HOPE House for Haiti

It was just before our independence day (August 15th) last year I heard from the three HOPE House girls that they wanted to join the Junior Red Cross (JRC) in their school (Read their story here in our last year's newsletter). After the staff consultation, we decided to get them the uniform that they need for it.

We wanted to help them to understand what it means to give so we gave them a project. We got them all a small clay kiddy bank to collect money from our visitors and there they went. Our girls read newspaper everyday and they found out about Haiti and its devastating earthquake.

I asked them if they would consider donating this money to the Red Cross International with their money being designated for Haiti earthquake victims. They gladly agreed and went on a spree to collect more before giving to the Red Cross.

We invited the Secretary of Red Cross of our district to receive the funds. JRC girls got dressed in uniform and waited for the event. When she arrived, we gave the kiddy banks to her and told her about the objective (to teach the kids to give). She was so impressed with the girls that went on and on about how good she feels about this and said “I had never heard anything like this before”. Girls were so thrilled and that certainly brought great joy to all of us to know that the girls’ efforts were worthy and fruitful.

Three JRC girls giving the clay kiddy banks to

the Red Cross Society Secretary

Entire group of HOPE House girls with the

Red Cross Society's Secretary of our district

We also invited the media to give boost to the kids confidence and ‘The Hindu’ and ‘Indian Express’ responded to cover the story. Hindu reporter was so moved by the girls’ gesture that he dropped in his small bit of contribution in the kiddy bank for the Haiti victims.

Before the Secretary left, our staff counted the money and it came out to be 2127 rupees. We’ll make a demand draft with the money to the Red Cross before giving it to them. This event has brought enormous awareness about the JRC to the rest of the girls and our Secretary did a good job of teaching them all about Red Cross as a whole.

We are all very proud of our girls and now all the HOPE House girls want to engage in a new project – ‘Giving our labor’