An update

The Man

Vijay Babu was born into the Dalit community shown above. A Dalit is the lowest caste in India; they are also referred to as untouchables. These people are subject to abuse, government neglect, and are made to live on the outskirts of town. Growing up, Vijay’s father was a roadside shoe repair man- making enough money for just one meal a day… Vijay was a few weeks from being sent to work in the paddy fields- when Compassion International came into the village and sponsored many of the children there. Vijay’s future was radically changed by sponsorship- he received a great education, and had no trouble securing a great job in a bigger city. He lived like this until one day, when he saw a 14 month year old girl at the train station- she was all alone and was crying profusely… he sat with her until her mother returned. She said “I am a prostitute, I was off with a man getting money so that I could feed this child” this burdened Vijay greatly and prompted him to quit his job, go back to the slum, and begin Grace Orphan Home.

The Present

Vijay’s ministry “Love and Compassion ministries” is incredibly poor, and incredibly huge. They regularly hold gospel crusades where they see many people come to Christ. He employs 10 pastors in the surrounding villages, and employs 8 staff for the orphan home. Expenses sit at about $1750 a month for the orphan home ($50 a child for 35 children), $540 for salaries ($30 a month) and income sits at around $600 a month in the best case… where does the rest of the money come from? It comes from living life on their knees…. This ministry is run by faith- its mind blowing. God is glorified in the Dalit community- they respect Vijay as someone who came back to help them- this community is his burden, and he carries it often times with great difficulty.

The Future

Orphan home: The new orphan home is actually quite far along… there is a debt of approximately $9000 and they need around $40,000 for the completion. When this home is finally completed, it will be able to house 80 children. 45 more than the current home- the current home is just the second floor of the church building. They run into a lot of problems- because the church is used often until really late into the night, the children cannot go to sleep until it is quite late. Also their mess hall is now a very temporary shack, after the last one was found to be infected by snakes. So this home will be quite a blessing…. One of our goals is to get charity status in both Canada and India for the orphan home. Not only will this open up the opportunity of building new homes in the surrounding villages, but it will also allow us to find monthly sponsors for these 80 children… which will definitely relieve a huge burden. It also gives us many opportunities and opens a lot of doors- this will cost $4000 in Canada and $4000 in India....

Love and Compassion Ministries: LCM does many things to help the Dalit community- as this is Vijay’s burden- from disaster relief to first aid clinics. However, the real problem in the community is poverty, and lack of education. It really is clear when you walk through the community… 4 month old children run around naked and alone- going to the washroom on the side of the road, babies are placed in the dust- chewing on things they find on the ground… and the ground is pretty much a dump. The average house size in this community is 15 feet by 10 feet- some are concrete but many are thatched branches. Once the new orphan home is completed- the second floor of the current church building will be freed up- this will allow LCM to start a training center- focusing on computer training, and tailoring training. They will train widows and children from the community- for free- so that they can find good employment. Currently most of the community will work in the paddy fields- where the sun beats down, and the breeze is hot as anything… they will work 9-5 and they will make $1.50 a day. So we are praying that God would provide 20 computers and 20 sewing machines, so that this training center can really work to change the economy in this community.