Jane's Trip to Tamil Nadu
Our trip to India in January to visit all three of our new NGO's CRUSADE, CARE and MASARD confirmed my view that we have found exactly the right dedicated organisations for SOTE to partner with. They all mirror SOTE's vision and ethos to help the rural poor communities in Tamil Nadu; each has achieved so much with so little. We now a have a greater understanding of their vision and I am confident that we can help them achieve it.
Part of CRUSADE's vision is for better healthcare; currently his team screen for diabetes, cervical cancer and hypertension. Anemia and stunted growth due to poor nutrition are a real problem here. Cause and effect is not yet understood by so many villagers.
SOTE would like to help CARE increase the number of child sponsorships in the begging communities thus providing education and breaking the cycle of begging in families where money is spent primarily on alcohol, creating misery. Parents are educated about alcohol here too and lives are being turned around.
Because of limited availability of child sponsorships it is only the eldest sibling in a chosen family that receives sponsorship and thus education at MASARD; they would love to have 50 more children sponsored in the five villages the team work in.
These are all achievable goals that would make such a difference to so many.