Helping Children in Southern India
|
Helping Children in Southern India |
|
|
The Streets of Salem are losing some of their younger inhabitants Like in many Indian Cities, children often become lost from a family environment, or cast out, for a wide variety of reasons - and become, what we have all heard about, Street Children. Even worse – could there be worse ? – many of these Street Children are girls. In Indian society girls are almost valueless, what does a girl do when she has no mother, no father, no relatives, or has a relative who beats her, or abuses her in other ways, to whom can she turn ? The truth is almost invariably, no one, so she becomes a lost person living on the streets. A girl is a liability within a family, so no Indian family will extend a helping hand to a girl who comes to them, with nothing ; it will cost valuable money to feed and cloth her and in time money to marry her off, so why take the responsibility ? In Salem there are many Street Children ; a project to help Street Boys in Salem had already been underway since 1987, but Street Girls … ! A very difficult problem. So a project was started by a Sr Joachim, an elderly teacher and Sr Arul Rani, a paramedical nurse, who focused their attention on the Street Girls. Their project started in 1997, but slowly, in 2002 a small shelter was built which provided protection and rehabilitation, but again, expansion was slow. There are now some eighty girls in the age group seven to twenty three, most being in their early `teens`, being cared for under this project. Recently Child Aid was notified of the project, named “ Amala Anbu Karangal “, which in translation means “ Immaculate Loving Hands “ ; can Child Aid help, was the plea ? It is a project very dear to our hearts so, without hesitation, we said that we would do everything we possibly could.
This is a delightful photograph of some of the rescued children ; let us give you some of their stories then you can see how delighted they must be coming from their old world, to a world they never knew existed. Child A : she lost her father and was brought up in her Uncle's house. She couldn't stand the bad treatment of her Aunt, so she ran away. Child B : she saw her father behead her mother, yes, and she was only five years old. Her father went to jail, she was looked after by her Uncle, but he could not give her the help she truly needed. Seven years later she has only just managed to speak ! Child C : her mother committed suicide by taking poison. Her father remarried but died. She could not stand her step mother's treatment so she ran away. Child D : one of four sisters, mother committed suicide, father died and was indebt to his landlord. The landlord took the girls to work to clear the debt, fortunately the District Collector found out and they were rescued. Does all of this sound unbelievable ? We agree, but it is true and there are `dozens` more stories of similar note. We haven't named the children, but they are four of the eighty girls being cared for today ... they need your help to continue their studies, the home also needs your help to continue with their excellent rescue work.
If you think you can help with a donation Click here, and scroll to the Donation Form If you would like to sponsor one of the children Click here and scroll to the Sponsorship Standing Order Form
|
