A
drop in the ocean. In the grand scheme of things, that
may be a fair characterization of the work we do. In
spite of the staggering economic growth experienced
in recent years, India is still home to millions of
indigent children. Many of them — according to
some estimates, 18 million of them — are forced
to live in the streets by the loss of their loved ones,
the breakdown of their families, or simply because they
no longer could endure the abuses inflicted upon them
by parents, relatives, and employers. Many more —
all too often illiterate, sick, and malnourished —
live in neglect in the miserable makeshift homes made
of scrap plastic, tarp, and mud that litter the landscape
of every Indian city. Clearly, the problem is so inveterate
and so ubiquitous that appreciable social change lies
well beyond the reach of any humanitarian organization.
However, for each individual child — the drops
in this especially dark, deep ocean — humanitarian
assistance is the difference between a life of misery
and despair and a fulfilling, self-affirming life lived
as a productive member of the local community. Our intervention
is designed to snap the self-reinforcing cycle of poverty,
ignorance, and disease — one life, one child,
one family at a time.
Read
More>>
|