there are so many...

who need our help..it seems almost impossible to help them all. But I saw this girls blog and what she is doing for the slum kids and their moms in Andhra Pradesh, India..and for a young girl, I admire her strength and tenacity in doing what she is doing to help the poorest of the poor in this particular area of India. Her name is Brooke and..I contacted her via email and told her that I would like to help her with supplies for the kids. We can spread the love..can't we? That is my plan...more to come on this one..you can bet on it! Read her story below....

Today, I held my first English class in my host family's maid, Krupa’s, slum. The children living in the slum have recently starting learning English in school, but can't afford the fee for the outside tuition required to excel or even pass in the subject. If they don't learning English, they won't be able to continue later on in school. My classroom is Krupa's tiny hut and since I teach at night we have to work by torch or flashlight. For my first class, there were almost a dozen students (the maximum capacity of the hut) ranging from grades 3-7, and also some young children, mothers, and grandmothers interested in learning some English. This weekend I'm going to buy some supplies to give to the students and to furnish the classroom. The English spoken in the slum is extremely limited, so I will need to rely mostly on pictures to teach the children new words. It takes almost an hour for Krupa and me to take an auto from my house to her hut after she finishes her work, and the plan is for me to teach for a few hours and then return home. I'm hoping that I will have time to go and teach at least 3 times a week for the rest of my stay in India. It is impossible to describe how much this simple act means to Krupa, a widow, her children, and the other children in the slum. It would be extremely difficult for these children to overcome the obstacles presented to them and better their lives without becoming educated and learning English. There is no safety net in India and no one is going to hold an impoverished widow and her children's hands. Before my host mother met Krupa, Krupa was being cheated on and abused despite the fact that she was the sole earner in the household, carrying at least 50 huge vases of water (for 1 to 2 rupees) each a day. At that time, the children who I am working with now were surviving on a meal a day of rice with dirt and rocks that wouldn't even be passable for a dog. For this family, their leaking hut alone is a miracle.