Poverty At Its Worst

Another busy day on July 29, 2011. We drove to the new children's home supported by Back2Back Ministries called Peace Home. These children are mainly girls and from the rural areas of India, which happen to be the poorest. To start we took their weights and heights to keep track of their growth for every time a group goes to India. We tried to get birthdays written down for each child but many of them didn't even know when it was so we just had to estimate the ages. That really struck me. I had never thought about someone not knowing when his/her birthday was. The next step was to take pictures of each children for the child sponsorship program that the organization coordinates. Hardly any of the girls would smile and I was informed this was because they were very intimidated. They had never seen white people, cameras, etc. before. We had them decorate picture frames like we had done at House of Compassion. They were all so timid to do anything.

Arriving at Peace Home

Peace Home Group Photo

Secret Handshake

Since Peace Home is located at the school the children attend, the principal gave us a tour of the school. Many other children attend the school including the Eternal Joy kids we saw the first day in India. It was so much more advanced than anything we had seen in India. There was a computer lab, library, and science lab. Each student has an I.D. card in case they don't remember their address for transportation.

View From Atop the Peace Home School

Library at School

Next we went to the slums area of Hyderabad to visit the feeding center Back2Back supports. It is called Christ for All Feeding Center. It provides one meal a day for the children. It consists of rice with a dal sauce. The meal is served at around 5pm and sometimes the children line up at 2pm because they are so hungry. All of the children there were so happy to see us. It was very messy at the feeding center. The bugs were terrible because of all the trash in the slums. It is very eye-opening to see that these kids live in the trash. They pick through it to see if there is anything they can sell or eat. That is true poverty at its worst.

Slums

Homes in Slums

Slum Children

We got to do an activity with the 100 or so kids. We gave them salvation bracelets. They loved them! They never get anything so this was special for them. After that they ate their one meal for the day. We talked to some of them to make a connection. I met some boys named Balu and Carti. I taught them hand games which they enjoyed. I taught Balu how to hug. He was hugging everyone after that. He never gets affection so it was a way for him to be close to people. All of them just want to be loved.

Feeding Center Meal

Beautiful Children

Balu, Carti, Another Friend, and Me

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to them. Balu kept coming to me and giving me hugs. We loaded in the bus and he came to the window I was at and waved bye as we drove off. It's very hard to say bye to these children. Society casts them as unworthy, untouchable, etc. They are humans and God loves them.

That concluded our day with the children. We went back to the hotel, had dinner, debriefed, and went to bed.