India’s forgotten children are living on meager subsistence in rural tribal villages. They live hours away from access to clean water or education. Generational poverty and an unrelenting caste system create little opportunity for children to have a better life than their parents.
Nutrition and education are urgent issues in India:
- 47% of young children in India are malnourished (UNICEF)
- 74% of children below three years of age are anemic (UNICEF)
- 1 in 3 people in lower classes are literate (Asia Times)
- Nearly 1 in 5 children nationwide are laborers and not attending school (Orphan Outreach and UNICEF)
The government and a number of non-governmental organizations are seeking to provide food and education to India’s impoverished rural families, but the need continues to outweigh the help. Families in the Lasina community are primarily tribal with little to no knowledge of the person and work of Jesus Christ – yet they are eager to send their children to our school where English is spoken and taught. Children who attend our school would otherwise have no access to education and would most likely join their parents at work. In this area of the country, children as young as five will work all day in labor intensive work, such as picking cotton or making bricks by hand.
In Lasina we offer a vocational school and currently teach young people from local villages Microsoft Office and tailoring. Without these skills, these kids would probably end up as farm laborers earning about $3 per day. Lasina is a very rural village and we are the only option for vocational training close by.
In the slums of Mumbai, India, many of the women and children earn a meager living by picking rags from the dump and selling them. They are vulnerable to human trafficking, disease, and malnutrition. We offer sewing classes for women to help them better provide for their families and a day school with a meal for children who would otherwise have no hope of education.