Big changes for children in India
Children in India, especially girls, are at great risk
Children where we serve often don’t have access to safe water or education. Children should be able to grow up knowing they are loved and special and being able to achieve their potential. Girls especially should not be at risk just being out in the community.
With the help of our supporters, we are helping bring change. Sanitation and education are the two best methods of improving people’s circumstances. For every dollar spent in these areas, a 4 times value improvement has been seen.*
Women are being trained for business
There are villages where most ladies have no work at all. They look after their cattle and children while men work, hopefully. In some Hindu castes and in tribal areas the ladies are forbidden from working.
The women also suffer because many of their husbands don’t work.
Many men are addicted to drugs or alcohol and most of their money is spent supporting their habit, not their family. Their wives and children often have insufficient food because of this.
Here is a solution. With empowerment and training these women can establish their own work and income so children are better cared for and fed. One way to do this is by training them in tailoring so the women learn how to stitch and sew clothing which can then be sold in the local stores or markets. They can also repair clothing for other families in their villages.
Read more about Siya’s special achievements.
Child Development Centres
When children can’t gain access to a school for their basic education, there is a problem. For these children, schools are unavailable. If there is a school in their vicinity the schools are either so expensive parents have no possible way of sending their children, or, the schools don’t want children whose education standard is low because they have not been to school. Both of these are badly impacting children.
The solution is a Child Development Center. Here the children will receive a basic education that prepares them for their future. Without these centers, children have little alternative but to just roam the village streets. But when they attend they receive guidance and teaching in a safe loving environment by teachers who value the students. And the children know this.
Safe Water Bores
Most of us don’t even think when we turn on the tap to fill a glass or wash our dishes. It’s so natural, we do it many times every day.
Without safe water, children are walking many kilometers every day to obtain water for their families. This also puts a strain on them attending any school or child development center.
We have been helping provide safe water bores, which are dug to a depth of 120 meters (400 feet) to reach the safe water table.
COVID-19 Food Aid
When COVID struck India millions were immediately out of work. The impact is still being felt in devastating ways. Families have been unemployed for months, they have sold what meager possessions they had, but for many, the cash has simply run out. They are day workers. If they don’t work today they have no income. They can’t buy food. Family cupboards are bare.
Over 7,000 free food parcels have been provided between March and October 2022 in India. As the need for direct COVID support declines we will consider aid to people who continue to suffer from the long term impact of COVID because children need food. Families come to one of our seven food distribution centers to receive this free care weekly.
How you can help
The greatest way you can physically help from a distance, wherever you are, is by sponsoring a child in India, making a general donation, or specifically donating for COVID-19 Food Aid. The process is easy and the impact is real.
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* A WHO study in 2012 calculated that for every US$ 1.00 invested in sanitation, there was a return of US$ 5.50 in lower health costs, more productivity, and fewer premature deaths.
