Grace Children's Home

GRACE CHILDREN’S HOME

There are thousands of homeless orphan children in India. Their parents, who cannot afford to look after them, often abandon their children; and some of them sleep on the streets and railway stations, begging for their food.

At the end of 1999 we began a concentrated effort to raise money to build an orphanage. As money was raised it was sent out to India to purchase materials and pay the workers. Sometimes there was no money to pay for materials, or to pay the workers, and when the money ran out, the work stopped.

Grace Children’s Home was finished and officially opened in January 2001. In 2004 a second floor was added, and in March 2011 a third and final floor was completed and opened in May 2011. There are now over 100 children in the Home, and a sponsorship scheme is in operation.

The children will be supported right through their school years and onto further education if they wish to continue. A number of the older boys and five of the girls have taken up pre-university or university courses. Those who are not academically inclined will be encouraged in a vocation which will suit their abilities.

The Home began by admitting mainly orphans or ‘half orphans’ but over the years the criteria has changed slightly. Female neglect & infanticide is a reality amongst the poor, and baby girls are often abandoned in the street, left at the gates of orphanages, or even killed. Uneducated girls work in the fields, factories or as a servant for just a few rupees, their only other choice is to marry. There is no way they would ever be able to choose their future. Some girls taken into the Grace Children’s Home are from families whose father has abandoned them because he had no sons. In poor families, a girl child is not considered to be worth educating. GTWF seeks to address this problem by giving them a home and an education. Their future is altered for ever because they will leave the Home with an education and the ability to make their own decisions. Marriage or a career — it will be their choice.

Child Labour is also a reality, and now GCH is seeking to address this problem. It is illegal for children to work before the age of 15, but poor families will sometimes have many children, so that they can send them to work. They see this as a way of making money. The more children they can send out to work, the more money comes into the family. The children will have no education because they are at work as soon as they are old enough, often when they are 4 or 5 years of age. Some of the children in the Home have been rescued from factories, farm labouring or domestic service. They are given a home, good food, clothing and an education. We can only take in as many as we can support financially, which is why we need sponsors.

HOUSES FOR KEY WORKERS

It became apparent very soon that there was a need for proper housing accommodation for some of the key workers. Most of the staff initially lived in rooms in the Home, and this was obviously not satisfactory. Money was raised for this project and following an extremely generous gift from one of our supporters, enough funding was raised to build the apartments. The money was sent out in three stages, and the apartments were officially ‘opened’ in 2007.