India is the world’s largest democracy and undergoing massive change as it struggles to become one of the super powers of the future. Yet it remains a country of extraordinary contrasts where one in three of the world’s poor still live.
Mumbai, India’s financial capital, now has more millionaires than London and yet seven million people still live in the slums. They are Dalits, outcasts who fail to benefit from India’s new boom simply because of their caste, their social standing. Since 1993 Life Association has been building schools and children’s homes in some of the poorest parts of India. SoapBox is joining with them to help their work amongst the poor, far away from the tourist areas normally visited by westerners. We will visit Mumbai, home to the Dharavi slum, Asia’s largest, where Life Association works with Dalit potters who make the beautiful clay candle pots that the charity sells to support its work. We will also meet some of the children who the charity supports and perhaps take them out for a day boat trip for a rare holiday. We will then travel to the beautiful rural village of Gannavaram where the charity has a school and orphanage. Here we will experience the simple life of the Dalit people and the very real contrast of the rural poor that make up 80 per cent of India’s population and that make a living from the land. Here we will be helping Life Association with its vision to support and empower local pastors and churches by helping in the construction of a church/community building and a house for the pastor. We will also play with and teach the children and visit other villages.
During our time in Ganavarram we will also take the children to the seaside and the fishing village of Machilipatnam on the Bay of Bengal to meet and encourage the fishing people there and the charity’s newly opened school in a Dalit colony. We will then return via Mumbai with a little time for sightseeing and shopping.
Mumbai, India’s financial capital, now has more millionaires than London and yet seven million people still live in the slums. They are Dalits, outcasts who fail to benefit from India’s new boom simply because of their caste, their social standing. Since 1993 Life Association has been building schools and children’s homes in some of the poorest parts of India. SoapBox is joining with them to help their work amongst the poor, far away from the tourist areas normally visited by westerners. We will visit Mumbai, home to the Dharavi slum, Asia’s largest, where Life Association works with Dalit potters who make the beautiful clay candle pots that the charity sells to support its work. We will also meet some of the children who the charity supports and perhaps take them out for a day boat trip for a rare holiday. We will then travel to the beautiful rural village of Gannavaram where the charity has a school and orphanage. Here we will experience the simple life of the Dalit people and the very real contrast of the rural poor that make up 80 per cent of India’s population and that make a living from the land. Here we will be helping Life Association with its vision to support and empower local pastors and churches by helping in the construction of a church/community building and a house for the pastor. We will also play with and teach the children and visit other villages.
During our time in Ganavarram we will also take the children to the seaside and the fishing village of Machilipatnam on the Bay of Bengal to meet and encourage the fishing people there and the charity’s newly opened school in a Dalit colony. We will then return via Mumbai with a little time for sightseeing and shopping.
