Such fun to meet children Grassroots has been sponsoring in India since we started almost 10 years ago. These two young people were both part of the first group of children we started supporting. This year they got married.
Today in Chennai as told by Andy:
“Most of the day we spent interviewing again. We interviewed over 100 children. (please see here for Archie’s excellent take on really meeting Indian families from yesterday.) Around this, I also got time to talk to Kevin about how the sponsorship scheme is sorted out on a practical basis:
The children are given food 6 times a week (and sometimes some on Sundays too) by a large gathering of volunteers who believe in the work and show supreme dedication. There are 3 teams of 6 who each help twice a week, this involves buying fresh food everyday before 8am (when it is fresh and at it’s best) and then some of these volunteers will then spend the day, (or however long they need) preparing food for well over 300 people, whilst some of them go to work and come back later to help again. There is enough food for all the children and it is good, and by sponsoring the children the whole family is helped as they know the children are in a safe free place after school and they can try to earn a bit more money, working slightly longer hours, or at least they don’t need to worry that they are not providing for their children with the little the have.
In the last year the sponsorship also included each child receiving 5 sets of tailor made clothes, (it is cheaper to get them tailor made in some quantity, but also means they are new). 2 of these sets are uniform, 2 casual clothes and 1 set of Christmas clothes. They also receive a bag for school, shoes, books, stationary, medical care and more.
It is quite astounding what can be achieved with £8 per child per month. The sad fact though is that the exchange rate is now 84 rupees for £1 whereas recently it was higher than 100.
There might not be quite as much this year, but the children will get fed. Tomorrow we have promised that Grassroots will enroll a few more children – trusting we will get more sponsors during this year. There is real need here, we are praying that we will be able to get the sponsors in to cover them.”
More Information about sponsoring a child in Chennai here: Grassroots India
To sponsor an Indian child today: Sponsor a Child
It has been a full on day. After working hard the team went back to the hotel and then took a brief trip onto the street to sample street food.