Day 12
Today was our last day of full work.
We are all feeling a little tiered at the moment as we reflect on our time
here.
The morning started with a visit to
little sisters of the poor, a home for the elderly. Two weeks ago when we first
got our program this wasn’t included, I think due to the age of the group they
were keen to send us to a lot of youth programs instead. But we insisted –
coming from Bexhill we are somewhat used to the more elderly members of our
community and it would be interesting to see how the Indian people treated
their elderly as apossed to back at home.
When we pulled up the house it was
stunning – a huge well maintained blue building with prestene grounds and the
rarity of grass, flowers and gardens. We were taken on a whistle stop tour of
the extensive home seeing dining halls, shared rooms (which looked a lot like a
hospital ward), social areas and a beautiful octagonal chapel in the middle. We
discovered that the whole building is funded through charity through the Catholic
Church and the residents do not have to pay to be there – a big difference from
home! Although this visit was quick it gave us a good insight. India is a very
young nation and there are a lot of children and young people walking around
but few elderly so it was good to see the other end of the spectrum. We chatted
to a few of the residents momentarily and they seemed happy to see us. This was
clearly a place close to Annu’s (our house keepers) heart as she was the one
who showed us around, staff and residents alike noticeably love her.
Following an early lunch we headed of
to a southern part of Kolkata to visit a safe home for minors who have been sexually
abused or victims of sex trafficking. Due to the sensitive nature of the girls
there I am unable to post the name of the house or it’s location on the Internet.
The girls have been rescued from very dangerous and vulnerable situations and
are very well looked after in the home. They each have a very full schedule and
take part in school work, group counseling sessions and one to ones with a key
worker/ social worker, fun time including trips and skills such as needle work,
hair and beauty, dress making, cooking, budgeting etc. The girls are referred
there by the local government and unlike so many of the other hostels they aim
to offer more than just a roof, bed and meals. They really try to create a home
for the girls. After a short presentation of all the work they do at the hostel
is was hard to get our heads around some of the harrowing things these ladies
had been exposed to. Many are in the middle of court cases to bring justice to
their traffickers and abusers. This is a very brave thing to do given that the
India courts are mostly men and they aren’t aloud to have any support whilst on
the stand.
We went up to meet some of the girls
with sweets in hand and were apprehensive to how they might respond to us – We
went upstairs to where some of the girls who were not currently working or at
school were learning some embroidery. We decided to play some games with them and
over the next hour got very sweaty running around playing stuck in the mud,
bulldog and many more. The girls also enjoyed showing us some games too. We all
had a great time laughing and playing, it was good for us to just have some fun
and exercise but tough in the heat. It was nice to see the girls just having
some child like fun and I think our girls enjoyed it too as most of the things
we have been doing have been rather serious.
We said our goodbyes after a brief
tour of the home and headed to the offices of JKPS a charity who are primary
involved with church planting but seeing the need have also started a child sponsorship
program. After a short chat about the organisation we were taken to a community
where some of the children are living.
We were lead down narrow paths to a
slum village and invited into three homes to meet with the family and pray for
each.
This is the first time we had been
quite so confronted with the extent of the poverty in Kolkata. Up until now
although we had worked among the poor this was always in a neutral setting such
as the school or their place of work. Meeting with families in their homes was
very different. Each home was very small indeed with only room for a bed and a
small walking space around. In one home 2 adults and 3 children all shared the
same bed. The fathers of these families were rickshaw pullers and many of the
mothers were maids or cooks. Lots of the homes didn’t have electricity or much
natural light. The community only got clean water between 2pm and 5pm in which
they had to share and store the water they got. Lots of fights had broken out
as families were using over their 15-minuet share of the time they were
allotted. There was only one toilet between 50 families and the slum was made
up of simple brick structures with tarpaulins and beams.
One family we visited was made up of a
grandmother, father and three children two of which were twins, the grandmother
shared how the father was a rickshaw puller and suffering from bad health, her
daughter - The mum of the family had a
brain tumor and had passed away and she was scared for the future. As she
showed us a picture of her daughter she started to weep. It was a very
emotional visit and one that will stay in our hearts for a long time to come.
It is hard to really put into words the effect meeting with these families had
on us – later there was anger, tears, feeling of our own selfishness, loss and
despair for the people we had met.
After this difficult experience we
were taken to the project that is being funded by the origination that the
sponsor children attend.
There a girl who had been supported by
the project and now a teacher had organised the children to sing and dance for
us. We also shared some songs and our love and blessings for them.
It was good to see the positive
influence this work is having directly on the families we had just met. With an
education many were breaking the cycle of poverty for there families. Again and
again we have seen the hope in these seemingly desperate situations. Two girls
shared testimonies of what God had done in their lives and how he is working in
their area. Please pray for these
families, although far away and unknown God knows each intimately and I believe
cares for them deeply. Please ask the rest of the team about this experience.
It affected us all deeply – and there were many tears and hugs shared once we
returned home it brought us back to the reality of why we were there. It showed
us God working in the darkest of places.
We fly home tomorrow night changed people
Emma x
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