The more I think, pray and read about the issue of killing baby girls in India it is obvious to me that we have enough information on female infanticide, feticide and the discrimination of the girl child in India. I just read that in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu (southern India) it has been estimated that up to 50% of girl babies are killed or die before their first birthday because of neglect.

For those of you that may need more information or to be convinced here is another link.

Petals in the Dust Trailer

On March 24th a small group of us are headed back to India to visit with several field partners that have developed workable solutions on how to not only rescue these girls but add significant value to them so they are no longer viewed as a liability but an asset to the Indian culture. We will be inspecting two projects funded by The Rhema Project that are already impacting the lives of over 1,000 girls.

The simple truth is that in southern India it costs about $30.00 to $35.00 USD per month to provide care, education and opportunity to an orphaned or abandoned girl (even less if a girl can live with her parents or guardians in her home village). Several of our field partners have the systems in place but not the financial backing to significantly increase their capacity to do more. The even better news is that in many cases the infrastructure is already in place which most times significantly reduces the actual cost per month needed to have immediate and lasting impact – in some situations it might be as low as 10%.

The Rhema Project’s purpose is to increase our Indian field partners capacity to do more. Our ability to have immediate and lasting impact is directly related to the number of people that simply say, “Enough is Enough!” and back that up with a financial gift.