The Promise | August 2017

ORPHAN’S PROMISE NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2017

children find hope within the slums

by Drew Friedrich, Orphan’s Promise Director of Marketing

T

hey say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and never has that been more true than in the slums of India, where millions of men, women and children survive by rummaging through piles of trash every day.

This is a foreign concept for those of us in the West. We throw hundreds and thousands of pounds of food away every month, and the thought of living off of someone else’s trash is repulsive.

Picking through trash is not the only thing we might find foreign in India.

The average family in India survives

on just $1,600 per year, with “rag picker” families falling far below that line. The kind of poverty that exists in India is unlike anything one might find anywhere else in the world.

Children are among those impacted most severely by family poverty, often forgoing their dreams of an education to stay home and help their families pick through trash in hopes of making ends meet. The inability to gain an education and better their circumstances all but guarantees that children living in the slums of India will repeat the cycle of poverty that plagued their parents.

The average family in India survives on just

$1,600 per year

ORPHAN’S PROMISE BELIEVES THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION FOR THESE CHILDREN. THEIR FUTURES DO NOT HAVE TO CONSIST OF TRASH DUMPS AND DESPERATE POVERTY. THROUGH OUR CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS (CDCs), WHICH OFFER NONFORMAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES TO CHILDREN IN THE SLUMS, WE ARE WITNESSING LIVES TRANSFORMED BY THE POWER OF HOPE.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER OVERVIEW CDCs meet after traditional school hours so that children can help their parents pick through trash during the school day, then attend classes in the evening. Students attending the development centers are taught that there is a God who loves them and has plans for their lives beyond the slums they are surrounded by.

In addition to learning about God’s love, children receive training in English, math, science, and Bible classes, all of which prepare them for life as young adults in India’s complex society.

Tim Daniell, Orphan’s Promise Project Manager for Asia-Pacific countries, recently shared how he has seen our education projects impact the children in India.

“

Whenever I ask our local India staff about the greatest needs of vulnerable children in their country, three areas they always emphasize are education, nutrition, and knowing a loving God. Orphan’s Promise is focusing on these areas and investing more into India than any other country in Asia. Through passionate churches and committed Christian partners, we support 18 CDCs across India. Many of the children who attend these centers had previously never gone to school because they had grown up working on trash dumps as child laborers, while others are from extremely poor families with illiterate parents.

Through Orphan’s Promise support, around 1,500 precious Indian children now have the opportunity—many for the first time—to improve their education, health and nutrition and hear about a loving Savior. Through these child development centers and schools, God is moving in the hearts, bodies and minds of India’s children to see generational cycles of poverty broken and replaced with new hope, opportunity and life.

”

Students who graduate from CDCs are able to dream big dreams because they understand that God has designed each of them for a specific plan and purpose that has nothing to do with what level of society they were born into.

When you give to Orphan’s Promise, you give hope to children around the world. Thank you for your partnership.

giving hope. promising love.

’ India is such an amazing place—an incredible mixture of sights, sounds and smells unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Its vibrant colors are juxtaposed with the darkness of poverty and a centuries-old caste system that keeps so many young people from reaching their potential.

With God’s guiding we’ve ventured into this complex society, offering hope and love to children and families in need. I’m so excited about what God is doing through Orphan’s Promise in India, and I hope after reading this newsletter, you are as well!

Blessings, Terry Meeuwsen

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Orphan’s Promise, a children’s ministry of The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., serves orphans and other vulnerable children around the world, taking them from at-risk to thriving through the transforming power of God’s love.

CBN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization and your contributions to our ministry are tax-deductible.