5 Boys Rescued

It’s early days for these boys as they recover from the trauma of being trafficked. Yet we have a great sense of hope and optimism for their future as they transition back into family, school and community.

The faces of these children each represents an inspiring story of lives rescued over these past 2 weeks. Five boys have been saved from an unimaginable circumstance of fear and exploitation. As an organisation, 'Project Help India' is proud to share with with you this wonderful news. We rejoice that Vihaan (aged 13), his brother Arjun (aged 11), Mohd (aged 14), Aditya (aged 12) and Aarav *, (aged 12) have been rescued, and we thank you, for your part in this good news story. 

The work of ‘Project Help India’ has continued to expand, with us partnering with local police authorities in anti-human trafficking. ‘Operation Smile’ is a taskforce that follows information given to police detectives about missing children in Kotdwara. Grave concerns exist for the welfare of a number of slum children, and it is highly likely that they have been kidnapped, stolen, or perhaps sold by parents, lured into false hopes of a good job and a promising life, only to be forced to work in factories, or as domestic or agricultural workers, have forced organ removal, join criminal gangs, enter into forced marriage or to work in the sex industry. Usually this is caused by desperate family circumstances where the children’s parents live in poverty and have alcohol or substance abuse addictions. 

It really is so sad to think that an innocent child can be subjected to such exploitation in this day and age. The reality is that it occurs much more than we would dare think. 

Small Steps, Big Purpose with 'Operation Smile'

The local Kotdwara police have asked that Project Director Amit Samuel helps them with ‘Operation Smile’. This work can be at times dangerous, and it involves travelling long distances to cities in other states of India, following leads to locate and rescue trafficked children. Amit’s role is to provide counselling to the children once they are rescued, and to assist with the the process of transitioning these kids back into their homes and community. Ongoing monitoring and support will continue into the future once the children are reunited with their family. 

Our involvement ultimately has been made possible because of your financial donation to our work. You have assisted us to have a part in freeing these five young boys and to help them to start what will be a very long process of restoration. Pray for them - they need so much love and ongoing help. 

We ask that you might donate to ‘Project Help India’ so that we will continue to have the resources that are required to help Vihaan, Arjun, Mohd, Aditya and Aarav as well as so many other kids like them, who live in the Kotdwara slums where we work. As well as our schools, our community development programs provide parent workshops, drug education programs and crisis counselling support and interventions, which target the root causes of child slavery and trafficking. Click the DONATE button on our website.

And some more good news …the police have arrested and charged certain individuals responsible for this alleged crime.

With love and thanks from the ‘Project Help’ team.

*Boys’s names have been changed

2020 - a year of kindness, compassion, hope and love

Aavej had a really tough 2019 but thanks to ‘Project Help’ he is looking forward to the new year with determination and positivity, surrounded by the love and care of his teachers, friends and classmates.

As we head into this new year, we are delighted to share with you some of the things our team has been doing in Kotdwara over these first few weeks in January. Our mission is to help the poor, and I write today to encourage our supporters, so that you know that your donation is directly helping the poorest of the poor. 

Aavej's Story

Aavej is twelve years old. He lives in a slum area in the middle of Kotdwara. He belongs to a muslim family. His father Mr. Abdul Gaffar is a tailor and he earns about 1500 to 2000 rupees per month, which  is just $30-40 Australian dollars, and way below what’s needed for him to being provide for his family's basic needs. Aavej’s mother Mrs Ruksana, is a house wife. Aavej goes to a government school which provides less than a satisfactory education. Aavej takes his study seriously which is why he also attends our City Slum Centre every afternoon. He also enjoys the healthy meal he receives every day at our centre, which gives him far more than he would ever eat at home. 

Aavej has high ambitions for his life and we have been delighted to support him in achieving his goals. His life last year however, was completely turned upside when his elder sister committed suicide. Aavej was very close to her and he was grief stricken and in a state of depression for many months. He withdrew from his friends and lost his appetite. Thankfully through our City Centre, Aavej received some counselling. As well as being kept busy with his learning he has also had the opportunity to participate in different activities and sports. He danced at our functions, and importantly he socialised and played with his friends and classmates. Through all of this he is now well and is overcoming his depression. Aavej is now a happy kid again. He is studying and eating well. He also once again started talking to others and he is now preparing for his annual exams with renewed determination and positivity.

Aavej’s mother is also getting help from our Project Help Team. She is now more open to talk about the challenges she is facing. She is getting some parenting help for supporting Aavej, and she is becoming more confident to leave the house (in her community, Muslim women are not encouraged to leave the house), and to talk with other women. 

Kindness, compassion, hope and love are at the heart of this Aavej’s story which is just one of so many wonderful things that are happening at ‘Project Help’ with 270 children attending our 7 centres each week. 

The weather is also going crazy in India!

Our work over the past few weeks as also extended into the local community reaching out to many impacted by some crazy winter weather. It has been freezing in Kotdwara and huge unseasonal rainstorms have also hit the area. ‘Project Help’ has been delivering blankets to street people and the kids in our centres have also been seeking up small chai tables, giving out hot tea to those who need who be warmed up. We are thankful for our Directors and staff team who have responded to the needs that they see around them. Our actions are both challenging and changing the way people in the community respond to the needs of others, by providing a model of compassion, care and kindness. It’s incredibly powerful when we see people who have nothing, give and make sacrifices to help others who are in desperate need. 

Be part of our story in 2020

Together, let’s make kindness, compassion, hope and love our key drivers for all we do in 2020. It’s all about being part of a community that authentically cares for one another. We are seeing this in Australia at the moment, as we rally around the many people who have been devastated by the fires.

So if you’re still reflecting on how you would like 2020 to look for you, can I ask you to consider joining the ‘Project Help India’ story. Your regular donation will be used by us to help the poor and, as I hope you have seen, we are making a difference in such a powerful way.

We are hoping that 10 people who read this blog will commit to making a $40 a month (= $10 a week) donation across 2020. The combined donations of 10 people will pay approximately the annual salary of Aavej’s teacher, the cook and meals for all 40 kids at our City Slum Centre. This small amount makes big things possible. Please let me know of you would be able to do this, so that we can set up regular payments.

With love and thanks from the ‘Project Help India’ team.

It's 2020 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the team at ‘Project Help India’. We are incredibly excited about 2020 and we are thankful for your interest, help and support. Our prayers are with you for all that you hope to do and achieve this year.

2020 is shaping up to be an incredible year in the life of 'Project Help India'. We have many goals and we are ambitious and intentional about all we are seeking to achieve. We will be guided by our vision and mission and have a clear sense of purpose and strategy.

A reminder of what is our big picture

The mission of ‘Project Help India’ is to bring love, hope, dignity and purpose to the poor. Our vision is to focus on education, nutrition, health and ultimately human rights, so that individual lives are impacted, empowered and restored. ‘Project Help India’ seeks to bring about community change and generational transformation. ‘Project Help India’ seeks to grow in its impact and influence in the lives of people and communities, with a goal to ultimately expand into other towns and places of need.

This article was published last week in one of the local newspapers here in Kotdwara which outlines eight priorities for the coming year. Some of these priorities will focus on ongoing long-term projects and some are completely new that have organically evolved as we work closely with the police, and other community leaders. Something that is very exciting about 2020, is that our goal to expand into other cities is becoming a reality.

1.    Helping poor children through education and medical care, especially those involved in begging, labour, and children with disabilities,

2.    Women’s empowerment. We will be holding our third ‘SHINE’ Conference in April.

3.    Working with the police to get teenagers involved in a ‘Junior Traffic Force’

4.    Working with the police in anti-human trafficking programs

5.    Working with the police in other cities in the state of Uttarakhand, as part of ‘Operation Freedom’ – getting kids out of begging and into schools,

6.    Anti-drug programs

7.    Developing a community anti-crime program

8.    Initiatives to promote environmental awareness and solutions

This year we will also be developing strategy to be prepared for extreme weather events, such as heat waves, monsoon storms and flooding, which sadly are inevitable.

Our other big goal is to continue to investigate and develop a strategy how we can purchase a property in the heart of Kotdwara (for our HQ).

What is your New Year Resolution?

Whether you agree with the concept of new year’s resolutions or not, might you resolve to be committed to supporting ‘Project Help India’ in 2020? We are an organisation that really is committed to making a difference in the lives of people, and I hope to can see that we operate with great intentionality and integrity. Your donation goes directly to our projects with minimal admin fees. Your tax-deductible donation can be made following the donation links on this website.

It is important to us that you feel connected to our story, so that the stories of lives of people impacted by poverty in India, intersect with your story too.

Relationships are our ultimate priority

‘Project Help India’ is all about friendship, learning and growing from each other. As we bring love, hope, dignity and purpose to these beautiful people, your life will be changed too. We are very mindful that the people we work alongside are the marginalised and vulnerable – this is our way of helping the poorest of the poor, and this being exactly what ‘Project Help’ represents and stands for.

Once again, happy new year! May your hopes and dreams for 2020 be blessed.

With love from the ‘Project help India’ Team.

Bringing some joy and Christmas cheer to the ‘untouchables’

Visiting friends at the Khoh River slum. These beautiful people are certainly not ‘untouchable’ despite having this message spoken into their lives by their surrounding community.

During this countdown to Christmas, can you help us to help others?

‘Project Help India’ is passionately working hard to reach out to this local slum community this Christmas time. We have the privileged opportunity to help a group of people who live in poverty. Their faces in this photo tell a powerful story of relentless hardship, determination, and courage despite some terrible circumstances. When I visited them recently in October, I was welcomed with smiles, warmth and hospitality. I was embraced as a trusted friend, a friendship that extends to our many ‘Project Help India’ supporters. These people are beyond grateful to you for the help you bring through our education and community development programs. Through these programs we communicate and demonstrate love in action.

These people are known as ‘Dalits’ and they live on the banks for the Khoh River in the city of Kotdwara in the State of Uttrakhand in Northern India. Their houses are unsafe and unhealthy. Most are made of plastic, old pieces of sheet metal and cardboard. They don’t have windows, and have dirt floors, leaky walls and roofs. The homes are overcrowded, and the weak structures are often blown away or destroyed during storms and the heavy monsoon rains and floods. Here there is limited or no access to basic services like water, toilets and electricity.

The Dalits are considered as the lowest caste people in India. They are the “untouchables” and considered the most oppressed class in India. They face discrimination, particularly in access to employment, education and marriage partners. They perform the work that nobody else wants to do, such as preparing bodies for funerals, tanning hides, collecting rubbish, recycling plastic and killing rats, vermin and other pests. Doing anything with dead cattle or cow hides is regarded particularly unclean in Hinduism. Under both the local Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, a job that involves death corrupts the worker’s souls, making them unfit to mingle with other people in the community. To compound this, this group of people face exclusion and oppression in society. They are frequently affected by anti-dalit violence and repression by others.

For us, these beautiful people are certainly not untouchable. Nothing could be further from the truth!

We extend our love and hand of friendship to these people this Christmas. We embrace them with a message of hope, value and purpose. We will be bringing the joy of Christmas to this slum. The children who attend our school will each receive a gift and needy families will participate in a special Christmas party. Our help will extend into 2020 through our education and women’s empowerment programs, medical help, supporting families with leprosy, emergency assistance and much more.

We need your help to do this

At a time of the year, when we are filling our shopping trolleys with more than we need, please consider how you can be a blessing to these people. Your donation will go towards bringing Christmas to this community and also to the five other communities (each with a very similar story) where ‘Project Help India’ is working.

Your tax-deductible donation will be one of the most meaningful gifts you could possibly give this Christmas. Please let us know (by replying to this email) if you make a donation because we would love to thank you.

Thank you for bringing some happiness and Christmas cheer to some people who really need it.

Your donation will make a difference and no doubt reinforce that notion that it is always better to give than to receive at Christmas. Click the DONATE button found across this website.

Thank you for being part of our story.

Merry Christmas, love Doug

Amit, our Director is Honoured by Head of State Police - Bringing 270 children from begging to school

Congratulations Amit

This week in the city of Haridwar, Amit Samuel, our Director of ‘Project Help India’ received a prestigious award of honour from the Director General of the Uttarakhand Police for his community work "bringing children from begging to school". Amit has worked alongside the police as a key leader of ‘Operation Freedom’. For 60 days, the Operation Freedom taskforce reached out to children and parents discouraging children from begging, raising awareness and to promoting opportunities for them to go to school.

Some of the exciting outcomes of this included individual counselling given to 300 children and of these kids, 270 have been successfully enrolled in schools. How awesome is this!

Because of the success of the program the police will deliver this program in every district of Uttarakhand and 'Project Help India' has been asked to assist in an ongoing capacity, as part of the leadership team.

At the award ceremony, the Director General of the Uttarakhand Police also praised and acknowledged the important work of 'Project Help India' and has asked us to expand our work into other slum communities beyond the cities of Kotdwara and Bijnor which is where we are currently working.

About children begging in India

Begging in India is operated and coordinated by highly organised crime syndicates. According to the Thomas Reuters Foundation;

“At least 300,000 children across India are drugged, beaten and forced to beg every day, in what has become a multi-million rupee industry controlled by human trafficking cartels, police and trafficking experts.”  *1

It is estimated that between 40,000 to 60 000 children are abducted in India every year. It is not just in India where this happens, but in places such as China, Europe, and South America.

One of the very cruel aspects of begging is that many children are often physically maimed or burnt to elicit greater sympathy. The distressing scenes that you may recall from the movie ‘Slum-dog Millionaire’ are well and truly happening in cities across India, especially where there are foreign tourists.

Education is Key

It’s not just the need for children to attend school and receive an education, but parental education programs play a role in changing these insidious crimes. Parents must be taught to understand the value of education and to learn about the support and alternatives to child labour. Tourists who travel to India must also be educated to not give money to children who are begging.

“Tourists should never give money to child beggars we meet abroad. Not even the cute ones. Not even the disabled ones. Not even the ones who want money for school. Don’t give them money, or candy, or pens. It’s not generous. In fact, it’s one of the most harmful—and selfish—things a well-meaning tourist can do.” *2

As we celebrate the success of 'Operation Freedom' not only do we honour our Project Director, Amit Samuel, but we honour the leaders of the Uttarakhand Police and the many others on the team who have worked as part of this important community initiative.

We need your help to make a difference and "thank you"

If you would like to help us to continue to make a difference, especially as we consider helping further projects, please help us. Thank you to our many regular supporters, we hope that you are encouraged by the news that your donation is having a positive impact in the lives of innocent and vulnerable children and their families and in the community in general. This would not happen without you being part of our story.

Health, Happiness, Home & Hospitality... all that’s ‘gold’

Happy - Jungle Village Kids with their new sports equipment

Healthy - Adnam meets Dr Imran

Home - Our City Centre Cook Anupama, always creates wonderful meals for the kids and her smile lights up the house

We just wanted to share some lovely stories from the past couple of weeks here in Kotdwara India.

Health

The kids at our disability centre found themselves enjoying the unique experience of having a medical checkup. One of the local volunteers, Dr Imran visited the centre to check on the children’s health. One of the boys, Adnam (pictured), who has the biggest heart of gold thought that it was so much fun. We guess he really hasn’t had a visit to the doctors before. Thanks Dr Imran for your kindness, generosity and help. Our kids are healthier because of you. You are gold!

Happiness

For many Indian children, the gift of a new cricket bat is like ‘gold’, especially when you’ve never had one before, or you’ve been playing with a broken bat for 2 years. At our last teachers’ training meeting, when I asked about urgent needs for improvement, the teachers said that the kids need games and sports equipment. So thanks to all our supporters, your donations have assisted us to buy $100AUS worth of resources for each of our 7 centres. I had a great time shopping for sports equipment (cricket, badminton, soccer, quoits, basketball) and heaps of indoor board games too. It’s amazing how much you can buy for $100 in India! Yes, it was like Christmas for the kids. I had the pleasure and joy of bringing  everything to the children at each centre. It was a golden moment of happiness for us all. Thank you to a very special business man from’ Sunrise Sports and Trophy House’ in Bijnor who kindly give us such a huge discount. You are gold too! 

Home and Hospitality

Our City Centre in the heart of Kotdwara is a safe place for many. When you’re a kid or young adult from the slums, life in poverty is tough. As a visitor it’s so lovely to see the smiles, warmth and laughter found in our classrooms and especially at our base, the City Centre.  Children and adults alike, drop in for chai, to help do a chore or job, use one of our (very primitive) computers, have a chat, or to get some advice. It is ‘gold’ to be warmly welcomed into one’s home and to belong (when so many reject you) to a community, a family who know, value and love you. Hospitality is one of the greatest gifts a person can ever receive. 

This is the ‘Project Help India’ story. 

Thank you to our supporters in Australia and around the world for being a significant part of this special cause. We think that you are ‘gold’ and together, all we are achieving is worth so much more than ‘gold’. 

Love Doug, Rowe, Amit and Daisy. 

Child Protection Updates

Village Parmawala kids

At ‘Project Help India’ we take our commitment to the safety of the children we work with very seriously. As an organisation it is our priority to;

 -       work towards keeping children in our community safe by developing programs and interventions aimed at reaching the vulnerable and children who are at risk of exploitation. When we identify individual girls or boys who are significantly at risk we will report this to the local police, in accordance with Indian Child Protection laws. If we identify adults who present a risk, or danger to the welfare of individual children, the organisation will also follow Indian laws to report these adults to authorities.

-       ensure that we have policy and procedures that guide our staff and volunteers as we work alongside the children who we care for. Strict policy guidelines ensure that all staff and volunteers act with transparency and behave a manner that promotes physical and psychological safety. ‘Project Help India’ expects the highest of standards of behaviour, of all staff, volunteers and people who represent the organisation.

‘Project Help India’ does not condone the corporal punishment of children who attend our education centres or other programs.

‘Project Help India’ strives to be a model of excellence in safety and care, not only to children, but to all staff, volunteers and others who represent our organisation.

‘The Hope’ Child Protection Policy is uploaded to www.projecthelpindia.co, to emphasise its importance and alignment with our organisation.

This month, the ‘Project Help India’ leadership team undertook training delivered by Mr Doug Thomas reviewing the Project Help India Child Protection policy and the expectations of the organisation. The Hope Child Protection Policy was also been explained to staff. At this meeting we discussed any concerns and potential risks. Teachers also attended a Child Protection training session which was also delivered by Mr Doug Thomas.

This training was well received by the staff who expressed their commitment to promoting safety across the organisation.

I've just got back from India - reflections and report

Kids at the ‘Project Help’ Education Centre at Jungle Village Bagwala.

I have just got back from Kotdwara, Northern India, having spent an incredible two weeks, visiting our projects, getting involved in community initiatives, seeing old friends and making many new ones. The hospitality and warmth of the Indian people are always such a highlight... I wish you could experience this. If you’ve been following my adventure on Instagram @dougthomas you would have seen that I’ve been busy and productive. I’ve enjoyed great food, eaten too many Indian sweets, put on weight, relaxed quite a bit too, had lots of long chats with many opportunities for planning future initiatives as ‘Project Help India’ keeps growing, and moving forward.

Straight from the airport on my very first day I found myself as the official guest at an open-air community meeting of a couple of hundred people, put together by the Haridwar Police. Here I had to spontaneously speak to the crowd about discouraging their children from begging and why they should be going to school. I have visited our six Education Centres, assessed and worked alongside kids and their mums at our Disability Centre, preached at a church, presented leadership seminars to university students about suicide, I’ve met with police and the local media, attended two Project Help Annual Functions (kind of like a school speech day). I have trained our teachers, revised our Child Protection Policy and procedures with the Project Help team, bought lots of resources for classrooms and visited some people in need. I’ve also done quite a bit of real-estate hunting too and hope to pass on some really exciting news soon (say a prayer please) ...’Project Help’ might soon have a mortgage ...a fixed address, a centre for our administration and all our operations. It’s a house and land in the middle of town, close to all the action and central to where people in need can come for help and counselling, a peaceful garden, plus a classroom for our City Centre slum kids. 

It is such a privilege to sit alongside people and hear their story. I am always humbled by their trust and openness to share. Many ask me to pray for them. All of them just love the encouragement, company and friendship. They are empowered when you show sincere interest in who they are, that I would take time to visit and just want to sit with them. They basically have nothing but there’s always a chair, a chai, a smile, a laugh, a sweet biscuit and the essential selfie! Simple, honest, authentic conversations break down fear and misunderstanding, especially the walls created by religion. I’ve learnt that our differences are few. I continue to be surprised by how much we all have in common. If only we all had more time to listen and love one another as we do this thing called ‘life’ together. 

The personal circumstances of people living in poverty are really harrowing and it really takes it out of me. The emotions catch up with you when I’m not expecting. I’ve worked with kids with disabilities who have not been allowed to school for the first 8 years of their. One little chap, cognitively impaired, age 6, while his parents are working, has literally roamed the streets every day of his life by himself since he could walk -vulnerable and significantly at risk of exploitation. No wonder he now loves the warmth and safety of his teacher and delights in coming to school. He cries when he has to go home. Some of the other kids who attend our education centres have experienced horrendous things - a father recently murdered, mothers repeatedly beaten, husbands spending the family income on alcohol, floods washing away their house each year, abuse, malnutrition on a daily basis, chronic illness, street begging, denied an education because they must work to earn a few rupees for the family, or for fear of being stolen, raped or savaged by a wild animal as they walk to school along the jungle roadway. 

This sounds brutal and it is. It’s like a bottomless pit of suffering, one that gets bigger not smaller. Yes, there’s a cry for help but there is joy here. There’s also inspiring grit determination, perhaps contentment too. There’s a generosity of spirit, hospitality, warmth, and a deep expression of gratitude. There can also be suspicion by many too, so I have to have my wits about me, and be careful with my very word, the photos I take, and to have a local by my side most of the time. It’s not always safe and I go through gallons of hand sanitiser. 

I’m pleased to report that the many initiatives of ‘Project Help India’ are happening as reported. Things are growing and the trust and respect that we have in the community deepens. This week we also had an Australian Project Officer from the Entrust Foundation visit to inspect our work. Your tax deductible donation is banked through Entrust. Their due-diligence requires accountability on our part and I’m pleased to report that they were delighted with what they saw. 

Many people donate to Project Help. Thank you! Your generosity has enabled great things to happen. Lives are changed with people’s personal circumstances have been helped and touched by God’s love and blessing. These people have a tangible sense of hope and their kids are given opportunities for success and flourishing - all because of you. 

Thank you to the leaders of ‘Project Help India’, my dear friends, Amit and Daisy Samuel, and their kids Jasmine and Jonathan. They work tirelessly for others, making daily sacrifices, in the midst of your own suffering at times too. Amit and Daisy, you bring God’s goodness to all who know you, and to the wider community too. You are loved...especially by me. 

Doug