Often referred to as “rag pickers,” they have only the clothes on their backs and often suffer from ill health. There will be no escape for them without an education, which their parents cannot afford.
Earlier this year, Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief, told the story of four such children who scavenged through garbage for rags they would clean and sell to people such as truckers, who would use them to check their oil. Today, the four live and learn at a school operated by the Hindustani Covenant Church (HCC).
With this year’s annual Children’s Service Project, kids in Evangelical Covenant churches across North America can enable the HCC to reclaim even more lives. By participating in the 2008 effort, “Caring for the Children,” the kids will help feed, clothe, and provide education to the children of India’s streets.
Covenant World Relief partners with the Department of Christian Formation to promote the project each year. Previous efforts have enabled children to attend school in the Congo and get off the streets of the poorest neighborhood in Colombia. They have built an orphanage in Central Asia and provided school supplies to the children of Sudan.
Caring for Children promotional materials were mailed this week to churches. Included in the materials are a color poster and booklet containing 24 stories from the children who live in Mumbai, India and work in the dump yard.
Projects typically run from December through May. Churches may use the booklet over the full 24 weeks, or read multiple selections over a shorter period. Each church can decide when and how to start collecting their offerings.
Visit the CovChurch.org for more information and pictures that may be used.
