Monday, May 14, 2012
India: Final phase of solar-powered, cyclone-proof orphanage school facility now complete
With the opening of a spacious new kitchen and multi-purpose dining hall on the second level of the new school building, our India orphanage is now enjoying the many benefits of this solar-powered, cyclone-proof facility. The on-campus school building was constructed according to government regulations and will allow us to keep our school's official accreditation. Our 72 children and 10 staff members are overjoyed at the completion of the facility, which has been a work in progress for 14 months.
With the location of our orphanage campus on a coastal area of southeastern India, we deal with some aggressive extremes: frequent power outages, intense heat, and fierce cyclones that blow in from the Bay of Bengal. Thus we needed an upgrade to our facilities to provide refuge from these brutal storms, and relief from the frequent power blackouts. Over the course of the past 9 years we've slowly replaced our original sod and brick structures with steel and concrete buildings that are built to withstand even the most severe cyclones. Another work in progress has been raising the level of the entire campus to be flood-resistant. Along with the opening of the second level of the school building, we brought in several loads of dirt to further heighten the courtyard directly in front of the school, adding a small retaining wall to secure this new elevated play and assembly area.
Our plan of attack on the power outages has been more recent, starting with an experimental phase in 2010 and then outfitting the orphanage building with a complete solar package late last year. Now a second array has been successfully installed on the new school building structure as well, freeing the entire campus from dependency on the sporadic local power grid. This solves one of India's harshest ironies: power outages most frequently hit during the hottest points of the day, when you need electric fans the most. Thankfully another thing that's abundant during intense heat is... you guessed it, sunlight. Thus this abundance of sunshine in South India provides our solar arrays with a very productive output when it's needed most.
Thanks to our facilities' cyclone-proof and flood-resistant upgrades, we've added another point to the list of outreaches our campus provides: the entire local village has been able to seek refuge in our chapel and dining hall common areas during severe storms. When coupled with our community outreach clinic and full-time doctor making himself available to the needs of the locals, our team in South India has truly become a beacon of hope for a community which otherwise finds itself in disarray and despair during times of crisis.
Take Action:
[ sponsor an orphan in India for only $29/month ]
[ be an Orphan Advocate: donate your Facebook or Twitter status once monthly ]
[ shop Amazon through this link, we get 7% of every order ]
Labels: India
Friday, May 11, 2012
Sex trafficking rehabilitation center opened in Nepal with 10 rescued women; 6 young girls taken into orphanage
Our native team in Kathmandu recently opened a new rehabilitation center for victims of sex trafficking, rescued from the brothels of Mumbai where they were held against their will. The goal of the program is to bring these young women to a safe place where they can receive counseling on a road to restoration and recovery, while learning valuable skills that will help them achieve financial independence as they reintegrate into society. Our new facility is equipped to house 20 rescued women; we have 10 with us now, age 16-30, and many are HIV positive. Our program includes medical care provided by taking the women to a local private hospital in Kathmandu for ongoing treatment.
As more funds come in, we will be able to increase to full capacity. We offer the women a place to live in a nurturing support-based environment. Our staff has trained female counselors who oversee the day to day operation of the program. All meals and expenses to stay at the center are covered for a period of at least six months, until the women can be successfully employed or reunited with relatives in their native villages. An integral part of the program is to provide craft-making and seamstress skill training so they will have a reliable source of income upon departing the program. Bible study is offered to those interested in participating to bring a spiritual component to their healing process. Women from our team's home church in Kathmandu are among the volunteers.
This initiative is in addition to our existing slum outreach and orphan care programs which have already been successfully rescuing and caring for children who are at extreme risk of trafficking. In many cases we are freeing them directly from child labor or slavery situations. Last month, we took in 6 more Nepali orphan girls from villages near the Indian border.
Their stories are tragic and many deal with deep emotional wounds, but slowly they are finding happiness in their new loving family environment. Young orphan girls are sadly easy targets of traffickers due to the fact that relatives they are living with often view them as a burden. So for their relatives to get an offer where they're led to believe the girl is going to get a good job is very tempting. We're very excited to bring in these 6 young girls because of the safety and new life we're able to offer them. To us, it's 6 fewer girls who could end up victims of sex traffickers. And it's all possible thanks to the generosity of our donors and funds being multiplied at our farmland enterprise.
Take Action:
[ donate toward our anti-trafficking fund for urgent needs ]
[ sponsor an orphan at our Nepal orphanage for $29/mo. ]
[ be an Orphan Advocate: donate your Facebook or Twitter status once monthly ]
[ shop Amazon through this link, we get 7% of every order ]
Labels: Nepal
Friday, May 4, 2012
Widow's craft-business development program enjoys continued success in the Philippines
Our native team in the Philippines have seen continued success with their empowering effort to train and equip impoverished widows with viable small businesses. The program includes ongoing training in basket, broom and placemat weaving skills provided by a volunteer teacher from our team's local church. A wholesale buyer in the city has come to appreciate the high quality craftsmanship of our program participants' work, and is placing orders for their products on a regular basis.
The widows enrolled in our program earn up to $150 per month depending on how many pieces they complete. For this part of the world, this amount is enough for a widow to live off of, providing adequate funds for her and her children. It's quite a contrast to their previous lives, where most were working seasonal field labor for a fraction of the income.
As the women can work from home at their own pace after their training is complete, they're also able to spend more time with their children. The empowerment the program is providing allows the widows more financial independence. Thus they're less likely to take their children out of school for potentially life-threatening child labor jobs.
Rather than send the women back to their villages with little more than a skill and some start-up supplies, our team is coordinating ongoing sales and raw material restocking. The approach is that of a co-op wherein the participants are guaranteed a certain rate for each piece completed, while a portion of profits from the entire group's sales are used to secure the weaving supplies needed to continue the process.
This way our leadership can ensure that the women will always have a supply of orders and craft materials-- something they would have difficulty managing on their own. The only thing they must provide is a teachable spirit, able hands and a finished quality product. We're so impressed with the success of the project that we're already beginning to take the lessons learned here to our other women's craft business programs in Nepal, India, Chad and Uganda.
We currently have 11 graduates participating in the co-op and 14 in training, with several on the wait list until more funds can be provided. Please consider a gift of $18 or more for a share of a widow's craft business sponsorship, or a gift of $90 for a full share. This is an opportunity to see your small gift exponentially multiplied, resulting in radical life-change and safety for a widow and her family.
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Labels: Philippines
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Uganda farmland enjoys bumper harvest of potatoes and vegetables, expansion planned
Our farmland enterprise project in Uganda includes 3 acres of organic crops and a piggery. From its yield we're able to stock the orphanage kitchen and sell excess for program funding. Our programs in Uganda include an orphanage and orphan care outreach, a rural clinic, two schools educating over 100 children, a women's craft-business school and co-op, and a community water well which provides safe drinking water for over 10,000 area villagers per day.
We're pleased to report that the recent harvest has brought in a very abundant crop of potatoes (over 15,000 pounds), along with a variety of other indigenous vegetables. These foods will provide hundreds of nutrient-rich, fresh meals for the orphans and students on our base. Profits earned from the sale of excess fresh vegetables will go toward school supplies for the children. As a result, our farmland continues to provide a sustainable win-win: nutritious, organic ingredients for the children's meals and funding multiplication for our program needs... all in a way that creates ownership and empowerment for our native director, his staff and volunteers.
We now have an opportunity to purchase three additional acres located directly adjacent to our existing property. Donations made toward the farmland expansion will be multiplied exponentially for years to come. Please consider how even a small contribution toward this project will make a very significant, life-changing impact among those we're serving.
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Labels: Uganda
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Philippines cyclone recovery complete; Girl's home residents say, "Thank you!"
We're happy to report that our Philippines Girl's Home has been fully repaired and renovated. The new center is now much stronger and will be able to withstand future cyclone storms. During the repairs we were also able to wrap up the expansion of the home and are planning to bring in 6 more orphan girls in the near future.
Our hen house operation continues to grow as well. Now with over 300 hens laying up to 24 dozen eggs per day, profits continue to increase, not to mention the steady flow of free protein into the diets of the girls, our staff and volunteers. We're so grateful to all who helped financially with this recovery and/or helped to spread the word of the need. Thank you!
Take Action:
[ Sponsor this child in the Philippines today, for only $24/mo. ]
[ Sponsor 5 new chicks at the hen house for only $20 ]
[ Be an orphan advocate: donate your facebook status ]
Labels: Philippines
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Republic of Chad: latest literacy & seamstress business training program empowers 20 widows and child-mothers
Our native team is working tirelessly to create sustainable life-change among orphans and destitute women in one of the poorest nations on earth. In a North African country constantly beset with difficulties such as droughts, civil wars and corruption, it's nearly impossible to break out of the cycle of extreme poverty.
However, it's not for a lack of desire or motivation. The people of Chad are very resilient and resourceful. Women walk up to 20 miles per day just to get water and firewood for their cooking. It's usually more for a lack of opportunity. That's where our seamstress business program comes in, to offer destitute women an opportunity to learn how to read, write and use a sewing machine— basic tools needed for these women to start a small business and gain much-needed stability.
In the latest news from our Chadian program, we're pleased to report that 20 women are enrolled in the latest session of our seamstress business school. The women participating in our program are either widows or "child mothers": girls as young as 13 or 14 who are already mothers. Parents are often marrying off their daughters as young as age 12 due to tribal arrangements or other cultural circumstances. These young mothers are especially susceptible to extreme poverty because they lack education and are forced into menial, low-paying labor situations to try to provide what they can for their children, and all too often, into the darkness of prostitution.
In overseeing several such women's small business training programs in Asia and Africa, we've learned that there must be a sense of community involved in the effort. Women end up making lasting friendships during the training, and a network of support and encouragement is created as a result. To simply teach a woman how to use a sewing machine, give her the tools and then send her out on her own, is not enough to ensure her success. So the graduates are taught the importance of keeping in touch with each other and to check up on one another. If one woman needs to borrow some supplies from another who's having a better month, then there's that network already in place for a kind of cooperative effort in the community that's established.
Funding for the program is generated in part by small businesses with which we've equipped our native team: a goat, cattle and pigeon farm, a solar-powered cell phone charging business, rental properties and even a streetside cafe. Through these efforts, our native team is taking ownership in their programs to make a greater impact in the lives of their own neighbors.
Take Action:
[ sponsor a widow's seamstress business for just $129 ]
[ sponsor an orphan in Chad for just $24/mo. ]
[ empower this work by sponsoring a goat at the farmland, just $20 ]
[ donate your Facebook status: be an Orphan Advocate ]
Labels: Chad
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Fight against sex trafficking to expand; Mumbai brothel rescue, Nepal rehabilitation center planned
We've been burdened by stories we continue to receive from our native teams regarding human trafficking, especially in the realm of sex trafficking. It's a very real tragedy our teams have encountered first-hand in India, Nepal, Myanmar, The Philippines, Uganda and Chad.
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. —Psalm 82:3-4
Inspired by the commands of this scripture and others like it, over the past two years we've been developing a strategy to attack the crisis head-on. Specifically, this report will update you on our plans to escalate our sex trafficking prevention efforts in India and Nepal. These initiatives are in addition to our existing slum outreach and orphan care programs which have already been successfully rescuing and caring for children who are at extreme risk of trafficking, and in many cases freed directly from child labor or slavery situations.
Our native workers in India and Nepal are in a unique position to offer aid to women trafficked against their will, forced to become prostitutes in the notorious brothels of Mumbai. The majority of women trapped into forced prostitution in India originate from the villages of Nepal.
One method used by the traffickers is to lure young women and teenage girls with the promise of jobs in the big city. Parents willingly send their daughters thinking they will be able to send back funds earned from their jobs. Of course orphans under the care of relatives are at the highest risk for being sent along with the traffickers. In many other cases, sadly, girls are either kidnapped outright, or sold into slavery for one-time cash payments due to the desperation of destitute parents.
For over a year now our native team in Nepal has been conducting human trafficking awareness campaigns in dozens of the villages known to be targeted by the traffickers. The traffickers prey on the villages along the India-Nepal border, as it is easiest for them to make it across the unguarded stretches of the border in those areas. Villages further north are less likely to be targeted because of the distance and difficult terrain the traffickers must travel to successfully reach the Indian border without being discovered by the authorities.
Our teams are going door to door and holding open air meetings in the villages, educating the villagers of the tricks and tactics of the traffickers. Villagers have been shocked to discover the realities of forced prostitution, and we believe our efforts are making a substantial difference.
However we feel called to do more. It has become clear that our next steps will lead us to direct involvement in rescuing trapped Nepali girls from the Mumbai brothels, and then offering rehabilitation for the girls who are rescued. Thankfully, the tide is turning on the previously indifferent Indian government participation in the crackdowns of these operations, and more and more Nepali girls are being freed from their captors. We are sad to report that many of the freed girls have no where to go and end up right back in the same trap within weeks or even days.
We've established contact with Nepali friends living in Mumbai who are well acquainted with the situation. With the cooperation of our new friends in Mumbai and the Indian police, we have confirmed that there is an immediate need of placement of rescued girls into rehabilitation. Our strategy will be to provide tips for the Indian police that only persons of Nepali origin would have awareness of. In addition, it will be to our advantage that our Nepal team will be able to speak with the rescued girls in their native language.
As there is an immediate need for placement of rescued girls into rehabilitation, we have already made plans to rent a facility in Kathmandu where we will outfit a new center to house up to 20 rescued girls. Our staff has already begun training female counselors who will oversee the day to day operation of the program.
We will offer the women a place to live in a nurturing support-based environment. All meals and expenses to stay at the center will be covered for a period of at least six months, until the women can be successfully employed or reunited with relatives in their native villages. Bible study will be offered to those interested in participating. Women from our team's home church in Kathmandu will be among the volunteers.
We've set a financial goal of $55,000 to equip us for these new programs. Funds will be used to cover travel and other expenses for members of our Nepal and India teams to operate successfully in Mumbai, and to outfit and cover the first six months' operating expenses of the new rehabilitation center in Kathmandu, Nepal. Additionally, the funds will be used to acquire a new four-wheel drive vehicle to expand our reach among the villages of Nepal.
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Women in our Uganda craft business program eagerly await new training center
The women of the rural community we serve in southeastern Uganda have been gifted with very resilient, hard-working and determined spirits. However they lack two important ingredients in putting these gifts into action: capital and training. Seizing on the potential we see in these amazing women, we're equipping them with training and basic supplies to start small craft businesses.
They're making beautifully crafted, in-demand products such as wicker baskets, sleeping mats and brooms. A gift of just $79 can commission one of these women into a profitable business, empowering her with the ability to supplement her family's income. More importantly, by assisting in the launch of her new business, we give her the gift of self-confidence and fulfillment in utilizing her talent and ability.
Although successful, the program is severely hindered by lack of adequate training space and proper equipment. So earlier this year a vision unfolded to provide them with more adequate space and equipment. The construction project for the new training center was begun in August but without a roof and finishings, the existing work is at risk of structural decay as the rainy season approaches. In fact there are already some repairs that will need to be made from exposure to rainstorms we experienced in November.
Thus we're in urgent need of $18,500 to complete the craft business center for these widows and impoverished women [donate toward this fund]. This figure includes machinery and supplies our students need to enhance their training and launch more effective businesses; an amazing cost-to-impact ratio that will continue to empower women for years to come!
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Labels: Uganda
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Philippines cyclone leaves girl's home in disarray; newly expanded hen house survives
A recent cyclone inflicted serious damage to our girl's home orphanage and staff quarters on the Philippine island of Cebu. Fortunately everyone is safe and our newly-expanded hen house was spared any major damage. Repairs are already underway, using capital taken from our emergency fund. However we do not maintain a large emergency fund and still lack $8,600 to complete the repairs. We are urgently seeking these funds to repair and strengthen the structure in preparation for future storms.
Our native team on the island of Cebu have been making a difference in the lives of those affected by extreme poverty for over 10 years. Our work of reaching orphans, destitute children and at-risk widows in the Philippines is being sustained and multiplied by a hen house project. Recently, funds were provided for the addition of a second level on the hen house, doubling our capacity and egg production potential.
As we reach an average of 400 children monthly through our children's outreach program, we've encountered orphan girls who are victims of child labor or slavery situations. In response to this tragic realization, our native team has provided refuge for a handful of these girls through the girl's home orphanage.
This effort to rescue orphan girls from tragic circumstances has been made possible by a combination of orphan sponsorships and the success of our native team's hen house. For other orphans we've encountered who are living with relatives, we're also offering education supplies and scholarships. Please review the 'take action' links below to learn more about how you can get involved.
Although we are discouraged by the recent damages, we are thankful that the girls, our staff, and all of the residents of the local communities we serve were able to survive the cyclone. We also remain hopeful that funds will be provided soon and that the girl's home will come out stronger and safer in the long-term.
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Labels: Philippines
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
India orphanage gets relief from frequent power outages and high electricity bills
Empowered! Around this time last year we announced a new initiative to bring solar power to our orphanages. We started this process with the addition of small solar arrays at our India and Chad project sites. Nathan Adair, a regular reader of the Peace Gospel blog, was intrigued by the story and wanted to help. So he started doing his own research as part of his MBA, to help us ascertain the best way to expand our solar-power system at our India campus. He started a blog and began to help with an effort to raise the funds needed for the project.
Several months later we're happy to report that the funds have been raised for the expanded solar solution, and one of the two solar arrays purchased has now been installed. It's working wonders in bringing relief from frequent power outages, not to mention resulting in a significant decrease in our electricity bill.
The second array will be installed on the new school building roof as soon as that building project is fully funded and completed. We're currently seeking donations to help with the completion of that project, which lacks only 15% of the total goal [help us reach our goal]. Once completed, the entire campus will be solar-powered for much of the day.
In addition to savings, this solar solution will power a charging station for special long-lasting, energy-efficient lamps which will be rented out to villagers in the nearby community. Throughout the year electricity can be very scarce in this region, and many have no electrical connections whatsoever. Thus we believe there will be great demand for our lanterns. This small business will further enhance our sustainability goals as well, through the income it will generate for the orphanage.
The solar solution rounds out a long list of projects designed to bring empowerment and sustainability to our India programs. Included in this list is our 12-acre farmland enterprise with its 240-tree orange orchard, a small dairy farm, a lentil harvest, and a productive vegetable and fruit-tree garden at the orphanage campus. These agricultural ventures provide funding for our programs while also helping to keep our orphanage pantry well-stocked.
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Labels: India
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