(Photo courtesy India Partners via Facebook)
India (MNN) — Nearly half of India’s population drops out of school by age 13, and only a tenth of people receive job training, according to the World Bank. This has added to the poverty consuming the country. India Partners wants to break that cycle, starting with the most vulnerable: kids.
Tens of millions of children are orphaned in India, and even more have lost one parent to death or abandonment. These children are called “semi-orphans.” They live in slums and rarely have opportunity for an education. “Financially, the family can’t give or provide them an education or enough food or clothing,” says Jennifer Heacock of India Partners.
32.7% of the Indian population lives off of $1.25USD or less every day, according to the World Food Programme (WFP),
To put it in perspective, imagine having to choose which child to feed. This is often the case in impoverished areas of India.
To help kids overcome these odds, India Partners children’s homes provide sanctuary for sponsored orphans or semi-orphans. “When they come into these homes, they can receive good food, care, education, go to school, and hopefully break that cycle of poverty in their life,” Heacock says. One of India Partners’ goals is to provide the tools for self-sufficiency.
Recently, donors of India Partners began supporting 16 kids who hadn’t been able to receive sponsorship or had lost their sponsors. It takes just $35 a month to give these children a second chance.
“We have several children’s homes right now that are expanding and growing,” Heacock explains. “It’s very important that we have a good base of sponsorship so that more children can receive education, food, and care.”
Currently, India Partners has 25 children in the system waiting for sponsors, and the ministry hopes to help even more. They want each child to live up to their full potential and most of all, to fix their eyes on Jesus.
In the children’s homes, workers “do morning prayer and Bible study and devotions with the kids,” says Heacock. In addition, the children also “regularly go to Sunday school and attend church services. That’s part of the program.”
Heacock says children aren’t forced to become Christians to be in the sponsorship program, but India Partners does want them to be exposed to God’s Word and have the choice to know the Savior.
Sponsoring a child is a commitment to aid, encourage, and share the hope of Christ. It makes an eternal difference, one child at a time. You may be the difference between penniless and prosperous, unreached and reached. With an affordable $35 a month, you can be the difference.
