India
The projects we have worked with in India over the years have highlighted some of the most abject poverty that we at Epiphany Trust have ever witnessed.
Following the tsunami of 2004 we worked in Tamil Nadu helping to re-build people’s lives and providing emergency aid. We have also helped to establish a home for orphaned children, and have actively campaigned for the freedom of children currently in bonded labour through the work of the Peniel Foundation in Chennai.
Currently we support the Peniel Foundation in providing healthcare, re-housing the homeless, children’s education and the regeneration of small businesses.
Ashish Ashirewad Society Tuition Centre
In the heart of the slums of Delhi lies a little slum school which is making such an incredible difference to the lives of the children which attend. There is currently just one teacher who teaches the CBSE curriculum in all subjects to the mixed aged children. The children are in four different groups of learning. It is a wonderful project which has been funded almost entirely by the founder Happy Masih, out of his meagre monthly wage.
The school, known as the ‘Ashish Ashirewad Society Tuition Centre’ was set up as an NGO in 2013 and is one of Epiphany Trust’s overseas partners.
The school building is old and extremely dilapidated. It is a multi-purpose building which was given by the government to Happy’s family who use it on Sundays for church and during the week it is used by the community, for birthdays, weddings or simply to house individuals who fall on hard times, or anyone who has nowhere else to stay. The roof is made of plastic and bamboo and has been damaged by cats and birds and badly needs repair. However, Happy’s dream is not only to refurbish the three room building, but to build another floor above where he could house eight orphans, and a house parent to cook for them and help them with their studies.
Future plans also include starting another school for the Bangladeshi community in a nearby slum, and to open schools in the Bihar area from where Happy’s family originate, where children from a large region have no access to education.
Providing healthcare, re-housing the homeless, children’s education in the Delhi slums, and the regeneration of small businesses.
