City:  Telpura, India
Project: School
Partner: Bel Vikas Kendra

Education is virtually inaccessible to the poor of this region. A free, public school would initiate a profound change to the impoverished of this area, ultimately catalyzing lasting benefit for generations to come.

City:  Telpura, India
Project: Community Centre/Medical Clinic/Convention Facility
Partner: Bel Vikas Kendra

The Community Centre/Convention Facility is seen as a vehicle to transform society by taking strategic measures to reduce poverty and increase opportunities, particularly for destitute children and families.  A medical clinic will provide a much needed fully stocked and staffed clinic for this region.  The school would provide access to education in this impoverished area.  

Community Centre: This will provide a location for medical clinics; adult education classes; health seminars; tutoring and meals for children; recreational and other community activities.  These classes and clinics will contribute to an improvement in the over-all well being of the community, providing hope for a better tomorrow. The Convention Facility will host conferences, seminars and retreats for leaders, youth and other groups, providing both a much-needed resource, and generating income for the programs.

Hunger

The main influence of the hunger crisis in this region is the overwhelming overpopulation of the country, as at July 2007, India’s population is estimated to be 1 129 866 154 people, with 63% of these aged between 15 – 64 years. Only 2.8% of their total land mass is being used for agricultural purposes. (1)  

(1) Ref:  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html  

Poverty

In the last decade India has been able to decrease their poverty rates by 10% however this amount barely scraps the surface of the problem with 25% of the population (or 282 466 538 total people) in  India still suffering extensive poverty, with the percentage of people living with less than US$2 a day at 79.9 %, that is close to one billion people who exist on $2 for the day, that’s one loaf of bread perhaps, one litre of milk, a handful of grain but not all of the above together, no butter for your bread, no coffee for your milk, The huge and ever-growing population is the fundamental social, economic and environmental problem that they face. (1) While the population faces insurmountable odds just to survive, with 8 812 920 people unemployed these odds diminish significantly. Education is virtually inaccessible to the poor of this region. India currently has 600 000 Internally Displaced Persons in their country. (1)  
(1) Ref:  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html  

Poverty leads to orphans and homelessness.

• 150 million children live on the street.
• Action International says that by 2020 there will be 800 million homeless children.
• The UN says that the street children situation is one of the worst crises facing the nations of the world.
• This is a disaster

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” – Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 25, par. 1

Average Gross National Income for every man, women, and child in America is $35,060. World Development Bank, 2003.

• Of the 24 mostly Western Developed Nations (including NA, Western Europe, Australia & New Zealand etc.)  Population of 900 million, the GNI is $27,000 USD
• Compare this to the fact that 1.2 billion people live on under $1.00 a day and 2.7 billion people live on under $2.00 USD a day.
• 500 million people are hungry and another 500 million are so poor that they don’t consume enough food to render them productive.
• Because of poverty 33,000 children (mostly under-five-year-olds) die every day due to preventable diseases – diarrhea, measles, malaria, and malnutrition – that is more than one child dying every 3 seconds.
• 55% of all child deaths (17 million deaths a year) are just because the children are hungry.
• Poverty is at the root of most of that which contributes to 'children becoming at risk'.

City:  Chennai
Project:  High School for the poorest of the poor
Partner:  Global Concern

Although schooling is free and compulsory in India from 6-14 years of age, facilities are inadequate and often totally lacking with approximately 40% of students, mostly girls, dropping out by secondary school.

The Love Annapumpatu Primary School, has been operating in Chennai, India for over 6 years where it provides 196 primary school students with an English language education.

The next step along the road out of poverty for the students of Love Annupampattu and the local community is a high school to continue their education in.

Location:  India and Bangladesh
Project:  Vocational Training & Microbusiness - Sewing
Partner:  Global Concern - Every Home for Christ

Women's Lives are Changed!

Unskilled women in the communities where Every Home for Christ is educating children are also given an opportunity for self-development. In India and Bangladesh sewing classes train village women in the tailoring skills they need for employment and many are able to find work in garment factories, earning an income for the first time in their lives. The Indian women who formed a "Self-Help" group are so grateful to Every Home for Christ for giving them the opportunity to own their own sewing machines so they can sew clothes at home and earn a living. All these women from poor communities have developed in their self-esteem as they are able to help provide daily needs for their families.

$195 will provide a sewing machine to help one woman fight her way out of poverty

City:  Miraj, India
Project:  Night Creche & Computer School
Partner:  Homes of Hope International

The city of Miraj is located approximately 400km's south of Mumbai and is home to over 500 commercial sex workers. Miraj has one of the highest incidences of HIV/Aids in India.

The Night Crèche project will increase protection for these children at risk through a safe place for them to sleep at night, assistance with homework, teaching personal boundaries and health, a meal, seminars for their mothers, and access to a social worker and assessment services that will determine when a high risk child needs to be taken into full time care. Furthermore, the Night Crèche project will also conduct a computer school for primary and high school age children to give them skills that will enable them to find employment, or pursue tertiary education, upon completing high school.

City: Pedong, India
Project: Hope Children’s Home
Number of Children: 17

Opened in 1997, this Home in the north of India provides care for orphans. They also operate a Jeep Taxi business, to help support the home.

North Americans you can sponsor these children

City: Sikkim, India
Project: Namchi Children’s Home
Number of Children: 7

This small home is in a remote, mountainous region of the northernmost state in India.

North Americans you can sponsor these children

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

UNICEF and global partners define an orphan as a child who has lost one or both parents.

By this definition there were over 132 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in 2005.

This large figure represents not only children who have lost both parents, but also those who have lost a father but have a surviving mother or have lost their mother but have a surviving father.

Of the more than 132 million children classified as orphans, only 13 million have lost both parents. Evidence clearly shows that the vast majority of orphans are living with a surviving parent grandparent, or other family member. 95 per cent of all orphans are over the age of five.

Add your voice to Stop Human Trafficking through Stop the Traffik Australia

Warning: Some of the content of this article is disturbing - reporting treatment of trafficking victims.

What is human trafficking? According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking is defined as, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods can often come at the least expected time. Others, such as hurricanes and cyclones are increasing in severity and destruction. Typically, the poor are the worst hit for they have the least resources to cope and rebuild.

When poor countries face natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and fires, the cost of rebuilding becomes even more of an issue when they are already burdened with debt. Often, poor countries suffer with many lost lives and/or livelihoods. Aid and disaster relief often does come in from international relief organizations, rich countries and international institutions, but sometimes poor countries are still paying millions of dollars a week back in the form of debt repayment.

HIV/Aids
Of the 22 million people who have died of AIDS, 4.5 million of them have been children.

In 2006 there were 11 million AIDS orphans in the Sub Sahara. That is a staggering 10%, or one in every ten children is an orphan. This is twice as many as society can care for.

In South Africa, 50% of all the teenage girls who are now 15 years old, will be dead of AIDS in ten years.

Malaria
Around the world, 3.3 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria.

Tuberculosis
There were an estimated 8.7 million new cases of TB in 2011 (including 1.1 million cases among people with HIV) and an estimated 1.4 million deaths (including 430,000 people with HIV), making this disease one of the world's biggest infectious killers.