I don’t often speak about faith, politics or beliefs here. Not because I’m shallow and thoughtless, but because I believe these things to be highly personal and I don’t like feeling as if I’m proselytising. So this post is a rarity for me.

I’d like to introduce you to a member of our extended family. This is Shona.

Shona is Nairn’s Godmother, and left us a year ago to go travelling “for eight months”. She’s not come home yet and in fact is projecting Christmas as being her return home date. I have my doubts that she’ll be back then because her travels have clearly been such an awakening experience for her which you can see from her blog. Currently, Shona is volunteering at this orphanage in Vellatur, India and rather than speaking for her, I’m going to share with you some of the email I received from her today.

To set the scene for you now; I’m in India, sitting at a small desk in an orphanage that houses 80 children and several elderly people. I have just finished drinking a small tin cup of India’s national drink – chai. There was a big storm last night so the temperamental electricity has just been restored. There are noises of children playing outside, men chatting indoors and the fan is whirring overhead.

I had a fantastic time travelling around the north of the country. India is a real assault on the senses; sights, sounds and smells! It is also an extraordinary country, the colours, people, food, scenery, buildings, markets, roads…you get the idea. It is wonderful but it can be terrible at the same time. At times throughout my first month here the poverty I thought I had got used to would suddenly hit me like a brick and fill me with questions about how people are still being forced to live like this. My travels over the year exposed me to people facing difficulties in many places and while it made me appreciate how lucky I am to have the chance to travel the world in this way I also felt the need to try and give something back. That’s why I’ve ended up here, in a small village called Vellatur in Southern India. My days tend to include playing with the kids and teaching them English, working on the Missions communication needs and trying to make them let me help with the cooking! All of the children are very happy here, some are here because their families simply could not afford to keep them, some have lost parents to HIV/AIDS, others have parents who are alcoholics and cannot look after them. Despite this they always seem positive, they are living in a loving, caring and safe environment where they get food, shelter and an education. They still have a lot of needs and the main priority is securing more consistent support; only 36 of the 80 children have a sponsor.

And that brings me back to the other purpose of this email. If I’m honest one of the reasons I ‘umed and awed’ about sending it was because I’ve seen so much poverty over the year, and especially here in India that I’ve wanted to help everyone and its hard when there are different ‘levels’ (for want of a better word) of need. But the bottom line is the kids here do need our support. The work of this mission relies upon the help of people who are more able to give it.

I looked at the information that Shona had sent and was blown away. I’ve always looked at the ‘Sponsor a Child’ adverts on TV with a degree of anger that so much money donated to do good was in fact being spent on guilt-trip advertising which is part of the reason that I’ve never sponsored a child. Another reason is I felt we couldn’t spare the money. A different reason is that we just never got round to it. None of them particularly good reasons but them’s the breaks. Today, our family signed up to sponsor an 11 year old girl to ensure that she receives food, shelter, clothing, education and medical care. £12 each month will keep her safe and give her a fighting chance to be able to make something of her life when she leaves to live independantly. £12 a month, which goes directly to the orphanage rather than through a third party meaning that every penny is directed where it should be.

I know that times are hard for us all just now and I can totally understand that priorities have to be set, but Shona’s email affected me so much today that I would feel irresponsible not to share this with you all in the hope that you might feel the same.

Thank you for reading this x

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