Children from all walks of life come into care – they ask for little, and love costs nothing. Much is being done in so-called developing countries to provide opportunities and hope for such children – and to ease the burdens on miserably poor households, burdens that see youngsters suffering in their home, and even being turned out because the family income, perhaps as little as 50p a day, cannot be stretched to feed one more mouth.
Among organisations playing a part in giving children a chance are charities like Chiks (Children’s Homes in Kerala State), which Lion Robin Radley founded in the 1990s. Lion Robin met a nun named Mary who had been trained by Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. By the 1990s they decided to launch their first Home, in Kerala, SW India, and within a few years Lion Robin had discovered two other Homes, both alarmingly poor, in mountain regions of this deceptively attractive State - Chiks ‘adopted’ them.
Chiks has built wonderful new accommodation for the Homes in the mountains (more than 100 children are enjoying the facilities); provided a school bus for one of the Homes; and have bought farmland for the other one, in order that self-sufficiency can one day be achieved.
Of the 200 or so people (mostly children) being provided for by Chiks, there are almost as many sad stories. Like the boy who had been so cruelly treated that by age six he had several times tried to take his own life (hanging included). The even younger girl who was bound to the entrance of the crude little house and offered for sale (for about 30p); her sick, penniless and despairing young mother had seen that the daughter’s only chance would be with someone else...
Lions members are very much aware of the ‘Street Children’ issue, with support provided through the British Isles & Irish Lions ‘Street Children Programme’.
For more information visit their web site.
