INDIA
Our Feeding The Nations director in Finland (Paivi) just returned from India in December and sent us the following report:
FTN feeds about 700 children in India by giving them school lunch. FTN works in following cities: Delhi, Dumka, Theodor, Aligar. FTN has also bought water-filters to schools which make the water fresh and clean.
I visited two different Christian schools in the northern part of India Dumka, Jharkhand.
Dumka is a city of about 1 million people. It is located northwest of Calcutta. Seven hours drive from Calcutta.
The area is called Jharkhand and it is the poorest providence in India.
The church we work with is a full gospel church thousands of members. They meet in cell-groups and once a month they gather and have a church meeting together. Pastor is called Bishop Marc. His name is Jeyaraj Marc from Mission Evangelistic Association.
Dumka Christian school THE MILLENNIUM SCHOOL started in 1997 and has now 300 students 4-12 years. All of them are the poorest of the poor. Pastor told me that the only way to get poverty broken in the lives of these poor children is to give them education. They are not street children but they come from very poor families. Most of the families can't afford to give children food. A buss takes them to school from the villages around (10-20 km away). In addition to that they have been able to take in 8 little children who live at the school. They have no-one who can take care of them.
If they had money they could take in 100-150 more children to this school.
FTN gives lunch Monday -Friday and on Sunday the church gives them food. Children get bread, rice, vegetables, fruits, chicken three times a week and also eggs.
One meal costs only 20 cents and it is a big good healthy lunch. Their goal is to be able to give these children three meals: breakfast , lunch and one meal before they are taken home in the afternoon.
They have a kitchen in the backyard where everything is cooked. Everything seemed to be very well organised and the children behaved like angels. I am telling you the truth.
I saw poor children everywhere in the streets and in villages .They were very dirty with hardly any clothes on and lived among cows and goats.These children used to be one of those.
All school children come from non Christian background, Most of them from Hindu families.When these children come to school they are first taught how to keep themselves clean and everyone wears a school uniform. Children love to perform and they are taught many things which they play and perform on Sundays at the church meetings.
They had arranged a great welcome party with dances and everything for us. We delivered a sweater to every child. When they were gathered a shared God's word with them and we sang songs together. We prayed for every teacher and worker.
Two times I taught Bible to all these children. In addition to that I had special time with those 8 children who live at the school. I delivered food for the young ones (about 50 of them.) They were sitting outside on the floor and food was delivered to their plates.
One day we travelled to a rural village called Simaljode were they had just started a new school .FULL GOSPEL CHURCH SCHOOL.
Last year this church in Dumka had evangelised around that area and many people got saved.They started a church there which has now hundreds of members.Now it was also time to start a Christian school in the area. Last year they had to go there with motor bikes because there were no roads. Now we were able to go by a car because the road was almost ready. Life had come to this area.
This school was new with 50 little children. This was the first time school lunch was delivered.They did not have a kitchen yet and the food was made in one of the nearby village and brought to the school. I had the Honor to start this school lunch program in Simaljode with the Word and prayer. After that I delivered food. They had no plates yet so I put the food on the leave but it did not seem to be any problem.hah! We also delivered sweaters to every child. It's good because it gets quite cold from November -March in the evenings in the northern parts of India and without warm clothes children get easily cold. Even teachers got FTN sweaters.
We shared the Word with village members who had come to the school and many got saved.We prayed for every child personally and for village members too. All the children wanted to give their life to Jesus. We had a special time with the teachers too.
One thing was very touching. In both schools children were taught to bless the food before they started to eat. They thanked God for the food AND THEY BLESSED AND PRAYED FOR EVERY DONOR WHO HAD MADE THIS LUNCH POSSIBLE FOR THEM. THEY PRAY THIS PRAYER EVERY DAY!
Pastor told me that if they had money they could take immediately 100 more children in Simaljode school. Thousands would like to come to school but it's not only a question of money but many other things needs to be developed first.
This is work which real results we'll see later.
FTN is giving these poor children food, future and hope. Now they don't have to be hungry, later they have a possibility to get a good job and become strong Christians, who have an influence in the Indian society. I am sure we'll sow into a good ground in India
2007 UPDATE:
Feeding The Nations continues to deliver food to school children in Delhi, Theodori, Aligar and Dumka through Brigitta Ekman's Foundation. For many of these children, this is the only meal they get. Our contact, Anna Jakobson, reiterates that the need is tremendous. Because of this food, the children look stronger and have got " flesh between bones". Children can concentrate much better and they don't get sick so often anymore. Hallelujah!
Additional images in photo gallery
2006 YEAR IN REVIEW
UPDATE: Feeding The Nations blessed orphanages and schools in four different cities with rice, milk, new coats and toys. Over 600 children received a blessing!
Additional images in photo gallery
The following is a report by Anna Jakobsson, a Swedish worker in India.
Delhi
In Delhi we run a school with 97 children from nursery to first grade students. Without this school these children have no chance to go to school. Next year we are planning to start a second grade too.
At home children get one-sided food rice or chapati (which is bread made out of flour, water and salt). We started to give children lunch at school and since that children are more active and can concentrate better at school. They have now more muscle and more ability to resist infections.
They get one glass of milk 6% fat. Fat is so important to these children especially because t
hey are young and don't eat as much as they should. They also get a chickpeas meal (which has a lot of protein) and a banana. Most of the little children eat their banana on the way home. We chose to give them bananas because they contain a lot of energy.
Every child received two Christmas presents, one game "for brain" which they can even take home and play with their sisters and brothers and one present "for heart", a toy car.
We also had a Christmas party where they had tasty food and cakes. The children even prepared special performances for each other. It was a real celebration.
Every child actually got three presents because every one got also a new coat. Weather in Delhi is cold from November to February and children have a big need for warm clothes. Most of the children live by open fire at home so the material of the clothes had to be carefully chosen to be safe at home too. They should not catch on fire.
A heater and a carpet was bought to Delhi school to keep the children warm during the school day.
Aligar
In this city we help one school with 35 students. School time here is 3 pm-6 pm.
This time suits these children because half of them work in the local factory. In Aligar many children work in the factories. Aligar is well known for manufacturing locks and small fingers of the children are very practical to that kind of work. If children don't work in the factory they clean at home and baby sit younger sisters while mother/
parents are at work.
Here every child got two presents a game and a toy.
In this school we also started lunch for children. They get now also a glass of milk every day.
Theodori
Here we have a school of 450 children. We'll give them glass of milk every day. Every child got also a sweater because the weather here is cold like in Delhi.
We were able to have a Christmas celebration which every child enjoyed very much.
Dumka
To this school children come from far even 30 km (20 miles) away. Children can come to school by our school bus. This is their only chance to get an education.
Here we had a Christmas party and gave cakes to every child.
2005 YEAR IN REVIEW
Along the coast of southeastern India, ravaged by the tsunami, FTN brought hope and critical supplies such as rice, lentils, cooking oil, sheets and blankets, buckets for water storage, tents, and clothing to over 300 families.