Holt International - Blog » India

For the Least of These

Ashli Keyser — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:12:02 +0000

New York Times best selling author Donna VanLiere recently returned from India with Christian music group NewSong. “God is here. Among us,” she says. “Disguised as an 8-year-old orphan.”

by Donna VanLiere

Years ago, I read that the apostle Thomas made India his mission field. Remember Thomas? He was one of the twelve apostles who made it clear that he would not believe Jesus had risen from the dead until he saw the scars on His nail-pierced hands. Doubt nips hard at the heels of belief. That was Thomas’ problem. In John 14, Jesus was speaking of Heaven and said, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas, always confused, always doubtful, said, “… We don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” We can’t be too hard on Thomas. Even the wisest among us doubt and question and scratch our heads. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This is a crucial moment for Thomas. A choice has to be made…believe what Christ says is true, or that he’s either a diabolical liar or clinically insane.

Time marched on and doubt and disbelief still drummed away at Thomas’ mind and nerves. When Christ was crucified, then flung off his grave clothes three days later, the other apostles came to Thomas and said, “Great news! He’s alive!” Thomas shook his head. That’s the nature of doubt. It’s a head-shaking disease. His reunion with Christ is laid out in John 20. Jesus held out his hands like a magician proving there was nothing up his sleeves. “Go ahead,” he said. “Touch them. They’re real. Stop doubting and believe.” And Thomas did. The last time the apostles were with Jesus he gave them a simple directive—Go into all the world and spread the gospel. “Go Thomas. Be brave. I am with you always. Remember, I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” According to ancient records, Thomas traveled farther than any other apostle. His life reveals that he came to know Christ best through his missing him. His desire grew stronger and his longing deeper. He loved and fed the people of India as if feeding God himself and Thomas gave himself for that love, dying at the end of a spear.

I just returned from a 9-day trip to India. My husband Troy and I went there with members of the Christian music group NewSong. In Bangalore, we visited a care center run by a beautiful, saintly woman named Mary Paul. One night at dinner, NewSong member Eddie Carswell and his wife sat with Mary Paul and she told them that twenty generations ago her great, great, great (do this twenty times) grandfather met the apostle Thomas and Thomas shared the truth with him. I doubt I will ever again meet anyone who can trace their faith journey directly back to one of the apostles!

Ancient documents do not describe Thomas as a dynamic orator like the apostle Paul, but rather, a quiet man who drew people to the gospel of peace through his saintly ways and the message of truth. Twenty generations later, Mary Paul sees God dressed as abandoned children and shares hope and love with them.

You would expect me to write of the misery of the orphans, but that’s impossible to do when writing about the care center Mary Paul runs. The walls are bright, the staff is warm and the children are loved. Very loved. They smile and laugh easily and are quick to wrap their pencil-thin arms around you. A little boy walked up to Troy and I, grinning. “My name’s Vanej,” he said. “I’m nine years old.” NewSong sang a couple of songs for the children and then the children sang for us, little Vanej holding one of the two microphones and singing loudly. Eighteen months earlier, Vanej was on an outing with his parents when he was somehow separated from them. The orphanage advertised in the papers, on TV and radio, looking for his parents. They traveled where Vanej said he lived and put up flyers and talked with people on the streets, with no results. In a country of 1.1 billion people, it’s much like finding a needle in a haystack. Vanej talked of missing his mother and his sister. It was heartbreaking, but he still smiled.

Little Pria (her name means love) was four years old but the size of a pixie. Her black eyes were saucer-wide as we walked toward her bed and her face lit up the room. I picked her up and realized I’ve purchased a sack of potatoes that weighed more than she did. Her tiny arm felt disjointed and it was explained that she had brittle bone disease. She had recently broken her arm and it never healed quite properly. But still, she smiled.

We weren’t prepared to see baby Arjun, a 12-month-old infant. A dog mauled Arjun, leaving him with one eye. The rest of his face is gone. He snuggled onto the shoulder of his caregiver and clapped for us, making gurgling sounds…and smiling. Unbelievable! He was smiling. I can only trace that smile back to Mary Paul, believing fully in the trickle-down effect. “These children are the face of God,” her life echoes. “Take care of them. Love them. Bless them.”

In an orphanage in Pune, an 8-year-old with withered legs lay in his crib, his eyes moving from face to face. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t walk. And although the staff rolls him over throughout the day, the back of his head is flat. Two days earlier, a boy around 9 or 10 was delivered to the orphanage. He sat in the corner of the playground, feeling the ground beneath him. “He’s blind,” a caregiver told me. “And he can’t speak.” They can only assume that his needs were too great for his parents, who were no doubt very poor. The orphanage took in this little nameless boy and cleaned him up. They fed him and gave him a bed to sleep in. Both of these boys are cared for by Roxanna, the orphanage director, and her staff, whose lives say, “I see you.”

I have visited other foreign countries—our own children are from China and Guatemala—but India is different. Two-lane roads are really six-lane roads, chaotic with cars, rickshaws, animals, scooters and motorcycles with three-to-five people riding on them. We held our breath a lot and never took our eyes off the windows. On our day of sightseeing, we traveled a distance of 124 miles (but a six-hour drive!) to see the Taj Mahal. It began to rain as we traveled, and the dusty roads turned to thick, muddy soup. Clusters of people huddled together under tarp roofs. One woman tucked herself beneath a truck while others went about their day, getting soaked to the bone. We saw the poorest of the poor in those 124 miles, passing “shopping areas” that looked like the charred rubble from a bomb explosion and streets piled with garbage…not litter…garbage.

We live next to an 85-acre cattle farm and have never taken one picture, but we came away with over 20 pictures of cows walking the streets. Monkeys ran along the sidewalks and rooftops, pigs rooted through garbage and rats skittered about at night. Dogs were everywhere—running on the sidewalks, napping on the roads, even sleeping in the parking lot and front lawn of the palace where Ghandi was under house arrest.

We stepped out of the cars and were greeted by several barefooted children who happily led us through the slum and pointed to their homes with pride. “This is where I live,” they seemed to say, smiling. “Won’t you come in?” There’s really no way to describe the slums. They are not the projects. We can describe those. The slums are different, a mass of rubble held together by scraps of metal, wood or plastic with dogs, goats, pigs, chickens and donkeys roaming the streets and alleyways. A little boy smiled up at us as he took his bath out of a bucket, another little girl brought a newborn kitten out of her home and held it up to us, beaming, while an old man stood at a corner and held out his hand. We ducked our heads to enter a “home,” a six-by-eight room that housed four people and nothing else…no table, refrigerator, chairs, beds, TV or sofa. But their clothes were clean, their home was organized and their faces were bright. If they needed anything else, they weren’t aware of it. The children in that home and several others in that slum benefit from the educational and nutrition services provided by the nearby orphanage through the Holt International sponsorship donations. What would happen to those children without those donations?

We follow our desires so easily in this country. If we want a new TV, we get one. Who cares if it takes five years to pay it off? But when our hearts nudge us to be kind or giving or brave, we don’t follow at all because surely someone else will step up to the plate. We are a noisy people and that’s part of our problem, because God comes to us in such quiet ways that it’s easy to miss him. The homeless man seeking food at a downtown shelter doesn’t cause much of a ruckus and the widow who keeps herself tucked away in her home has never registered on our radar. That orphan across the sea whose name we can’t pronounce isn’t on the news or in the pages of the weekly tabloid, so how can we feel responsible for not knowing his plight?

We like to spin things here. We didn’t like the fact that The Little Mermaid didn’t get the prince but rather returned to the sea and dissolved, so we spun it so she gets her man and lives happily ever after. We’ll do whatever it takes to deal with the harsh reality of our existence. But the words of Christ still bang away at our hearts—“Whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me” and we realize that not doing anything is doing something, and that’s a hard truth to swallow. We can’t spin that, no matter how hard we try. God is here. Among us. Disguised as an 8-year-old orphan with withered legs and a head flat as stone, and a year-old infant with half a face. They don’t speak, but we know what they are saying… “Will you help me? Will you offer me any bread?”

We are here to clothe, to feed, to love, to serve. It took the death of his beloved friend for Thomas to realize that it is through these doors that truth enters. May we all be an open door. For the sake of the least of these.

Here’s a last-minute Christmas gift idea!…..Go online to see how you can help children and families in India, and other countries Holt serves, through the Gifts of Hope catalog.

The Most Hopeful Thing

rmunro — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:56:14 +0000

In 2007, Terri and Brad Roback brought home Sachi, the first child with HIV adopted from India. Today, their daughter is a bright, busy, healthy toddler thriving in the love of her parents. In sharing their story with Holt, they tell the truth about this particularly stigmatizing special need – a truth that is much more hopeful than many might expect.

by Robin Munro, Senior Writer

* Any advice or HIV information in this article should be discussed with a medical professional specializing in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

The Robacks' 2010 Christmas photo.

When Dr. Ken Alexander first met Sachi, she was “laying on the bed, just floppy like a ragdoll.” At 11 months old, she was the size of a newborn. She was listless and dehydrated and suffering from chronic diarrhea. She could not lift herself to sit up.

Standing by Sachi’s side were her new adoptive parents, Terri and Brad Roback. Turning to the Robacks, Dr. Alexander said, “I know there’s nothing you want to do more than pack her in cotton and take her home and love her, but it will take at least ten days before she can go home.”

After a four-flight, 32-hour journey to bring their daughter home from India, the Robacks were relieved to place her in the care of Dr. Alexander, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.

Ten days apart would be manageable – especially given Sachi’s hopeful outlook.

Twenty years ago, her outlook would not have been quite so hopeful. Born HIV-positive in India, Sachi had never received treatment for her illness, allowing the virus to replicate to dangerous levels. As soon as possible, Dr. Alexander placed Sachi on a drug treatment regimen that would save her life.

In 1984, when he began treating HIV/AIDS patients, he didn’t have those drugs to give. Most children born with HIV didn’t make it to their second birthdays. “I went to an awful lot of funerals,” he says.

But HIV is no longer the death sentence it was twenty years ago. “Now,” he says, “we can give medications to a kid that’s at the brink and looking over the edge, and reconstitute her immune system.”

With medication, Sachi has not only made it to her second birthday, but her third and fourth.

“Today, if you meet Sachi, you’ll meet a nice, big, pot-bellied toddler who for all intents and purposes is totally normal, except for hearing loss,” says Dr. Alexander. “She’s bright, talkative, busy, all those things you want a toddler to be.”

As for her viral load, once well into the danger zone, it’s now undetectable. The virus cannot be found in her blood.

“She’s a healthy, regular 4-year-old kid, and if you didn’t know she had HIV, you would never guess anything is wrong with her,” says Terri. “I would encourage anybody to adopt an HIV-positive child.”

Adopting Sachi

Four years ago, Terri and Brad did not foresee themselves championing the cause of HIV adoption – much less parenting an HIV-positive child. When they discovered that their prospective daughter had HIV, they wondered how long she would live, how much she would suffer. Worried about the heartache in store for them, family members urged Terri and Brad to reconsider.

Like most Americans, their knowledge of HIV/AIDS needed some updating. In 2009, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study to learn how informed people are about the disease. Findings showed that in the U.S., knowledge about HIV/AIDS had not increased since 1987 – a year when the term “HIV” was still relatively new, and testing positive still considered a death sentence.

To learn the state of HIV/AIDS in 2007, twenty years later, Terri and Brad began to research. They discovered several exceptional resources close to home, including the University of Chicago Adoption Center at Comer Children’s Hospital. Directed by Dr. Alexander, the Adoption Center works closely with the hospital’s infectious diseases staff to counsel families adopting children from overseas. Here, they also met Linda Walsh, a nurse practitioner who directs the hospital’s pediatric and adolescent HIV care team.

Illinois agency Chances by Choice, specializing in HIV adoption, proved an invaluable resource as well. The agency put them in contact with other parents who had adopted HIV-positive children.

What the Robacks learned from these resources both subverted their perceptions, and eased their fears.

“We learned that the medications were really good and that kids were living well into adulthood,” says Terri. “Kids with HIV are expected to live a normal life span.” They spoke with pediatricians who characterized HIV as a chronic, but manageable disease like diabetes. One pediatrician even told them that he would rather treat a child with HIV than a child with juvenile diabetes.

“We learned it’s not a death sentence,” says Terri. “It’s a chronic illness.”

They also learned that with medical advances, HIV-positive women can give birth to HIV-negative children. “I think that’s most surprising to people – that these kids can grow up and have families and that the technology is out there that allows HIV-positive girls to give birth to HIV-negative babies,” says Terri.

“We can stop the transmission from mother to child 99 percent of the time,” says Walsh, who also serves as clinical director of the Adoption Center.

Despite such breakthroughs, transmission through casual contact remains a common fear – and pervasive myth – about HIV/AIDS. Even in a close family setting, the likelihood is next to nil.

“We’ve now got three decades of experience with this virus and it has never been transmitted in a family setting,” says Dr. Alexander.

To spread HIV, blood must be shared. And doing so actually takes some effort. The three main ways to contract the disease are through sexual contact, IV drug use, and from mother to infant during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. It cannot spread through touching, kissing or sharing food, and even blood spilled outside the body poses a diminished risk. According to Project HOPEFUL, a nonprofit organization that advocates for adopting children with HIV, no one has ever reported a case of HIV transmission from contact with spills of blood or bodily fluids.

“This is partly because HIV dies quite quickly once exposed to the air, and also because spilled fluids would have to get into a person’s bloodstream to infect them,” states a Project HOPEFUL publication.

If a child with HIV does fall down and get a bloodied knee or elbow, doctors advise people to use “Universal Precautions.”

“Dr. Alexander like to use this slide – and we’ve all stolen it – that says, ‘If it’s icky, sticky and gooey and it didn’t come out of you, don’t touch it,’” says Walsh. Essentially, Universal Precautions advise against directly touching another person’s bodily fluids. “Something as simple as a paper towel or a band-aid is just fine for minor cuts and scrapes,” states the Project HOPEFUL resource. “Even your clothing is a barrier between spilled blood and your skin.”

The amount of virus in the blood also affects the threat of infection. “If your viral load is zero, your risk of transmission is very, very low,” says Dr. Alexander.

For Sachi, all of this adds up to a very normal childhood. She can play on the playground with other kids, join a soccer team, swim in a public pool, be a Girl Scout or ballerina – without endangering other children. “There is not anything she can’t do,” says Walsh.

Armed with this information, Terri and Brad felt confident that they could manage Sachi’s condition. But that was really a moot point for the Robacks. “From the minute I met her…I was willing to do whatever she needed for as long as she lived,” says Terri.

By adopting Sachi, the Robacks inadvertently became pioneers. “Sachi was the first HIV-positive child adopted from India,” says Terri.

With this decision, they also saved Sachi’s life.

According to From HIV to Home, which educates and supports adoptive families of children with HIV, half of all HIV-infected children in resource-poor regions will die before their second birthday.

Within even a month of coming home, Sachi showed a marked difference. Within six months, she was walking and talking. “How much is that a result of medicine, of diet, of the love of two parents?” questions Dr. Alexander. “These are all essential ingredients for these kids.”

Had Sachi not received any of these ingredients, however, Terri is certain of one outcome: “Sachi would not still be alive.”

Managing HIV – Things to Consider

After meeting their daughter in India, Terri and Brad decided to give her the name Sachi Tulip. Sachi means “grace” in Sanskrit.

In 2007, they brought her home.

At first, managing Sachi’s condition required a minor learning curve. “It was only challenging in so far as we had to figure out how to get her to swallow the most foul-tasting of the meds,” says Terri.

In time, it has become a routine and fairly effortless part of their daily lives.

“It’s just a matter of taking medications twice a day and having blood drawn quarterly,” she says.

Sachi’s drug regimen targets the HIV virus with a combination of anti-retroviral medications. Called “highly active antiretroviral therapy” – or HAART – the treatment keeps the virus from replicating in her blood. With HAART therapy, living with HIV has become much more manageable – and hopeful.

Some of Linda Walsh’s HIV patients are now in their early 20’s and going off to college. “Some of the young women have had babies of their own. We feel a little like grandparents,” she says. All of their babies are HIV-negative.

Although HIV treatment has become fairly straightforward, consistency is crucial. If a patient stops taking their medication regularly, the virus can become resistant.

When that happens, the drugs stop working.

“For a family considering adopting a child with HIV, they will have to embrace the idea that medication adherence is probably the single most important factor in their kid’s health,” says Dr. Alexander. “If you’re not a person who puts the toothpaste cap back on, this isn’t for you.”

That said, parents can – and do – make occasional mistakes without dire consequence. “It’s more forgiving than that,” says Dr. Alexander. “If a kid gets something between 80 and 100% of their doses, they’re doing pretty well.”

For prospective adoptive parents, the cost of HIV treatment is another factor to consider. The cost varies based on the drug regimen. “Some are (more affordable), some are still quite expensive,” says Dr. Alexander. For Sachi’s medication, the Robacks pay about $30/month.

“Most families have insurance and insurance is very good about covering that,” says Dr. Alexander. “That being said, if I counseled a family, one of the things I’d say is let’s sit down with your insurance and make sure (it covers the cost of treatment).”

A Teachable Moment

As with any adoption for a child with a special medical need, families should carefully consider what they’re capable of managing. But managing the HIV virus itself is not necessarily the biggest issue to consider.

“The biggest challenge families face is everyone else,” says Dr. Alexander.

Although most have welcomed Sachi, some friends have dropped out of Terri and Brad’s lives. They’ve learned to be careful with whom they share Sachi’s status.

“The worst thing about having this virus is the stigma attached to it,” says Terri. “That’s really what parents have to prepare themselves for.”

When disclosing, they also have to consider what Sachi would want. “When we tell people she is HIV-positive, we’re telling something she may not want to tell people herself,” says Terri. But Terri and Brad also feel Sachi has nothing to be ashamed of. “For that reason,” says Terri, “we’ve been mostly forthcoming.”

The Robacks see it as a teachable moment. “We try to be educators,” she says.

In their community, the Robacks have become strong advocates for HIV awareness and adoption. Terri serves on a parent advisory board for the Adoption Center. And every three months, she speaks about raising an HIV-positive child on a panel at the University of Chicago. “I think that’s really useful to people,” she says. “They can ask us questions, ask what to expect.”

The HIV pediatric care team often visits churches and schools in the community as well. “(We) share that there is a child among you with HIV – and this is what it means,” says Dr. Alexander. “The vast majority of people, given a little education, are very accepting.”

Growing Up with HIV

Now 4, Sachi is only beginning to become curious about why she takes medication – and others don’t.

For now, Terri and Brad keep it simple. They have explained to Sachi that people either take medicine when they get sick, or not to get sick in the first place. “That’s satisfying her for now,” says Terri. “As she gets more sophisticated, we’ll continue to supply her with more information.”

As Sachi grows older and more independent, Terri and Brad know to prepare for issues other families have faced. Sometimes, typical teenage rebellion expresses itself in refusal to take medication.

“You have to really plan for those years,” says Terri.

They hope to have a strong support system to rely on. The Adoption Center at the University of Chicago offers one strong network of support, including a developmental psychologist who can help families like the Robacks work through those years. “We’ve been doing this now in our clinics since 1990, so there’s a lot of experience,” says Dr. Alexander. Through the years, he’s observed that most issues that arise have more to do with normal teenage behavior than anything else.

“Is it the fact that they’re adopted? That they have HIV? That they’re a teenager? I feel like I’m living with a space alien,” he says parents will ask. “Mostly, it’s because they have a normal kid.”

“We just hope that she will be a good kid with a good head on her shoulders,” says Terri.

Of that, Terri feels hopeful. Parenting Sachi, regardless of the fact she has HIV, is the most hopeful thing Terri says she’s ever done.

Dr. Alexander also sees a hopeful future for Sachi.

“Every day new drugs come along,” says Dr. Alexander. “We have every reason to think she’ll do just fine.”

More than fine, even.

“She can do everything. She can get married. She can have children. She can be in the Olympics. She can,” says Terri, “do anything anyone else can do.”

Holt’s waiting child program is currently seeking adoptive families for two young girls in Southeast Asia who have tested positive for HIV. Click here for more information.

Resources for Prospective Parents

University of Chicago Adoption Center: www.uchicagokidshospital.org/specialties/adoption

Project HOPEFUL: www.projecthopeful.org

From HIV to Home: www.fromhivtohome.org

AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families: www.aids-alliance.org

From Oregon to India to Vietnam

Ashli Keyser — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:47:27 +0000

coordinated efforts to serve children and families span around the globe

In the spring issue of Holt magazine, Minalee Saks, executive director of Birth to Three, described a workshop she led last February – in India. Birth to Three is a non-profit organization in Eugene, Oregon that provides parenting education and support for families of young children. Organized by Holt, the workshop drew 19 social workers from six countries for a four-day training in Birth to Three’s “Make Parenting a Pleasure” curriculum.

At the end of the workshop, the participants returned home to put Minalee’s practices to work – making the act of parenting both more enjoyable, and more effective, for families from Ethiopia and Uganda to the Philippines and Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the two social workers that participated are making quick progress.

With the lessons still fresh in her mind, Holt social worker Nguyen Thu Ngan led a one-day training session for fellow social workers and staff in Vietnam. In turn, the Holt-Vietnam staff will soon begin training families we serve throughout the country – beginning with 50 struggling families we support in the north, near Hanoi. The children of these families are all in preschool, and all at risk of neglect or separation from their parents. Through basic support services, we are helping these families give their children a safe, stable home. And now, thanks to Minalee Saks and Birth to Three, we can help them become better parents for their children as well.

Read about Minalee’s time in India….

Make Parenting a Pleasure – in India, Ethiopia or Oregon

rmunro — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:55:43 +0000

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.

As a trainer of parent educators, Minalee Saks has often quoted this proverb to explain how children learn.

Until recently, she had never heard it sung. “Suddenly, I was hearing social workers attending a training in Pune, India, combine their voices and actions to add new meaning to the words,” she recently wrote in a guest article for The Eugene Register-Guard.

Minalee is the founder and executive director of Birth to Three, an organization that provides parenting education and support for families of young children. In previous years, Holt partnered with Birth to Three for trainings in Romania and Ukraine. The program was a great success with parents and educators alike. So when Holt decided to organize a training for social workers from around the globe, they asked Minalee to lead it. In February, 19 women from 6 countries traveled to Pune, India to learn Birth to Three’s “Make Parenting a Pleasure” curriculum.

From day one, Minalee couldn’t stop smiling. After four days, she left India resolute about one universal truth: “Parents are parents throughout the world. Regardless of cultures, allegiances, experiences, living situations or countries — people love their children and want the best for them. Whether living in Creswell, Eugene, Kiev or Addis Ababa, all parents have hopes and dreams for their children.”

Read Minalee’s full article here.

When you send a girl to school…

rmunro — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:27:25 +0000

After completing her education, Shyla returned to VCT to teach children at the care center.

“In the Indian culture, when you send a boy to school, you change his life and that continues to be so important. But when you send a girl to school, you can change an entire generation.”

So says Mary Paul, director of Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT), a Holt partner organization in India. Every year, Holt’s wonderful sponsors send hundreds of children in India — mostly girls — to school. Most of these girls would otherwise be working as domestic servants, earning income to help support their families.

Recently, the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon featured the story of one girl and her strong single mother* who, determined to give her daughter an education, asked VCT to sponsor her education. That was 11 years ago. Today, this girl is 29 years old. She works as an assistant teacher at the same place that gave her an education — teaching children in care, and changing generations to come.

Click here to read Shyla’s story in full.

To learn more about Holt’s work in India, click here.

Click this link to read about Holt sponsorship and how you can send a girl to school in India.

* Correction: In the story, Shyla’s mother is described as “unwed.” She was in fact married, but raised Shyla on her own as a “single mother.”

Season of Love, Gifts of Hope: Whoever Welcomes a Little Child

Ashli Keyser — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:35:10 +0000

Mrs. Suja Pillai, a 41-year-old foster mother from Pune, India has loved and encouraged 65 children in the last 13 years. Some children have stayed with her for only a few months. Some she has nurtured for several years. She often cares for two children at the same time. One of 26 families currently participating in Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra’s (BSSK) foster care program, Suja cannot imagine her life without the children.

BSSK introduced foster care in 1982 as a way to provide loving, temporary care for children. Being a foster mother requires a lot of time, work and love. When foster parents join BSSK’s program, they participate in a 5-day training to learn how to safely and effectively care for children. Foster parents learn a range of skills, including how to bathe children, boil bottles and prepare food. Regularly scheduled foster parent meetings follow the initial training. In addition to providing training and guidance to foster parents, BSSK helps to offset some of the costs involved by providing a small subsidy for each child, plus money for supplies, clothes and transportation to doctor’s appointments.

Although this support helps with the actual cost of supporting each child, the love and affection each foster parent contributes is priceless. Suja smiles when asked why she became a foster mother. “Initially I had financial problems and wanted to work from home. Now, I love it and cannot live without the children!” she says.

Suja is now considered one of the most experienced foster mothers in the program, offering guidance and support to some of the less experienced foster parents. She has the formal title of “Head Foster Mother” in the area, which makes her responsible for coordinating 16 foster homes, organizing the distribution of supplies, performing home visits and arranging local transport for doctor visits.

Holding up the photograph of a smartly dressed little girl, she says: “The hardest part of being a foster mother is being able to let go. One child stayed with me for three years before she was adopted internationally.” There are tears in her eyes as she talks about the child she has not seen in ten years. “I don’t know what her life is like now, but I will always know I had some influence.” She smiles through her tears. “That is what being a foster mother is about.”

How Holt Sponsorship Works

Ashli Keyser — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:07:56 +0000

Watch the video below and find out what Holt sponsorship is all about…..and how you can change a child’s life….

Sponsor a child in Holt’s care today!

Wishing for the Best

Ashli Keyser — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:26:09 +0000

Ranjan has a family!

by Robin Munro, senior writer

“Good Morning! All the best!” *Ranjan says in one breath, with a thumbs-up to greet the child care staff at Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT) – a child care center in Bangalore, India.

Today, Ranjan is hopeful and optimistic, wishing for the best – an extraordinary attitude for a boy who, in 5 years of life, has experienced child abandonment, severe health problems, developmental delays and hearing impairment.

Born premature with multiple medical conditions, Ranjan was abandoned at a large government hospital at just a few weeks of age. He came into VCT’s care at 2 months old, weighing a mere 1.5 kg. Shortly thereafter, Ranjan joined a foster family provided by VCT. This blessing has proven instrumental to Ranjan’s growth and development.

Ranjan’s foster mother, a crèche nurse trained in child care, tackled Ranjan’s speech, motor and mental delays as challenges to overcome – relishing small victories as Ranjan worked toward major milestones. “Ranjan smiled today,” she’d enthusiastically report during early visits with VCT child care staff. She noticed, with delight, the first time Ranjan moved his toes. And after two years of occupational therapy and encouragement from his foster family, Ranjan finally learned to walk.

Ranjan attends school and receives speech therapy at VCT. Founded by Holt in 1988, Vathsalya Charitable Trust provides loving, attentive care, education and medical checkups for orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children in Bangalore. Holt continues to provide major funding support for VCT programs, enabling children like Ranjan to study, receive rehabilitative therapy and thrive in the embrace of a loving foster family.

The leaps-and-bounds progress Ranjan has made in VCT care also helped him to find an adoptive family in India, with which he was recently matched. At Holt, we strive to give children the nurturing care they need for healthy social, emotional and physical development. In family-like alternatives to institutions such as VCT foster care, children also learn to be part of a family – a relational life skill they take with them when they join their adoptive family.

Holt strives to find permanent, loving families for children through domestic and international adoption, as well as through family reunification and preservation. For many children who enter Holt care, Holt helps their birth families achieve the stability they need to provide a stable home environment.

For other children, rejoining their birth family is not the best solution. For these children, like Ranjan, Holt first strives to find a permanent family within their birth culture. In India, more and more children are finding families through domestic adoption. For others, especially children with special needs, finding permanency means a family overseas must open their heart to international adoption.

To learn about more children like Ranjan who need families, contact the Waiting Child program.

adoptive family.

*name has been changed

Sponsor a chid in India

Changing a Generation

Ashli Keyser — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:56:04 +0000

Give a Gift of Hope to a girl in India

By Brian Campbell, creative services director

Bangalore, India – Traditional music blasts out of a makeshift shrine to Ganesha – a deity worshiped in the Hindu religion. It’s festival season here in India and people from all over have traveled to Bangalore to be with family and participate in the celebration. Families have scraped together their meager wages and purchased idols and treats for the elephant god – the Hindu god of success.

On this particular day, however, individuals moved by a different God step out of their cars and follow VCT Director Mary Paul into the depths of the Bangalore slum.

The guys from NewSong and a group of school-aged girls in Vathsalya Charitable Trust’s (VCT) child sponsorship program – a program that keeps young girls in school when families cannot afford their education –make their way through the rough alleys. Today, these girls will invite NewSong into their humble homes.

One girl, *Seveta, momentarily pauses to observe the half-clothed children running through the alley and women washing clothes in pans filled with dingy water. The alley smells of waste.

“I’m ashamed to show these men my home,” says Seveta to Mary Paul. “It’s much too small for them.” Mary Paul just smiles and encourages Seveta to carry on, but only if she is comfortable. Seveta rocks her head from side to side – a common gesture of agreement in India.

Arriving at her home, Seveta disappears through the small, dark doorway and, without hesitation, Eddie, Russ, Billy and Matt follow Mary Paul inside. Measuring about 7 feet by 10 feet, this tiny, one-room home – shared by Seveta, her parents and sister – is tidy and clean.

Seveta’s sister attends college, but her parents could not afford Seveta’s education. Her father suffered from alcoholism, and her mother became the principle provider for the family. With Holt’s help, VCT provided Seveta with books, paper, a uniform and other supplies needed to attend school.

The guys are impressed with Seveta’s story and her willingness to work so hard.

“There are still so many more we could serve in just this area,” says Mary Paul, exiting the house with NewSong and signaling to the other girls in the alley. “By helping these girls stay in school, we can change an entire generation.”

As the group leaves the alley, Russ momentarily looks back and observes Seveta standing in front of her home – her neat school uniform in sharp contrast to her meager surroundings.

“It’s almost like she doesn’t belong there,” says Russ. “When she finishes her education, she won’t. She will have so much more than this.”

“This is what we do,” says Mary Paul in reply. “God gives us the will and courage to do this work one child at a time.”

Almost on cue, the celebration music in the background comes to an abrupt stop. A smile curls the corners of Russ’ mouth.

“Let’s make it more than one at a time if we can,” says Russ, with fierce determination.

Give a Gift of Hope today! Over half of all girls in India don’t finish primary school, most because they lack money for fees, books, uniforms and supplies. Help one girl in Holt’s India programs achieve her goals—support one year of her education! Click here

These are the hands and feet…

Brian Campbell — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:09:12 +0000

Contemporary Christian music group NewSong, founder of Winter Jam, is currently traveling in India to view Holt’s childcare and family preservation programs there.

by Brian Campbell, creative services director

Pune, India – The van stops at the mouth of a back alley neighborhood, where Billy, Eddie, Matt and Russ of the Christian music group NewSong step out with Roxana Kalyanvala, BSSK’s director. As they wind through the alley, the NewSong members begin to notice the houses that line these narrow streets – tiny, one-room dwellings with makeshift doors composed of wood, sheet metal and roofing tin.

The guys pause outside the doorway of a family in BSSK’s family preservation program, where a woman named *Shveta answers the door. With gracious gestures, she welcomes the NewSong members into her home. The guys politely remove their shoes and enter the home’s one room – roughly 8 feet by 12 feet in size. They stand beneath a corrugated iron roof, which, heated by the sun, has turned the room into a sauna. But the guys are eager to hear Shveta’s story and don’t seem to mind the heat as they listen to her talk, and Roxana translate.

Day laborers, Shveta and her husband work when they can. In India, the average day laborer earns an annual income of roughly 4,000 rupees, or less than $100 a year. To help support the family, their two children – a teenage son and young daughter – quit school to work. With day-to-day survival the main concern, the long-term goal of

education had fallen to the wayside.

Recognizing their need, BSSK stepped in to help this family out of dire poverty. The social

service organization provided tailor training for Shveta and employment leads for her husband. BSSK also provided the resources the children need to continue school.

“How does a family live on less than $10 a month?” Matt whispers as the group steps out of the house. Then, the thought sinking into his heart, he continues, “What did these children eat for less than $100 a year?”

In the alley outside Shveta’s home, Russ and Matt turn and look around for the answer.

“The folks of Holt International are the feet and hands here on the ground,” says Eddie. “They come in here and do what they can for these kids to have a better future.”

Holt International’s child sponsorship program is the best way to support the continuing efforts of BSSK’s family preservation program.