Frishta News - Issue 14 - Autumn 2008

Welcome to our Autumn 2008 edition of Frishta News. This eNewsletter has a very important piece of news on the Project's progress, a chance for you to buy a piece Indian real estate and there's also a feature on India's Disappearing Daughters.

Nigel Studley writes:

Frishta is approved by the Indian Government

On 18th July 2008 our Frishta Charitable Trust in India was approved by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs to transfer the funds (known as FCRA) for the 1st Phase of construction of the Children's Village to India.

Written documentation was submitted and Rachel Studley (President of the Frishta Charitable India Trust) was interviewed at length about Frishta's plans. This is a terrific piece of news to receive approval at our first attempt. Many NGOs working in India have had to make multiple applications before receiving their FCRA approval, without which funding cannot be received from abroad.

The approval is for the transfer of £246,000 (almost 20 million or 2 crore Rupees) and will be used to build:

• Levelling of land for building plinths
• Boundary Fence, Sanitation & Septic Tank
• Bore Well Building & Equipment, Water Tower & Underground Water Tank
• Residential Units for 16 people (12 children, 2 House Parents & up to 2 of their own children)
• Playground Equipment, Paving / Tarmac / Hard Landscaping

Disappearing Daughters

The number of girls born and surviving in India has hit an all time low compared to boys. A report says increasing numbers of female foetuses were being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die. As we have reported in previous issues of Frishta News the situation in Punjab is particularly bad. In one site in the Punjab state, there are just 300 girls to every 1,000 boys among higher caste families. India faces a "bleak" future if it does not end its practice of cultural and economic preference for boys.

ActionAid teamed up with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to produce the Disappearing Daughters report. More than 6,000 households in sites across five states in north-western India were interviewed and statistical comparisons were made with national census data.

Under "normal" circumstances, there should be about 950 girls for every 1,000 boys, the charity said. But it said that in three of the five sites, that number was below 800. In four of the five sites surveyed, the proportion of girls to boys had declined since a 2001 census, the report said.

Indian woman are put under intense pressure to produce sons, in a culture that predominantly views girls as a burden rather than an asset. The increasing use of ultrasound technology may be a factor in the trend and many families now use ultrasound scans and abort female foetuses, despite the existence of a 1994 Indian law banning gender selection and selective abortion.

Some 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India in the past 20 years, the British medical journal the Lancet has said. [Source: BBC]

For further information: Read the report

In Chandigarh there have been several Poster & Slogan writing competitions to support the ‘Save the Girl Child Campaign'. One slogan that caught my eye was, "Parents of sons, full of pride, think where you will find your darling sons a bride?" It is often said that the prejudice persists because it is believed that only sons will provide for their parents' old age, and yet the boy child preference and imbalance is most notable in wealthy areas indicating deeper social and cultural reasons.

Frishta is firmly behind the campaign of overcoming the social prejudice against girl children. We will:

• have a cradle in the Frishta Village where babies can be left without any questions being asked
• educate girl children to as high a standard as they are able or desire
• empower and encourage girls to follow careers and professions of their choice
• provide a home for as long as they need or want it after they reach adulthood.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Martin Luther King

Project Progress

A Tube or Bore Well has been drilled to a depth of 570ft. The drilling rig was on our land for a week. See pictures below of:

1. Our Guard (Chaukidar) watches over the drilling pipes
2. A JCB prepares the pit to capture all the mud and slurry from the drilling
3. After drilling is complete, water is forced out by compressed air until the pipes are cleaned and good water emerges. It may not be oil, but we were just as happy to have struck good water

Finally, we have been approved for an electricity connection to the land and have also applied to have three electricity poles re-routed that currently cross the corner of the Frishta land.

If you want to see a Google Earth picture of the Frishta land near the village of Mukandpur, click on the picture opposite...

A Story from Mother Teresa

We all have our heroes and one of mine (rather obviously) is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. There is one of her homes for mentally disabled children run by the Missionaries of Charity in Sector 23, Chandigarh, near to where we live. Here is an inspiring story of hers. She writes:

‘One night a man came to our house and said, ‘There's a family of eight children who haven't eaten for days.' I took some food and went to see them. When I got there, I saw the faces of the little children disfigured by malnutrition. There was no sadness there, just the pain of hunger. I gave a sack of rice to the mother. She kept one half and then went out carrying the other half. When she came back I asked, ‘Where did you go?' She answered, ‘To my neighbours, they're hungry also'. I wasn't surprised that she gave, the poor are usually very generous. But I was surprised that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we're suffering we're so focused on our own problems that we have no time for others.'

At a time when the world is facing a serious economic downturn we would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to you for your continued support for the homes we are building for the street children and orphans in India. We cannot do this without your kind and generous help.... THANK YOU!

Sponsor a Brick!

Have you ever dreamt of investing in some real estate overseas? A second home to escape to, perhaps? Well here's an opportunity to help children who for living in just one home is a dream. This month we are starting our Sponsor a Brick campaign!

For just £5 you can buy a brick and have your name, (or of your children or deceased loved one) listed in a frame placed in a prominent position in the hallway of the children's home. It will take 3,500 'bricks' to pay for one family home in the Frishta Children's Village. We have set the cost at a level that is affordable for everyone and there is no limit on the number of bricks you can buy.

So tell your family, friends, neighbours... everyone about this great opportunity to invest, not just in property, but in a child's life and get the greatest possible return on your investment!

You can pay by credit/debit card at our special web page and please leave a message with the name(s) you would like to be displayed. Who will be the first to get their name down?

Link: https://www.bmycharity.com/sponsorabrick

Or you can send us a cheque at the usual address below and don't forget to tell us the name(s) you have chosen.

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson

Press Cuttings

2008 British 10K London run

The valiant Frishta team who pounded (pun intended) the streets of London this July to raise money for poor children in India were:

Aylin Edhouse, Harjit Singh Gill, Joe Hammond, Chris Jarvis, Erika Kottiath, Sumita Passi, Apsana Rahim, Omar Rahim, Kay Vora and John Whitehead.

The funds raised totalled a magnificent £10,000! Well done and thanks to all the sponsors.

And to close...

"Then the Lord said... these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed."
Deuteronomy 1:6

Patience is something we could all do with more of and it's easy to complain and get discouraged when things don't happen according to our timing. Here in India we have had to be patient on a number of fronts, like the time I made (only) eight visits to the Licence Registration Office to get my new Indian driving licence! The Children's Village is progressing, but whilst much has been done in terms of design, site preparation, and connection of services, at the time of writing we are still waiting for our full Planning Permission to be granted, which is hopefully just days away. The needs are so great that every day that passes is a test of our patience, but we have to believe "...it will surely take place".

How to become a Friend of Frishta
Nigel Studley

Help us spread the word about Frishta's vision of Giving street children a home, an education, a hope and a future. If you have found this newsletter interesting, please forward it to a friend.

If you have any comments, questions or offers of help, please contact us - details opposite - or email us at the address info@frishta.org.uk

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