Day 15 - Tuesday 21st October 2008
 We had an interesting anniversary dinner in Mumbai last night. After a rather hairy taxi journey, we found the Saffron Spice Restaurant. In most areas the assumption is that we are Australian or American, but the manager of this restaurant understood we were British and promptly changed the Indian background music to a very poor medley of English songs, including classics such as “Roll Out the Barrel”, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” and “Daisy, Daisy”. Our cringing reached a crescendo with the playing of the “Birdie Song”. Mumbai erupted in to chaos today after the arrest of a local political leader who had been encouraging local groups to disrupt examinations for the Railway Board as a protest against people from Northern Indian coming to the City and taking “local jobs”. This leader, Raj Thackeray, was arrested at 0230 this morning and the City is in chaos today. Roads have been blocked and a large number of the auto rickshaw drivers who are from Northern India are not working, as they fear for their safety. Schools are shut and people are staying at home. Thankfully we had booked a driver for today, however we did have to change our itinerary in light of this situation and were unable to visit one project just outside Mumbai as in that area they were big protests and burning of buses.
 We started the day at the World Vision office in Mumbai. Here we met Heather who was introducing us to some local small projects in need of support. We started the morning with worship and prayers with the office staff, in particular praying for the current situation in Mumbai. We went on from here to visit Soloman and his wife who runs a small home for orphaned children found on the Railway Stations in the City.
Soloman had previously worked for a local Christian NGO in the slum areas and around the railway stations but in 1999 his life changed. He found a man dying on the side of the road with his 8 year old son trying to drip feed him water. He was so close to death that the ambulance refused to take him and suggested Soloman call the local Municipal Council to take away the body. Soloman sat with him as he died, leaving his son Sati as an orphan. Soloman took the boy home with him and decided at that point that God was calling him to offer a home to more homeless and orphaned boys. Having worked with street and railway children for so long he knew how difficult it was to find space in the local orphanages.
 His wife and he now offer a home to twelve boys ranging from 6 years old up to 18. Their home is very simple, with one room and a small kitchen downstairs and one room and a small bathroom upstairs. The boys did have bunk beds, but slept two per bunk. All boys are now attending school and all said they enjoyed their studies. Soloman said he wanted to see them all with skills before they left him so that they would be assured of getting jobs. We met Karan who is now 11 and had been living with Soloman since he was 3, his favourite subject at school is English (I think he was playing to his audience!).
We also met Babu who was now 13 and had been living here since he was 4. Vishal was the only boy to say that his favourite subject was Maths, Soloman explained that when he was found he was living on the street with some blind beggars and managing their money for them. The boys were delightful and all so handsome.
 We were met by Pastor Raju and his wife Shilba and, unfortunately, were not able to go with them to visit their project due to the unrest. However, we spent some time with them talking about their organisation called Way True Life which works with street children from the railways and slums in their area. We heard how Pastor Raju started a pavement school for these children about 10 years ago on a voluntary basis as he was training to be a social worker. He married a few years later and his wife Shilba, also a social worker, started helping him with his work. In 2005 they registered a charity but continued to both work so that they could finance this centre. They did use this as a night shelter also, but have had to close this as they cannot pay the salary of the night staff worker. They have been able to open a small day care centre for pre-school slum children, and pay the salaries of the staff themselves. However, it was obvious that they are really struggling for funds. They continue to spend time with the children at the railway station, many are run aways and some can be persuaded to go back to their families. The main risk with children living at the station is that they spend any money from begging and carrying bags on solvents and become addicted. Pastor Raju brought  some pictures for us to see, attached is one of him with some of the older children who are now solvent addicts living at the station and one showing his early pavement school. They try and talk the children in to going back to school, and if they are orphans or cannot be reconciled with parents, then they will try and find them a place at a local orphanage. So far they have placed 75 children with orphanages, but they explained that this is very difficult because the homes are so full. Their dream now is to open up a home themselves for some of these children and with their background as social workers they are perfectly qualified for this. They would also like to start courses for vocational training for older children who have dropped out of school. They were such a lovely couple and we were amazed at their personal commitment and dedication to the work they do, even sacrificing their own daughters education to help the very poorest children. Pastor Raju himself grew up in an Orphanage so he perfectly understands being given a second chance through a children’s home. Pastor Raju holds his Sunday service in the home of a local resident who lets him use her courtyard. He stressed that his services were for all faiths, as his area has a lot of Hindu and Muslim residents. He said “I preach the word of God which is what I am called to do. It is then up to God to fulfil the transformation”. He told us some inspiring stories of local residents who had come to a relationship with Jesus through his ministry.
We are now back at our hotel and must begin getting our things together ready for the flight back tomorrow. This has been the most amazing trip, we have met some truly inspiring people and look forward to keeping in touch with them in the future and hope that Rianna’s Fund can offer a few projects such much needed support.
Goodbye from Aunty and Uncle.
|
