Children in the DEC schools in India are discovering that they can hope and dream for the future. Recently they were asked what they would like to be when they grow up – some replied doctors, engineers and more. The 13,500 students in our schools and those who will join in years to come will dream big -- and their parents and communities will see a brighter flame of hope.

We continue to up-skill staff so they can provide educational excellence. Recently Australia’s Pacific Hills School System conducted training for 95 staff including child psychology, phonics, teaching methods, developing reading habits and more.

George Verwer and Philip Yancey visited schools and spent time with students. Philip also visited the tailoring and computer institutes at Uddamarry and the Lydia Enterprise of Women With a Cause.

Many schools celebrated world AIDS Day with processions to raise awareness about AIDS. The Community Development Officer wants to see hair dressers using new blades for each customer and fresh syringes for each patient at the hospitals and clinics. Doctors shared information about the HIV virus, how to prevent it, and how to care for an AIDS patient.

A medical camp was organised in the 2004 Tsunami-hit area with 22 doctors, (16 from USA and 6 local). Many travelled far distances to reach the camp and 1550 people were checked and treated.

A small village in Central India has a community of people who belong to the caste of ‘manual scavenging’, which includes the collection and disposal of human excrement. On November 16, we inaugurated a tailoring centre as an initiative to free them from their caste-vocation, and began an adult literacy training centre to help them to learn and write. Their excitement was obvious, “Holding pen in our hand is beyond our dreams. Now we will not be cheated in our work as we can read and understand what is being given to us”.

The Mushahar community is known as ‘rat eaters’ community. Very little has been done to lift them out of illiteracy or poverty. The community leaders asked us to open a tailoring centre to train their girls. Without delay, machines were bought, a teacher hired, the training centre was inaugurated, and the girls began learning. The excitement and anticipation of the community is so enormous, and now they too begin to believe in hope in their future.

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