Thank you for showing up for these 6 men with love, hope, dignity and purpose
Over the past week, we have shared the stories of fathers and a grandfather connected with Project Help India. Men living with poverty, illness and uncertainty. Men who work as labourers, collect scrap, sell utensils and drive auto-rickshaws. Their lives may look very different from ours here in Australia, but their hopes for their children are remarkably familiar:
Keep them safe. Put food on the table. Give them an education. Help them have a better future.
And today, on Father’s Day, we have some wonderful news.
We did it!
We asked our Project Help India community to help us raise A$900 to provide six families with a surprise Father’s Day hamper—approximately one month of non-perishable foodstuffs, together with some personal-care items especially for Dad.
Six generous sponsors responded. A$900 has been given. All six families will receive their hampers!
Thank you.
You showed up.
And today, as we bring all six men together, we want to say something very simple:
We see you. We see how hard you work. We see the sacrifices you make. And we see the hopes you carry for your children.
Happy Father’s Day.
There is one father you haven't met yet.
We deliberately saved Arun’s* story for today because his journey reminds us of something else fatherhood can do.
It can change a man.
Arun grew up in extreme poverty and left school after only a short time. Without education, opportunity or much sense of a different future, his younger years became increasingly troubled. He fell in with negative influences, became involved with substance abuse and stealing, and his choices caused considerable pain for his family.
Poverty did not make those choices for Arun. But we cannot separate his story from the desperate circumstances in which those choices were made.
Poverty can be traumatic.
When childhood is shaped by insecurity, lack of education, few opportunities and the daily pressures of simply getting by, those experiences can leave their mark long after circumstances begin to improve.
For Arun, that past still knocks on the door.
But it no longer gets to decide his future.
Becoming a father helped something begin to change. With a daughter and son looking to him, Arun realised that the life he had known did not have to become the life his children inherited. He chose a different direction. He left behind destructive influences, and together he and his wife began working extraordinarily hard.
Today they lease farmland, growing vegetables, wheat and other crops. Their circumstances have improved significantly. And perhaps most importantly to Arun, both of his children are receiving an education through a Project Help India Education Centre.
Arun cannot rewrite his own childhood. But he is helping write a different one for his children. That doesn't mean everything is suddenly easy. Every day still brings challenges. There are setbacks and times when Arun and his family need help. And when he asks for help, we stand with him. We keep a caring eye on his children and their education. We encourage the family through difficult times and celebrate with them when things go well.
Today, Arun carries a growing confidence, a humble sense of dignity and something poverty once made difficult to imagine:
hope for the future.
Six dads are about to get a surprise
Very soon, Arun and the other five fathers and grandfathers we've introduced will receive their hampers.
They don't know they're coming.
We can only imagine the smiles when our team arrives. Yes, the food matters. A month of foodstuffs provides very practical relief. But we hope these hampers communicate something else:
We see you.
We see how hard you are trying.
You haven't been forgotten.
For one unexpected moment, six fathers carrying some very heavy responsibilities get to experience the joy of being celebrated. And they deserve it.
Father’s Day ends. Their story doesn't.
Today we celebrate six fathers, six families, six generous sponsors and A$900 raised. But tomorrow, life continues. We reached our Father’s Day goal. But poverty doesn’t end when Father’s Day does.
So, if you were thinking of giving but discovered our target had already been reached, please don't let that stop you. More than 600 children attend Project Help India’s 14 Education Centres, and behind every child is a family with its own hopes, struggles and story.
For A$55 a month, you can support a child to attend one of our Education Centres. This allows us to do something much more powerful than simply appearing when there is a crisis or special occasion.
It allows us to stay.
To know the children. To walk alongside their families. To notice when something isn't right. To encourage their education and celebrate their progress.
We are now seeing children we've known for years grow into young adults, continue into higher education and begin imagining futures their parents could scarcely have dreamed possible.
That is the power of staying.
A hamper says:
We see you today.
Ongoing support says:
We’ll still be here tomorrow.
To our six generous sponsors—and everyone who read, shared and encouraged us - thank you for showing up. And to these six fathers and grandfathers:
Happy Father’s Day.
Today we honour your perseverance, your sacrifices and, above all, the love and hope you carry for your children and grandchildren. But our Father’s Day message reaches much further than these six men.
To the fathers and grandfathers within our Project Help India community, here in Australia and in India - Happy Father’s Day to you too. To the stepfathers, foster fathers, uncles, brothers, teachers, mentors and other men who have chosen to be a steady, encouraging and caring presence in the life of a child or young person - we celebrate you as well.
Fatherhood is expressed in many different ways.
Sometimes it is providing.
Sometimes protecting.
Sometimes teaching, listening or encouraging.
Sometimes it is simply being the person who keeps turning up with love and belief - even when life is difficult. Because sometimes the greatest gift a man gives a child is helping them believe that their future can be different from their past.
To all the men in our PHI family who quietly do these things, often without recognition:
We see you. We appreciate you. And we wish you a very Happy Father’s Day.
And to everyone who donated, read or shared these stories this week, thank you for standing alongside us.
These fathers keep showing up.
You showed up.
Project Help India will keep showing up.
And together, we can keep helping children write a different story.