I became a person upon whom Pascal can rely for the smooth functioning of TARA: his right arm. I was able to familiarise myself with the different Homes. This understanding led to the start of a new preventive project called TARA Outreach Centre. This day-care centre helped TARA to expand the tools used for the children in its Homes." 

You become forever responsible for that which you have tamed (Saint Exupery)

Pascal, our founder is delighted with this change: " I will always be and remain the Founder of TARA but I am happy to delegate the direction of the organisation. This change allows me to take some much-needed rest. One cannot imagine how being the Director of a local NGO for child protection, running 24/7, can be demanding at all levels: professionally, intellectually, emotionally, personally, spiritually… It’s the time for me to leave India, although I will stay active for TARA and the children and I will keep coming to meet this incredible, joyful, crazy, inspirational family which I have founded and towards which I have an eternal responsibility."

Basanti has happily accepted to take over as the director and understands the seriousness of the position. It’s a huge responsibility, a great honour, a commitment and a chance to lead a unique project which not only protects and changes lives but also has the magic power to fulfil the heart and soul.” We wish Basanti and Pascal the very best in their new missions at TARA.

Venue of Ms. Brune Poirson

November 4th was an eventful day at TARA. It’s not every day that we welcome a Minister and what made this occasion even more memorable was that she used to be a volunteer at TARA!  

Ms. Brune Poirson, Secretary of State to the French Minister of Ecological and Solidarity Transition and Vice-President of the UN Environment Assembly visited TARA Boys during her official trip to India in November 2019. It was an absolute privilege to have her again with us. 

We at TARA empower our children to not just have a life of the ordinary but to strive for the best and nothing sets a better example of this than a former volunteer becoming a member of the French government.

Here’s a short testimony of one of the children: “Brune M’am is very kind and funny. She was impressed with our new home and she liked the card which we made for her. She was interested by our Values Hall. We tried to impress her by speaking in French!”

Ms. Poirson came to TARA after 10 years. She was pleased to see that TARA had grown over the years, from a single home for 16 boys out of school to a range of various programs for vulnerable children of all ages: 3 children’s homes, one after care for young adults and an outreach program. She showed keen interest in understanding our challenges, our vision and expressed her continuous support towards our action.

We would like to sincerely thank Ms. Poirson for taking time out of her hectic schedule for TARA and being an inspiring example of courage, humility and success.

On 20 November, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

TARA was present during the evening organized by the Dynamics "From the Convention to the Acts! "composed of about thirty French associations working in favor of children's rights. During this wonderful evening at the Museum of Fairground Arts in Paris, the 12 acts and recommendations drafted during the year 2019 by all members were handed over to the political personalities present.

At TARA, we support this movement! We hope that France can also act internationally in favor of children's rights and we are working in this direction through the application of Act 7, for example, so that the child's voice is "heard, taken into account and respected in all stages of life".

Thank you for this fundamental work, let us now move on together from the convention to acts!

Here you can find the 12 acts drafted during the Convention of the United Nations related to Children’s Rights:

1) France has adopted a comprehensive and cross-cutting strategy for children in order to ensure the effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child through its public policies.

2) France makes effective the right to quality education for every child.

3) France makes effective access to leisure, holidays and culture for every child.

4) France coordinates all its public policies with the requirement to preserve and restore the environment to enable children to live in a healthy and unpolluted environment.

5) France is strengthening the specific nature of children's justice, in particular by guaranteeing the primacy of education over repression.

6) France allows every child to have an identity recognized and registered at the civil registry office with an unconditional right of access.

7) France ensures that the child's voice is heard, taken into account and respected in all stages of his life.

8) France integrates the principle of participation of every child and young person in the development, implementation and monitoring of public policies.

9) France guarantees dignified living conditions and an unconditional welcome for every child and prevents situations of vulnerability such as extreme poverty and poor housing.

10) France is implementing an integrated policy to prevent all kinds of violence against children.

11) The rights-based approach is becoming the cornerstone of the child protection system.

12) France enables every child to live in good health and promotes the well-being of everyone at all ages.