India:
Tamil
Nadu, a province along the East Coast of India suffered more
than any other part of the country as result of the 2004 tsunami.
Official figures indicate that nearly 8,000 people died, over
3,000 were injured and 123,000 were made homeless in the region
but unofficially the number has been estimated much higher.
After hearing of the aid & relief work that we had been
doing in Sri Lanka, Epiphany was contacted by Juliet Simson
of 'Helping Hands Trust' - a Christian charity based in India.
Helping Hands was in need of urgent assistance to finance a
series of new projects aimed at combating some of the mountainous
problems that had been created. A home was to be established
for children who had been orphaned by the tsunami, boats and
nets were sought to allow people to rebuild their livelihoods,
and a child sponsorship programme was underway to provide for
some of the world's poorest children and their families.
The visit to the region in September 2005 by Bill Hampson confirmed
that supporting Helping Hands was a very worthy application
of our funds. During a tour of the area Bill met families living
off a wage of 50p per day, tribal people living in caves and
whole communities living without even the most basic water and
sanitary systems. Medicines are in very short supply and leprosy
is still commonplace. However, despite all this destitution,
he found the Helping Hands Trust to be a shining light. The
organisation, as with all of our partners, is genuine, hardworking
and accountable.
So far £4,500 of your kindly donated money has been passed
on to India. £1,000 was split between 20 families to purchase
kitchen and living facilities that were washed away by the tsunami,
and the remainder is sustaining children's homes which now house,
feed and educate over a hundred youngsters.
This
recent addition to our projects has brought to our attention
some of the most abject poverty that we at Epiphany Trust have
ever witnessed. Every effort will be made over the coming years
to empower Helping Hands to regenerate small businesses, to
re-house the homeless and to provide rehabilitation and education.
To read Bill Hampson's account of his visit to Tamil Nadu click
here
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