“The sixteen building central cluster at Lallubhai Compound in Mankhurd rises ominously, each building separated by a space that could park only a single car. Dominos in a hellish mass of concrete, only 4 buildings have access to direct sunlight on one side each. Housed in these rows of buildings are slum dwellers from all over Mumbai City. Welcome to Mumbai’s slum resettlement housing projects.

No one moves to Lallubhai compound because they choose to, they move forced in the name of “slum rehabilitation.” Their homes have been demolished under the claw of a bulldozer. A visit to Mankhurd teaches you rehabilitation means for very little here and all you will find is a concrete slum - one of far more dangerous social ramifications.” -Akshay Mahajan

I stumbled upon Akshay’s flickr stream this morning as I was searching “india slum” on Flickr’s creative commons. I wanted to highlight the poverty that exists in India. The daily reality for the hundreds of millions trapped in urban slums is heartbreaking. It’s amazing that their existence is not completely void of joy and smiles are not uncommon. However, that’s probably what makes it sad, that these beautiful people are forced to make their memories amidst the garbage piles, raw sewage, drugs, violence and despair. Akshay provides a unique look inside their lives, check out more of Akshay’s flickr sets or visit his website.

This October Bright Hope is hosting its biennial Poverty Summit. Sign up for October 6 to hear India Partnership Developer, James Das, talk about the exciting partnerships we’re building relationships with there. It will be an encouraging evening as you discover the methods that we see working to lift families out of extreme poverty. (Plus there’ll be some exotic foods to try!)

Sometimes I lay in bed at night, staring up at the ceiling, on my comfortable bed and think of the family living under the bridge. The thoughts slowly surface when I visit the four corners of my ceiling. It’s a big room. I have it all to myself. What does it feel like to come home to a four foot high space under a bridge? Does the father feel like a good provider? How does the mother make it feel like home?

It’s hard to grasp global poverty. What does it mean that 1,000,000,000 people live on less than $1 a day? What does it feel like to grow up in an urban slum? What does home look like?

In 2005 Jonas Bendiksen set out on a two year journey to document the life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Caracas, Venezuela. He returned and set about sharing his story. Along with a book and museum exhibition in D.C. he published a website called theplaceswelive.com.

I remember seeing it for the first time. It gripped my heart and stirred my soul, birthing a deep desire for justice. I sat and listened to the families tell their stories and panned around their home in disbelief. How could anyone live like this?

Glimpses of reality like this are why I’m involved with Bright Hope. The problem is enormous but when I remember the families I know it matters to them. Check it out for yourself.

Daiwik and Anshi had been huddled in the corner of their one room shack for two days. The downpour was unrelenting, Cyclone Laila was destroying everything.  Anshi worried about her family, how was she going to feed her five children after they lost everything? But in the middle of her despair she remembered a Bible verse she had learned in sewing class at Emmanuel Handicrafts.

She started to repeat the verse aloud, over and over, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Her husband, Daiwik, got angry as he heard her, “Where is the God you are speaking to? He is the one making this attack by cyclone!”

But Anshi continued to have faith and prayed that God would have mercy. Several hours later the rains began to slow and the winds calmed to a gentle breeze. As Daiwik and Anshi stepped out of their house they saw an amazing site. All around them there was devastation and many of their neighbors’ houses were completely flat. Their house was far better off than most.

Anshi told her husband that she wanted to believe in this God that protected them. She ran to the local Christian family and told them her story. Her husband could not deny the goodness God had shown his family and prayed to know God as well. Now their whole family has a new relationship with Jesus!

With the help of Bright Hope, our partner, Emmanuel Handicrafts has been able to bring relief to this cyclone ravished area. With encouragement, counseling, with food and medicine, with prayer meetings and Bible studies Emmanuel Handicrafts has been able to minister very powerfully to their community.

13 people have seen the love of Jesus displayed through their cyclone relief efforts and began their personal relationship with Jesus. For more information about the exciting work of Emmanuel Handicrafts with the extreme poor click here.

On May 21, the worst storm Andhra Pradesh has seen in14 years slammed into in southeastern coast of India. 60-80 mph winds, heavy rains and 9 foot tidal waves forced the evacuation of more than 50,000 people from coastal and low-lying villages. 23 people have been confirmed dead and another 55 fisherman are missing.

Andhra Pradesh is home to one of Bright Hope’s job creation programs, Emmanuel Handicrafts. The women of Emmanuel Handicrafts make lace products, which they are able to sell at local markets to help offset the devastating conditions of local poverty.

Bright Hope’s Partnership Developer, James Das, was sent $5000 to bring immediate relief to the disaster zone. We’d like to send more, if you can help please donate here.

At Bright Hope, we partner with people we call “Extreme Heroes” — people who are willing to put their lives on the line to share the Gospel, serve the poor and stand beside the most rejected, marginalized people in the world.  These are the people you directly support when you partner with us.

Juana Choque Copa is a young single woman in Bolivia who left her well-paying job in the city to return to her grandparents’ home village “in the middle of nowhere,” so she could share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with the 200 people living there. She has single-handedly established a church,  feeding center, educational opportunities and community services to help the people in need.

Jephthe Lucien, our partner in Haiti,  grew up in this severely impoverished country but refuses to leave it behind.  Every day, he and his wife stand up to the challenge of overseeing their network of 23 churches.  He fights for funding to feed and educate the hungry and malnourished children in these church communities.  Jephthe battles daily against this country’s overwhelming poverty and despair.  Yet he never gives up.

Then there is our partner in North India.  He tells me that his life has been seriously threatened nine times, because he dares to stand up to religious extremists who wage war against his pastor training centers.  Yet, he continues to proclaim the Gospel to crowds of people,  hold Bible training classes and visit with his pastors in the rural villages.

Our heroes also defy the traditional definition of the word. They are the grandmothers in Kenya, living in 7×7 foot shacks in large, overcrowded slums.  These elderly women struggle every day to provide for their young grandchildren, following the early deaths of their own children through diseases such as malaria and AIDS. And they are the children all over the globe who come to school in the hope that they may someday become doctors, engineers or teachers. They are the rural mothers and fathers who wake up every morning to farm the little piece of land they have, in their daily attempts to feed their families and hopefully have a little left over to sell.

Our ministry leaders and those they serve are our Extreme Heroes, and hopefully yours as well.  They are our partners, in every sense of the word.  We stand beside them in their battle to survive one more day. Giving them support, encouragement and resources is the driving force for everyone here at Bright Hope.  It’s what ignites us, compels us and stirs us to reach out to you, our allies, to stand with us.

To learn more about our projects around the world and the people who make them possible, click here to visit our Project page and select a Country or Project Category.

Our North India partner is meeting new believers, discipling them in the Lord and training the ones who want to become pastors and teachers so they can spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone they meet. This is how an entire nation will be transformed — through the sold-out lives of people excited by their faith.

Through the sacrificial work of our India partner and those they train, God is bringing Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists into full relationship with Jesus Christ. The stories of these transformations are happening every day.

Bright Hope is helping our India partner to build the pastor training center in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in the capital of Lucknow. The land has been purchased and plans are under way to build the training center. It will replace the small six-room house that is now home to the groups of students who live in its very cramped quarters. Once this center is built, more teaching and training can take place. Hundreds of these trained pastors will go out into their home communities to serve the physical, economic and spiritual needs of their people.

This center will provide the foundation for these dedicated people to go out into the surrounding communities and meet the physical and economic needs of the people there — most of whom are destitute and in great need.

We’re committing to help build the center’s lecture hall, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and dorm rooms for men and women — a total of 6,754 square feet. This building will be basic and sparse, but a great blessing for the people who are giving their entire lives to serve others.

The cost per square foot is approximately $25. Your willingness to help now will change lives for eternity in India. How many square feet can you build?

To learn more about this project and make a donation, click here.

Jenny is four years old. As a result of the extreme poverty in which the family was living, Jenny’s father abandoned the family in hopes of starting a better life. Jenny became sullen and withdrawn after her father’s departure.

Jenny’s mother, a licensed midwife, supports the family by assisting women when they give birth. The work is good, but is sporadic and does not provide a steady income. About six months ago, Jenny’s mother brought Jenny to the Nagasi Christian preschool and Sunday school program. Interacting with other children did wonders for Jenny.

Today Jenny is a happy, well adjust child who loves to sing Gospel songs and recite Bible verses in English. Jenny says she wants to be a physician when she grows up. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Submitted by Bright Hope Staff Member, Rosey Lavine

A young girl knocks on your window
as a left over tear dries on her cheek.
She’s hungry to the point begging.
She’s desperate to the point of eating… anything
down to the dirt off the ground…

And she asks you for change.
She reaches her hand through the window.
Hoping…Hoping…

“Please sir. Please”

Do you see her?
Her clothes are torn and her face is dirty.
She holds her baby brother in her arms.
She holds him like a mother,
but she must only be 8 years old herself.
And you wonder…

Who holds her and tells her she’s beautiful,
and tells her she is loved? And tells her…
that it is going to be alright?

Is it?

She looks to you, with hope in her eyes,
hoping for more than just change,
but all she can feel in this moment
is the painful emptiness in her stomach…
Her brother quietly cries.
She’s reaching out to you.
Waiting…Waiting….

She’s desperate.
She’s weak.
And she stares into your eyes…
Staring.
Hoping.
Waiting…

And suddenly…
You’re overwhelmed.
Stunned.
Moved.
Burdened.
Weakened.
Nauseous.
Even Afraid.
But…
Everything seems so unreal at the same time
even as you sit there in the presence of…
her eyes staring straight back into yours.

So you close your eyes.
You turn your face away.
But she’s still standing there.
Waiting….Hoping…

Could this be reality?
You’re not dreaming.
It is reality…
True,
heart wrenching
reality.

Where does this guilt come from?

I sat in that car.
I couldn’t look back into her eyes any longer.
I hoped that she would leave.
I even prayed that she would leave…
Why?
So I didn’t have to deal with the pain of knowing that
life for too many…
is just like hers,

In a complete state of desperation.

It’s this reality that is so hard to embrace,
that I wonder if anyone ever wants to know that
It is out there.

So I pretend its not,
and I close my eyes,
and I turn away.
I don’t want to know,
but…

It’s still there even when I close my eyes,
and even though I’m on this side of the world now,
and she’s on the other.
It’s still real.

I can’t see her now, but it doesn’t change that…
she’s sleeping on a dirt floor tonight,
and she went to bed starving tonight
and she doesn’t know if she will find food tomorrow.

I can’t see her now, but it doesn’t change that…
she’s holding her brother as he cries himself to sleep,
and her father is sick with aids
and she’s never had the chance to go to school.

I can’t see her now, but it doesn’t change that…

she might not make it through tomorrow.

I could ignore it,
but I saw her face
and her reality.

The guilt comes from knowing that…

No one.
Anywhere.

Ever…

deserved a life like that.

Ever.

Submitted by: Amy Endler, Bright Hope Staff Member

I’ve met the indigenous leaders, viewed the pictures, listened to the stories, read the reports.  Global poverty effects the poorest people in the world who live in the most remote places of their country.  Extreme hunger is not just a stomach growling but someone who is dying from malnutrition.  The children are dressed in rags or barely dressed at all.  Young children with holes in their clothes, no shoes and no one to take care of them wander the streets at night without any one protecting them.  They hide and sleep in sewer pipes in groups hoping for a little rest.  Parents dying of AIDS leaving orphaned children behind where the eldest child (as young as 8 years old) has to take care of younger siblings.  They cry because they’re alone and miss their mom and dad.  Adults are looking for work so they can feed their family but there is none to be found.  Sick people walking for miles to get to a hut called a hospital where there are no bandages, no antiseptic, no prescriptions to relieve pain.  Only a bed where they lay and wait to die.  There are no government assisted programs, no one to help, no one they can depend on and in many cases, no one who cares.

The education I’ve received about global poverty has humbled my self-righteous indignation toward some of the poor in certain countries like India.  Now I see them as brothers and sisters who are suffering from the history of economics, caste systems and preventable diseases: 

- Malaria wipes out an entire village of hundreds of people.  We take a pill for 10 days and don’t think about it but Bright Hope sends chemically treated mosquito nets so the Malaria doesn’t spread and kill more children and grandparents who are most susceptible. 

- The poor drink water that animals urinate, defecate and die in.  We complain about the taste of our tap water and drink bottled water but Bright Hope digs wells so communities can have sustainable clean water for many years.

- Many of the global poor have no education or access to education.  We grumble when classrooms are over crowded or college tuition goes up but Bright Hope helps local communities build schools, supplies school uniforms and age appropriate textbooks. 

I’m proud to be a servant of God in this ministry.  It’s not for my glory anymore – it’s for God’s glory.  He’s the one who opened my eyes to see what He sees, feel what He feels then challenged me to do something.  To put Compassion into Action.

Submitted by: Manette Monteclaro

On my trip to the village of Nagasi, I met a young lady by the name of Josie Montoya, who has been a part of the Nagasi Baptist church for eleven years and is now serving as a nurse aide in the clinic. Here is her story:

“My name is Josie Montoya, I am twenty years old and I started going to the Nagasi Church at the age of nine when Pastor Levi started it. I grew up with my parents and three other brothers. I am the second to the youngest and the only girl. Like most of the children in our village, I grew up in a poor family. My father works at the sugar cane plantation, chopping sugar canes, loading them in to a truck and bringing them to the sugar mills. His work day begins at six in the morning until four thirty in the afternoon. With this back-breaking job under the heat of the sun, he earns P200 ($5) a week to provide food and clothing for his family of six. He gets paid every Friday. My mother stays home to care for the family especially one of my brothers who has epilepsy.

“Together with my family, I started attending church at the age of nine. When I reached the age of fourteen, I accepted the Lord as my personal Lord and Savior. I began to understand what He did for me and how much He cares for the people of the world. With my faith growing stronger everyday, I became involved in the ministries of the church especially with children. I helped with the preschool kids. Later, I became very interested in the youth ministry during my high school days and even started singing in the choir.

“Since my parents cannot afford to send me to college, I began to pray for God to supply my needs. I got a scholarship from the Nagasi church and went to a nearby school and studied midwifery. It took me three years to finish my course. Being grateful for the opportunity of getting an education, I am now very much involved in church ministries. When the Family clinic opened as the result of Bright Hope’s support, I assisted the head nurse who was in charge of the clinic. Together, we do basic health care education especially for expectant mothers and mothers with very young children. With the limited supply of medicines, we help those who cannot afford to buy pain medicines, allergy tablets, cough drops, and antibiotic ointments for minor bruises. The clinic provides basic health care services for the village since the nearest medical center is still an hour away.

“I am so grateful to Bright Hope for its support to the Nagasi project without which the clinic would not be made available for the people in the village. I am a recipient of your kindness and generosity. I am able to help others and use the gifts God has given me to make a difference. You have given me hope and the many children who are part of our school and church. Thank you and may God bless you all.”

Truly, Bright Hope has made a difference in the lives of the people of Nagasi.