India (MNN) — There are 6,000 Indian children dying every day. India Partners is fighting one of those preventable causes–starvation. Reuters reported this year that the hunger rate in India has now exceeded that of sub-Saharan Africa.
That's why India Partners kicked off the Hungry Child Project this year by providing 50 children with lunch five days a week for a year, even during school holidays.
The children receiving the meals attend a Christian school run by Orphan's Faith Home, a ministry associated with India Partners. Though many of the children are not Christians, Brent Hample of India Partners says the food is a stepping stone to faith. "With healthy body and healthy minds, they are much more able to understand that God loves them and that God cares for them and their needs–even if it's a small meal during the day."
Not only does this food have an effect on individual spiritual journeys, it helps fight social issues. Because the school lunch may be the only meal many children have all day, this draws some to the school who otherwise would not come. "This is yet just another way to help get
the children into school and out of the fields or out of the warehouses where they may be taken advantage of with child labor," said Hample.
The meals are a step toward fighting staggering statistics. "Twenty-four percent of the children in
India do not attend elementary school. One out of four children do not get to first grade," said Hample.
These life-sustaining meals consist of rice, dhal (beans), an egg, vegetables, buttermilk, tamarind water, and sometimes a treat of cookies or fruit–and they cost just 85 cents each.
Click here and designate your gift for the Hungry Child Project to help fight hunger.
