With over 1 billion people who are living together in relative peace in the world's largest, pluralistic democracy, India represents great hope for humanity. But the shear size of its huge population also brings tremendous problems for its poor, stressing the nation's social cohesion. India is witness to high levels of illiteracy, persistent malnutrition, shortages of clean water (which lead to some very dangerous water-borne diseases), and worse. All of these factors hit India's population of 18 million street children the hardest. In fact, India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.
A small amount of US Dollars can go a large way toward helping these children meet their basic needs. Buying supplies wholesale on site in India, and taking advantage of the exchange rate between the US Dollar and Indian Rupee, a few greenbacks can buy a child in an Indian orphanage an extra month of life.
Inspired by this need and the work done by Baal Dan, the Addison Rotary Club (ARC) has committed to organizing and running a volunteer outreach effort to help these children. To this end, a group of three members of the Addison Rotary Club is heading to India. Mike Morath and new member Kevin Yu are heading out under the leadership of International Services director Raj Narayanan for two weeks from November 17, 2007 to November 30, 2007 to Chennai, India, starting with a two day pit-stop in Delhi.
Our club and several generous donors have raised $6073 to purchase the basics for these children: rice, lentils, toiletries, underwear, bedding... Basic necessities, along with a few little luxuries like candy and other gifts for the kids. In addition to these funds, the three volunteers are paying entirely for themselves -- they've kicked in money for all airfare, ground transportation, lodging, food, and anything else that isn't directly related to the kids (which is a bit north of $3,000 each).
We will also be working with Rotary clubs local to Chennai to help start a project to put in clean water facilities at these facilities.
The objective of the trip, then, is to help meet the basic immediate needs of these children, and put in place infrastructure that will continue helping them for years to come. With luck, we'll repeat the trip with more intrepid volunteers in the coming years, as we continue to emphasize Rotary's international service efforts.
This blog has been set up to report back to our donors, friends, club members, and anyone else on our day to day trials and triumphs as we work half a world away from home. Expect financial updates, pictures, and stories of our progress.
Thanks, and enjoy your blessings.
Mike Morath
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