May 11th, 2009 by megan
Sponsored Child and his Parents in the Scheduled Caste Colony
This article will appear in Hearts’ Cry’s May newsletter. To receive the e-newsletter sign up HERE.
In Mattampally, I witnessed the trials that our beneficiaries face on a daily basis. In the village open sewers abound, and dehydration caused by diarrhea is still the number one killer of children, yet preventable disease and lack of infrastructure are only the most visible signs of a village struggling to keep up with a developing nation that threatens to leave the landless poor behind. Farmer suicides, rampant alcoholism, depression, and abuse are the less obvious symptoms of cyclical poverty. But the cycle can be broken, and even in the most hopeless of situations, the subtle suggestions of hope linger just beneath the surface. Our goal at Hearts’ Cry’s goal is to provide opportunities and hope to the people of Mattampally, and there are many signs that Hearts’ Cry’s programs in the hands of Wilfred, Father George and the JJCT staff are successfully transforming Mattampally into a more hopeful place.
Read the rest of this entry »
April 24th, 2009 by tyler
We’ll be unveiling the new website in just under two weeks and one of the biggest improvements/changes will be the ability to sponsor a child, support a program or donate any amount online.
Of course we’ll still accept support by checks through the mail but we recognize how important it is to have this functionality on our website.
Other Expected Site Additions
- Student Profiles
- Sharing options
- Video (from Megan’s recent journey to Mattampally)
- Up-to-date information / pictures
If you want to know when the site will launch (and receive our newsletters) fill out the small form on the right side of this page.
April 16th, 2009 by megan
Are you ready? Ok, here it is.
The best international travel advice that you will ever get: Laugh at yourself!
Yeah, that’s it. If you’ve ever traveled abroad, especially from the ‘West’ to the ‘East’ you already know; our cultures are very different, and as a foreigner you are bound to screw something up. And not just something, many things! When I traveled in Rajasthan with SIT, I had about 15 other Americans with me to laugh about our cultural faux pas and uncontrollable bodily functions. But, when you travel alone, that luxury is lost. So, on this trip to India, I was responsible for laughing myself out of my own embarrassment, and here’s what I learned:
Was it worth it?
1. If it looks like a toilet, it IS a toilet! This applies to all flat surfaces, any shallow holes and particularly all square-ish 3-walled areas. But, surprisingly it took me 2 incidents to learn this lesson. Without the first incident I would not have gotten the lovely picture above, but was it really worth flip-flopping through human feces to get closer to the edge? Probably not. And had I known what I was standing in before Wilfred explained, I would have found another way. Read the rest of this entry »
April 16th, 2009 by megan
It’s officially been a month since I left India, so before my memory fails me and I lose the details that make this enjoyable:
Day 4: A Higher Education
On this lovely, Friday morning I was going to meet some of the first Hearts’ Cry sponsored children. The highest education available in Mattampally is 10th class, so we were on our way to the nearby city of Kodad. The real test of a sponsorship program is to see how the children’s lives are affected in the long term. And, not to spoil the story, but I was pleasantly surprised by the students’ progress. Several of the higher ed. students have been sponsored for nearly 10 years, and have grown from the thin, malnourished children in their first photos into strong, healthy and dedicated young men and women. Most have several years more education than their parents and they will all be the first in the family to hold undergraduate degrees. They will be respected engineers, nurses, doctors and bio-technicians.
Podala and friends at nursing college
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April 6th, 2009 by megan
Mattampally and the Hearts’ Cry Community Center are on the map!
Check out the Community Center labeled ‘Father Allam George’s Old Age Home’ (by another wikimapia user). You’ll notice the statue of Mother Theresa in the front lawn.
Click on the labeled boxes to tour the village, including St Ann’s School and VV High School. Enjoy the tour!
March 27th, 2009 by megan
I having been looking around at other child sponsorship organizations, and realized that there are a few things that set Hearts’ Cry apart from the rest. Believe me, these other, larger, aid organizations (the ones you see on late night infomercials) do amazing work for children in need, but there are a few perks to supporting a smaller organization like ours.
Wilfred enrolling a new child for sponsorship
1. We are an entirely volunteer organization (including me). All of the work done on this side of the ocean is done entirely by volunteers. We do this work because we love it, and we save our sponsors some hard-earned money in the process. Read the rest of this entry »
March 25th, 2009 by megan
After a couple of days spent hanging out at the Community Center, I was ready to get out and meet the people of Mattampally. I had eagerly awaited this day, March 5th, because I would be able to meet the Women’s Cooperative members and see our micro-financing in action. As the micro-enterprise coordinator for Hearts’ Cry, you can imagine my excitement! (I hope.)
Not the best photo, but these were the first women that I met!
Many of the village women go to the chili fields at dawn for daily work, so we headed out at 5:30 am to meet them at their homes and shops. Thanks to the enormous, and slightly intimidating turkey living right outside my window, 5 AM seemed like a fine time to wake up. (Pictures to come!) But, even without his morning serenade, I would have eagerly woken up to visit these women. I was on my way to meet many of the 200+ women who make up our Women’s Self-Help or Women’s Cooperative groups, and I was excited. Read the rest of this entry »
March 22nd, 2009 by megan
Bright and early the next morning, I met some of my favorite people in Mattampally: the ‘elderly elders’ as Wilfred and Father George call them. Our program for the homeless and near-homeless elderly people of Mattampally provides two meals a day, bedsheets, new clothing, medicine and toiletries to the needy.
'thank you'
I wish that I could show you the first moment that the elders laid eyes one me. They had stayed after their meal to await my arrival, and the second I stepped out of the door they rushed to greet me, hands together in thanks. (Although ‘rushed’ may be the wrong word: many of these folks are handicapped with arthritis, leg injuries, and the cloudy-blue eyes of glaucoma and cataracts. Rushing isn’t something they do often, but the desire was there.) Read the rest of this entry »
March 20th, 2009 by megan
Day 1 - March 3, 2009
Mattampally, Andhra Pradesh, India
After 36+ hours of travel time, including a 5 hour delay in Dubai and 2 hours of sleep in an overpriced, undersized motel, Father George and Wilfred cheerfully greeted me and we began our journey to Mattampally.
At this point, exhaustion had not yet set in, and I sat wide-eyed and eager in the back seat for the first part of our 4.5 hour journey from Hyderabad. I quickly realized, that although India seemed strangely familiar and oddly comfortable, the sheer contrast was enough to keep me entertained and excited. If you’ve never been to India, it may be hard to comprehend the visual and aural experience of driving through your average Indian city. But, I can try. The first thing you’d notice, of course, is the heat. But the intense heat is the last thing on your mind once you hit the streets.
Your mind and eyes dart back and forth from the ever-so-visible Indian culture and what feels like an ongoing game of chicken in front of your small vehicle. (Set to the tune of a hundred car horns and the occasional scream of bus brakes.) To the left: Shacks in gray and dusty white. Small children running in dust-colored clothing along-side mothers in brilliantly-colored saris. To the right: Family of 5 on a small scooter. To the left: Road-side cart selling luscious looking bananas. To the right: Mangy dog rests in a pile of trash. Again the the left: Drawn to another beautiful sari, a near-accident with a passing car, or simply a rag-seller looking in the window. If the picture you are getting is beautiful, desperate and absolute mayhem, you got it. (One thing that always surprises me about India is the lack of privacy for the average Indian. I don’t know if its the heat, the over-population, poverty or what, but everything is visible to the passerby: from the morning bowel movement to the leprous wound, nothing goes unseen. ) Needless to say, self-inflicted whiplash and mental exhaustion are eminent. Read the rest of this entry »
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