Earlier this week I received an email from the director of one of our field partners working in South India near Madurai. I have removed the name of the village to protect the privacy and safety of the families.

Have we eradicated the practice of female infanticide and the discrimination of the girl child in this village? Nope. But programs that have been implemented by our dedicated staff has temporarily stopped the practice that had been taking 35 to 40 girl babies each year from this one village. We must continue to push hard to address the issues that cause a culture not to value the life of their daughters. I thought you would enjoy reading part 1 of the report. Over the next few weeks we will post other parts that are also inspiring to read.

The Rhema Project first quarter report (Jan – March 2011)
Report Period: January 2011 – March 2011


Introduction: By God’s grace and with the support of The Rhema Project we were able to do minister in …varpatti village and different parts of Tamilnadu effectively during the first quarter of this New Year 2011. During this period we could save 9 children from ruthless killing and bring impact in the lives of 19 families directly and many in the villages. The USA team visit and their commitment to serve the community have touched the staffs and village people. Foster parents came forward to care the saved babies from death. The most amazing thing has happened in this village is no baby is killed in the adopted village of …varpatti during this period.

New babies in …varpatti village

Total number of children born in …varpatti: 10 (Female: 6 and Male: 4)

Baby Name : Mariswari
Parents Name: Jeyachandran and Karpooravalli

Mariswari is the first Child to the parents; hence they did not kill the baby. Initially people were hesitant to get the milk as we were recording everyday with their signature. Karpooravalli was bold and encouraged other to come forward to get the milk. She said to them that they have come to help us not to harm us. This has paved way for the other women to come forward. She is a help to many women in the village. She is influencing the village positively.

Baby Name: Anandhi
Parents Name: Anand and Mariammal

They have a male child. Anandhi was second baby to this family. The parents are daily labourers. Very rarely they get work. Thus they live in utter poverty. When Anandhi was born she was very weak and they thought the baby won’t survive. The village people told the parents to kill the baby. But we counselled them, given hope in God and provided them baby products and milk powder to strengthen the baby. Through the continue visit of our staffs and prayer they let the baby live.

Baby Name Shivani
Parents Name: Sivaraman and Muthuselvi.

Shivani is the first child to the parents. They have tractor, through which they are able to make some money. Since this was their first child they did not kill. The parents are very much thankful for the service we are offer. They said a curse is being removed from our village by our service in the village. They are very happy for our ministry in the village, after associating with our staffs, their life style is changed. They also asked us to pray for them. They are eagerly listening to the gospel.

Baby Name: Suba lakhmi
Parents Name: Muthuvel and Meenachi

This baby is fourth female child to the parents. The parents are agricultural labourers. They rarely get work. Since the baby was fourth, they were about to kill the baby. By the timely intervention of our staffs they could prevent this. Still the old ladies are persisting them to kill the baby. They said don’t have any means to help this baby to grow as they are very poor. Meenachi said, if she can get a sewing machine and tailoring training or a small petty shop in her village would help her. Kindly uphold them in your prayer.

5. Baby Name: Bharathi
Parents Name: Selvam and Vennila

This in their first child and therefore they did not kill the baby. Since they are very poor, muthupandi went to the neighbouring state Karnataka to work. He comes to the village once in a while. They are so happy for the Project and they said, This has changed the village. They also asked our staffs to pray for the baby and name her. The baby was named Bharathi, a revolutionary poet in Tamilnadu. They are so interested in knowing Jesus.

Baby Name: No Name
Parents Name: Pandi and Pitchaiammal

This is the fifth child to the parents. They have one female child already. Except the first baby all the other 3 female children were killed. During the delivery lot of blood was lost, so the husband thought his wife would die, so he left the hospital, leaving her behind. On hearing this, our staff rushed to hospital and arranged blood for her and took care of her. So, she recovered and delivered a female baby. Everyone was upset because she was a girl. So they decided to kill this baby also. After lot of counselling by our staffs, they agreed not to kill. Pandi goes for cutting woods. They asked our staff, if we give them some help for the baby to grow would be highly helpful. They want their children to study that in their biggest desire.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:27 NTL)

Two years ago Phillip decided to start a church in his home town and resigned his position with World Relief. This meant leaving a good and reliable income that provide for his family to a calling that gave him no income or security. But Phillip knew he needed to reach his family, friends and neighbor and share his faith with them. He learned about an organization called Life Mission India that was helping teach and equip men and women to how to start and lead churches. He was accepted into their training program.

Last spring I was talking with Raj of Aroma Ministries and founder of Life Mission India if he knew of someone that could help us oversee or initiatives in Rhema’s village. He shared that he knew of a man in a nearby village that had recently completed the first module of training and knew he had worked at World Vision.

Unlike America most India pastors are bi-vocational. Many work another job during the day so that they can share their faith during the evenings and on the weekends.

So, we hired him to help lead and oversee our efforts in Rhema’s village. Each morning, Phillip jumps on his motorcycle and travels the 10 kilometers to this village. Twelve months ago before Phillip arrive the lives of 35 and 50 baby girls were lost each year. Today that number is almost zero!

Phillip has lead the way with our water projects, our school and kitchen renovations, our prenatal and newborn care initiatives, taking our village census and leading the discussion on how we will use agricultural development to not only stabilize this village financially but so that the village can own the cultural change that values the lives of females.

It is no coincidence that Phillip is from the same caste as most families from Rhema’s village. Phillip understands how they think and they respect him immensely. Our job is not done yet but Phillip is clicking off metrics at a speed that is amazing to watch.

Pastor Phillip’s home church continues to grow and thrive. Hopefully, in part because he is able to live out the gospel each day not only in his home town but a small village just 10 kilometers down a dusty road.

I believe there are people just like Phillip all over South India and they are the key to how we are going to bring value, hope and opportunity to the girl child and end the practice of female infanticide.

Friends, it is going to happen and I am asking you to be a part of it! Link to “How Can I Help” and be a part of something worthy of your time and effort.

The Rhema Project is committed to highlighting others that are making a difference in bringing value and opportunity to the Indian girl child. Here is Crystle’s story.

India’s one-woman charity

CHAMIYARI, INDIA—Not long ago, the thought of graduating from school must have seemed like an impossible dream for Monica, a soft-spoken 12-year-old with emerald eyes, a heart-melting smile, and pigtails secured with scraps of ribbon.

Her father sells juice at a roadside stand in this town, only kilometres from the Pakistan border, never making more than a few dollars a day.

Monica’s mother abandoned the family three years ago, leaving her husband to raise their four daughters.

Monica’s father can barely afford to buy rice, flour or lentils, let alone pay the fifth grader’s school fees, which total about $140 a year.

Enter Crystle Mazurek, a Canadian high school teacher with an easygoing smile, aubergine highlights and a soft spot for India’s needy children.

A 49-year-old mother of three who lives a block from the St. Lawrence River in Brockville, Ont., Mazurek donated to well-known charities for years. But she became increasingly concerned, she said, that her contributions were being used to put aid officials up “in five-star hotels.”

So in 2001 Mazurek started her own charity, one she hoped would make a difference in a handful of derelict villages in Punjab, an Indian state where she spent four years as a child. Despite the state’s robust agricultural sector, social issues such as female infanticide, honour killings and even access to basic education remain grave problems.

Nine years after making her first donations here, Mazurek’s India Village Poverty Relief Fund has made impressive strides.

She has brought in more than $100,000 — $30,000 of which was raised from Canadian donors this year alone — to help pay for the education of primary, elementary and college-aged students, and to buy new tools such as sewing machines and welding equipment for young, skilled and poor apprentices.

“People are so giving,” she said. “My husband was out for dinner the other night and was talking about what I’m trying to do here and the couple he was with wrote a cheque for $500 for the charity, just like that.”

Mazurek is sponsoring more than 200 students this year alone at 32 schools in Punjab. She says she emphasizes helping girls and young women.

Monica is just one of those girls. Mazurek’s charity contributes $80 a year toward her fees for St. Mary’s Convent School in Chamiyari; the school covers the remainder.

There are other success stories. A former beneficiary, now 27, works as a computer programmer in Dubai. Another is close to completing nursing school. “Her education will give her a good income and really enhance her marriage prospects,” Mazurek said.

But Mazurek’s story also illustrates how complex the aid world can be, and how simply throwing money at the world’s poorest without understanding local customs usually fails to affect long-term change.

During one of her first trips here, she distributed boxes of toothpaste and toothbrushes after watching locals scrub their teeth with branches from a neem tree. When she returned a year later, people were still using the same brushes, now blackened and frayed. The toothpaste had run out months earlier.

“It was a reminder that you can’t impose a Western mindset when you come here,” she said. “I later learned that neem branches actually have some antibacterial properties. I was doing more harm than good, and it was a lesson that you really have to listen to what people say they need and try to accommodate that.”

In another case, she gave money to a family to build a latrine. Diseases like polio spread through contact with human waste and Mazurek hoped word about the benefits of improved hygiene would spread through the village. But on a subsequent trip, Mazurek saw that the new latrine simply emptied into an open sewer outside the family’s home.

She also saw some of her money waylaid during her early days as a philanthropist. “I gave some money to a young woman to get false teeth because hers were so bad, and her brother told her he’d commit suicide if she didn’t give the money to him,” Mazurek said.

That prompted her to stop giving cash directly to families and instead distribute it through schools and churches.

There have also been hurdles involved in bringing money into India.

In past years, Mazurek’s local church in Brockville held her collected donations in its bank account and sent the money via wire transfer to the Catholic Archdiocese in Jallandhar, a large city in Punjab. But in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Canada has become more hawkish about overseas fundraising, prompting her church to drop out.

A few months ago, she won approval from the Canada Revenue Agency to distribute tax receipts as a registered charity. “My bookkeeping is excellent, but I’m still not looking forward to the first time I get audited,” said Mazurek, who is a one-woman show.

She has no staff, draws no salary from the charity and looks after her own fundraising through public speaking engagements in Ontario.

Mazurek made her first trip to India as a 2-year-old when her mother heard there was a need for English teachers, packed their belongings and boarded a freighter to set out across the Atlantic. Once they landed in Bombay, the city now known as Mumbai, they made their way north to a small village outside Amritsar, a city in Punjab that’s home to the Golden Temple, a pilgrimage site for Sikhs around the world.

Mazurek lived here with her parents for four years before they returned to Canada. It was long enough, she said, to become hooked on life’s simple pleasures: sweet chai masala, a steaming hot whole-wheat chapati, and meetha chawal, a popular local dish with rice, sugar, coconut and raisins.

“A few years ago, my mother called me over to her house to say she was giving me my inheritance,” Mazurek said. “When I got there, we sat down and she explained it was this village in Punjab. She had spent her life trying to make a difference there and she was expecting me to carry it on. That’s how this all started.”

Not everyone in Punjab needs financial help, of course.The expansive state of loamy farmland that runs along India’s border with Pakistan has long been the country’s breadbasket. Landowners here, with fields of wheat, maize and rice, are among India’s richest residents. But the labourers who toil in these fields are among its poorest.

Mazurek says she’s aiming to help the disadvantaged children of these labourers, who typically earn about $1 to $2 a day.

On a recent sunny afternoon, Mazurek walked into a classroom at St. Mary’s Convent School. Several nuns dressed in navy blue and white habits greeted Mazurek and handed over a sheet with the names of the 12 students she sponsored. There were six boys and six girls whose marks ranged from 88 per cent to 71 per cent. “Generally, the marking is harder here,” she said, running her finger over the sheet. “A ‘C’ here is like a ‘B’ in Canada.”

Aid work in this sprawling country is an increasingly polarizing issue.

India, of course, has been proclaimed a world power by no less than U.S. President Barack Obama. Its middle class is surging and its wealthy class has more money than ever. Recently, an Indian billionaire made headlines when he built a 27-storey, billion-dollar home in Mumbai, complete with a six-level garage, three helicopter pads and a grand ballroom.

India’s progress leaves some aid workers wondering whether the country still needs foreign money at all.

“Isn’t there enough money here for India to feed its own?” asked a senior United Nations official based in New Delhi. “The economy here is now twice the size of my own country.”

Motoring over potholed roads to her next appointment, driving past fields of workers collecting chaff into golden piles high in the air, Mazurek and Father Robi mulled over the question.

“If a parent has a child but doesn’t feed it, do you as a neighbour stop looking after the child?” Robi asked. “It’s a question we are asking, too: why Indians don’t do more to help others here? But international society still has a responsibility to do what it can.”

For the rest of the afternoon, Mazurek met more of her other aid recipients.

One 25-year-old tailor, married with four children, used the 3,000 rupee sewing machine Mazurek gave him four years ago to start a business. He now has an unpaid apprentice and has purchased a second machine for his home so he can work late into the evening.

“He’d like another one that can do zigzag stitching,” Father Robi said, translating for him.

Another student, 20-year-old Priyanka, was learning computer programming at a local community college thanks to Mazurek’s contributions.

But meetings the next morning offered an insight into some of Mazurek’s tough choices.

Fifteen-year-old Nancy, one of six students Mazurek sponsors at a Catholic school in Chamiyari, has a 60 per cent average. She’s barely passing school.

“My father is suffering from black lungs,” Nancy said, explaining her struggles. “I find . . . math and science very difficult but I will recommit myself from this day forward.”

Nancy was obviously worried that Mazurek would pull her financial support, a move that would drive her either onto the streets at worst or, if there’s room, into a public school. India’s public schools, particularly in small villages, are plagued by teacher absenteeism and have a checkered record when it comes to turning out employable graduates.

“I’m not sure what I’ll do with this,” Mazurek said softly, shaking her head. “I’m still learning as I go.”

Question? Could hydroponic gardening and aquaponic raising of fish be a solution to end female infanticide and feticide in India?

Two of the driving factors that cause families to make the decision to end the lives of their daughters is lack of enough food to feed their family causing a slow but sure starvation and the long-term belief their family will be subjugated to bonded labor when they borrow money for their daughter’s dowry.

In 2010 it has been estimated that it takes approximately $1.25 (USD) per day to purchase food needed to survive. In many villages in southern India a male day laborer will earn about $1.00 (USD) for a day’s work and a women will earn between 50 and 70% of this amount for similar work. So, what does a family of do when they do not earn enough money to feed themselves when a daughter is born?

If they do make the right but difficult decision to not kill their newborn daughter how can they save enough money to pay the bride price of up to 10 times their family’s annual income?

Hydroponics (growing of plants using mineral nutrient in solutions, in water, without the use of soil) has been an option since the early 1970′s and has provided viable solutions for areas where soil quality is limited.

Aquaponics is the simultaneous cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a symbiotic environment where the animal effluents that accumulate in the water are used and filtered out by the plants as nutrients, after which the water is recirculated back to the animals.

Step in Russell, a successful farmer from Peru, Indiana. His interest is to raise Tilapia fish for a commercial sale.

Raising fish in the basement. Veggies on the main floor and add a greenhouse roof to keep the heat in so you could raise fish year round in Indiana.

Russell is more interested in raising fish for profit. The hydroponic side is primarily to filter, purify and oxidize the water so it will not become toxic and kill his cash crop. He has taken vertical farming to a whole new level.

So, what might happen if we could adapt this blend of hydroponic gardening and aquaponic fish raising to India? A village could not only provide its families with food to meet its own needs but it could become a viable business operation that could employ several village families. And then, hundreds of villages in southern India would be filled with the sounds of girls singing, laughing and living again.

I feel a plan coming together! Thanks Russell!!!

The Rhema Project is looking for innovative ways of developing mico businesses in southern India. One idea is the produce a Rhema handbag that can be quickly converted into a backpack. Rice comes in these colorful bags in India. Indians have not figured out recycling so we plan to build a business around it.

Last month when I came back from India, I brought back several rice bags and handed them over to Jennifer and Bruce Williams. Jennifer talked to Kim who is a great seamstress… and a few days later this is what we have as a prototype. Last Saturday, we met with Raj and Prema to talk about how we could build a business that would hire women to collect the rice bags, clean the rice bags, sew the backing to the rice bag, assemble the handbags and backpacks and start and import/export business from Chennai. Goal is to have them in production sometime in 2011. Just way too cool! Thanks Jennifer, Bruce, Kim and all on their growing team!

Demographics:

Female infanticide is so widely practiced that India has one of the most skewed sex ratios in the world at 929 females for 1000 males. The natural birth ratio worldwide is approximately 1050 women to 1000 males. Alarmingly, several districts in South India have now fallen below 800 females for 1000 males.

There is a handful of driving factors that cause a society to devalue the life of a person that has little or no value. Yesterday, I received this demographic overview of India. As I read through the list it seemed there were overwhelming odds stacked against the chance of India changing its culture from one that views women as an expense or liability to one of value and worth. But somewhere deep down inside I know The Rhema Project will be a part in helping India prevail.

To summarize Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, states you must be willing to address to brutal facts to become a great organization. Greatness is not about size of the organization but its ability to face reality and preserve with disciplined people that have disciplined thought and disciplined action over and over.

Population 1,013,662,000
Pop density: 320.2/ sq. km (829.3/sq. mi).
Under 15 years 337,651,000
Life expectancy: 64
Household size 5.6 (Floor area per person sq.m: 12.0)
Languages: Hindi and English, Assamese, Bengali,
Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu
Labor Force: 38 %

Economy:

National income p.a. per person: US$ 340; per family $1,904

Education:

Adult literacy: 52% (male 65%, female 37%). Schools: 812,975.
Universities: 7,958. School enrolment: female 62% male: 83%

Health:

Access to health services: 85%
Access to safe water: 81%.
Hospitals: 15,067 (8 beds per 10,000)
Doctors 405,253
Blind: 9,000,000
Deaf: 60,406,200.
Lepers: 5,500,000.
Underweight prevalence under 5: 53%

Communication per (1,000 people)

Phones: 13 (4% mobile)
Radios: 121
T.V. Sets: 61
Daily newspaper circulation 21
Computers 6

-Life expectancy is 64 years but a variety of diseases ravage the impoverished villagers, cutting their productive years to no more than 40.
·Per capita income is $240 but many unemployed individuals in cities scrape by on a mere 10 cents a day.
·Daily calorie supply is 2,229, but the average diet is so deficient in vital nutrients and proteins that it can be described as only a little better than fasting.
·In villages, most people still live in one-room hovels, which in many instances, also house the cattle and in the cities, millions live in slums in shacks built of cardboard or tin.
·Sanitation facilities are nonexistent in villages and small towns except for open latrines serviced by the untouchable class of scavengers.
·Nearly 41% of the urban population and 51% of the rural population live below the poverty level.
·While three fourths of Indians who live in rural areas live in unrelieved misery most of their lives, the other 25 percent make up a sector of people who benefit from India’s reasonably good, British-built infrastructure, making it the 10th largest in the world for industrial output and one of the best systems of higher education in the world.
·India has one of the longest constitutions in the world. It guarantees all basic liberties and these liberties have basically been upheld and respected even in the worst of times. In terms of human rights violations per capita, India ranks lowest in the world and is applauded by Amnesty International. Excesses and abuses are related to India’s political troubles, particularly the violent, ethnic, religions, caste communal and secessionist activities and the need to contain these activities by force.
·Discrimination of various kinds are built into Indian society and while the government is pledged to reduce them, social pressures have continued to sustain them. Gender discrimination is the most flagrant. Female bondage, forced prostitution, dowry deaths (killing of young brides by the husband or his family because they do not bring enough money as dowry), and child marriage remain common in many parts of India. Child prostitution is rampant in the large urban areas. In Bombay there are over 100,000 prostitutes—most of them minors. Female infanticide is so widely practiced that India has one of the most skewed sex ratios in the world at 929 females for 1000 males.

We have a busy season in front of us at The Rhema Project. Who’s in for the challenge? This is your reward.