India Child Sponsorship Program
"As you help me, I get the opportunity to attend school, learn, and read a lot. Now I am trying very hard. I study at school whole-heartedly. I got good marks on my first exam and my mother was very happy. If you would not have helped me, I would not have been encouraged so much. I know not how to thank you for the help which you are giving to me."
- Kavita, age 7
The Children
Rafiya stays with her family in a slum community. Her father sells bread on a bicycle and earns 50-60 rupees per day. Mother has pain in her legs and cannot walk much. Their house is a wall on one side, three sides are made by stainless steel and the top is a tin sheet. In one corner is a small toilet-cum-bathroom. They cook on a kerosene stove. They have to pay electricity and water charges of 300 rupees per month ...
There are thousands of children like Rafiya living in slum communities in India. Often they live in one-room, makeshift homes with large families. Their parents may have jobs as vendors or laborers, but rarely make enough money to pay for food and utilities. Education is one of the only ways out of the life of intense poverty most children face; however, to attend school requires tuition, uniforms, and school supplies. As most families are unable to pay even for electricity in their homes, school is out of the question for many children in these communities, resulting in an unbroken cycle of poverty.
The Benefits of Sponsorship
Family Service Center (FSC) in Mumbai works with impoverished families throughout the city. They have assessed the circumstances of hundreds of children in slum communities and determined their eligibility for sponsorship.
Funds from sponsorship are used to purchase school supplies, uniforms, and pay tuition for a child to attend school. Additionally, social workers from FSC offer counseling and other assistance to the families of sponsored children, in an effort to improve the family's overall quality of life.
Sponsoring a child in India costs $120 per year. Sponsors will receive a child's profile and photograph, as well an annual update from the child they sponsor. Many children have already "graduated" from the sponsorship program, and have gone on to find well-paying jobs in India's growing middle class.
Learn more about how child sponsorship works.
Humanitarian Aid
Alongside the sponsorship program, there are a number of ongoing medical, educational and other types of community development projects in the areas where sponsored children live. Information on community projects in India is available here or by contacting Ali Crandall at acrandall@whfc.org, or 781.419.0340.
Thousands of children in India await your help. For more information on sponsoring, contact Julie Wilder at jwilder@whfc.org, or 781.419.0357.
Begin your sponsorship of a child in India now!