 Full page feature in the local Kotdwara newspaper Happy New Year from the team at ‘Project Help India’. I'm incredibly excited about 2020 and thankful for your interest, help and support. My 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 of our 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’ Women’s Empowerment 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? For me as I head into 2020, helping the poor will be one of my resolutions. 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. 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, this being exactly what ‘Project Help’ represents and stands for.
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 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 me 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. 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. Thank you for being part of our story. YOU CAN JOIN OUR STORY 1. Donate - Your tax deductible Christmas donation can be made HereEnsure that you are donating to (WYG-IND-PHI-2019) OR if tax deductibility is not required, your EFT donation can be made at BSB: 062 230 (Commonwealth Bank Randwick) Account: 1134 1909 Account Name: Project Help India Please write your name in the reference section so we can thank you. 2. Please like and share this blog on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Thanks so much and Merry Christmas Love Doug |
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