Day 24: We can make a difference!

I'm dedicating day 24 to this girl I met in the Secunderabad landfill scavenger's colony of the Hyderabad, India metro area. It's India's 4th most populous city, and one of the fastest growing the world. The rapid urbanization has left the city overwhelmed with slum settlements popping up anywhere available land permits, usually near trash dumps, train tracks and other hazardous locations.

She helps her parents sift through garbage looking for redeemable materials. On this visit, I found them separating soles of shoes and sandals from the rotted fabric parts and preparing them for sale to a recycler.

She is one of the children we've not yet been able to reach, but would like to. In fact, the parents of the children in this colony are asking us to help. They've heard about our Children's Hope Center and want their sons and daughters to be able to go there, to get an education and nutritious meals. Profits from our farmland help subsidize our budget for this outreach, but it's not enough. That's where you and your friends come in.

Could you help me toward my goal of keeping that smile on her face every day? We've got a lot of work to do, and there's not any easy way to fix all the problems. But we can make a difference for her.

Great news! Yesterday someone gave a $25 donation, and that brings us just $205 shy of our 16th scholarship funded just from readers of this blog! Follow this link to learn more about what a scholarship does, and to chip in whatever amount you can afford. I strongly believe, that one day soon, because of your choice to take action, I'll be posting a follow up story of how her life was forever changed into a life full of hope and promise.

I'm faring ok with the challenge so far. There have been difficult days for sure, and hunger is there, but with your encouragement and knowing that so much awareness and funds are being raised, I'm doing fine and it's all worth it. Here's what I came up with today, using a total of just $1 worth of food... 

Breakfast. Mornings have been crazy lately, so no time for anything elaborate. I had crock-potted my 4th batch of pinto beans overnight, so they were deliciously fresh. Threw on a scrambled egg with seasoned salt and pepper, and bam, very fresh and easy breakfast. ▼

Lunch. I'm really loving the fact that I've got two eggs every day remaining on the challenge. So I went for another version of Korean bibimbap, stir fried with ramen noodles, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. With the right seasonings, this made a great little meal. ▼

Dinner. I had not thought to mix my pasta sauce with the beans and rice. Worked really well, threw on two corn tortillas for another soft taco mexican dinner rendition. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 22: If we work together

As I round the corner into the final week, I'm feeling relatively strong and definitely grateful for all of your support. Thanks to many of you overcoming indifference, to believe that even a small donation can make a big difference, we've surpassed the $7,500 mark! This means 15 children's lives forever changed, with a scholarship that gets them their first pair of shoes, a uniform, book bag, school supplies and access to daily nutrition and tutoring at one of our "Children's Hope Centers"! This is fantastic and I couldn't be happier with your participation and support!

With donations totaling $200 today, we're just $280 away from our 16th scholarship being met through readers of this blog! Would you consider chipping in whatever you can afford, even if it's just $5? It all adds up. Please follow this link to learn more and give today, to be a part of the solution. Thanks to our farmland enterprises multiplying our funds and providing nutritious ingredients for our program meals, it's a sustainable solution. A solution to rescue children from child labor and keep them away from the traffickers.

I'm dedicating day 22 to these girls in the Secunderabad landfill "scavenger's colony" as I call it, in metro Hyderabad, India. A lesser-known city globally, but at 8 million residents, it's among the 40 most populated cities in the world—and among those, one of the fastest growing. The overload in urbanization has spawned 1,400 make-shift slum settlements, mostly around the edges of the city. In these colonies, thousands survive from what averages out to be about $1 a day scavenging for redeemable materials such as metals, plastic and anything that the recyclers can imagine refurbishing or melting down to resell. 

Desperate to make ends meet, often times parents take their children along to help, in very hazardous conditions. Several scavengers have died in this landfill, from landslides on the side of the mountain of trash. Education is not an option because there's simply no way to imagine buying the supplies, shoes, or uniform necessary to enroll.

I always enjoy the hospitality of these humble people, as they invite me into their pieced-together homes for a simple cup of tea or whatever snack they might offer me. I spoke with this lady in what little broken Telugu I know, and with the help of my interpreter, we discussed her challenges living in the colony. I felt a desperation in her tone as she wonders what will become of her children.

But there's hope! As evidenced from my photos of children who have benefited from our programs, there's a way out, and it's bringing hope to those who were previously hopeless. It only requires everyone stepping up to play whatever small part they can. And there's hope for this woman, who knows that her children have a chance to enroll at our education center just a few minutes walk from her settlement. I know it sounds overly idealistic of me, but I really, really believe it's true that together, if we overcome indifference, we can make a difference, one child at a time!

Here's my effort to empathize with those trying to make a lot out of a little. My 3 meals today, prepared with just $1 worth of food...

Breakfast. Nothing too spectacular here, but quite a tasty breakfast taco! Simple re-fried beans and brown rice mixture with a fried egg and seasonings on a corn tortilla. ▼

Lunch. In a hurry, sometimes stir-fry is the best solution. A simple egg fried rice preparation with cabbage, carrots and seasonings. ▼

Dinner. I know I'm definitely lacking in the variety department the past two days, but this potato/bean/tortilla pasta noodle "chili" combo (which includes shredded carrots) really wins for heartiness, so you can't complain! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 20: Within reach

I'm dedicating day 20 to these amazing kids I've spent some time with in the Secunderabad landfill scavenger's colony of metro Hyderabad, India, one of the most populated cities on the planet. This is in the colony directly adjacent to the colony where our "Children's Hope Center" is located, and we'd like to expand our reach to help the few dozen children who live here. They do not attend school, instead working to help their parents sift through the garbage looking for redeemable materials like plastics, metals or even rubber shoe soles. It's a hazardous life.

I was happy that we were able to distribute some food and some soccer balls from One World Futbol, and this brought them some temporary joy. However, I know we (you and I) can, and must do more. They're within easy reach—the parents are interested in enrolling them in our education center, but the honest truth is, all that's standing in between them and a bright future is... adequate funding.

More accurately, all that's standing in between them and hope is us overcoming indifference. I cannot stress enough the truth that if we come together and overcome this feeling that our contribution is not going to make difference, then we can actually, in fact... make a real difference!

Part of my goal with this challenge is to raise awareness of extreme poverty. But not only awareness, action also. Thus I've set a goal to raise enough funds through this blog to put 20 children through our Children's Hope programs for one year—and we're getting close!

We're just $5 short of our 14th scholarship—a scholarship that will help us rescue another child trapped in child labor in one of the communities where we serve. Please follow this link to learn more and make a donation toward our scholarship fund, for children of the slums—children who are trapped in dead-end lives with no chance of education, at extremely high risk of being trafficked into prostitution or even, God forbid, organ harvesting. It sounds unbelievable but it's true, it's a simple reality in the developing world, a reality that must be made known. My personal exposure to these realities is one of the compelling factors in me taking this challenge so seriously.

The result is radically altered life-paths: education, mentorship, nutrition, security... leading to hope, opportunity, growth, and healthy balanced lives, like theirs in this photo at our India girl's home!

Here's what I was able to cook up today using a total of just $1 worth of ingredients for three meals...

Breakfast. Yet another variation of the versatile breakfast taco, this time, a few strips of lightly fried potatoes, re-fried beans and a scrambled egg (all thrown together in the same skillet), plus a small portion of oatmeal with raisins and a few slices of banana. ▼

Lunch. This was a very basic version of a cabbage salad with baked ramen noodles, carrots, a hard-boiled egg, a few pieces of boiled potatoes, raisins and pinto beans. Seasoned with salt and vinegar. Hearty and pure! ▼

Dinner. All I had remaining in my rations for today was part of a small potato, pinto beans, pasta and two corn tortillas. So I made an improvised potato soup with a bean base and chopped up corn tortillas with some basic seasonings like chili powder, it was really quite good actually! ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 15: Dream!

I've made it half way through my challenge! Thank you for your support and all of the donations to help me get closer to my goal of 20 scholarships! These scholarships can change the lives of children who need to be rescued from child labor and the risk of being trafficked into unthinkable situations.

Today we received a donation of $25 toward our goal! Awesome, and thank you, this is significant and will make a life-changing difference in the life of a child!

It's not so much about the amount you give, it's about the heart behind it, and the fact that you decided to do something about a serious problem—a problem that results in hundreds of thousands of children like her to not only suffer from the hazards of child labor, but also the tragedy of child trafficking and prostitution. It's a grim reality, and seems overwhelming, but when we work together, we can literally save their lives—one child at a time.

We're now just $85 away from reaching our 4th scholarship! Please follow this link if you'd like to donate toward my goal of 20 scholarships. Any amount you can afford to spare can really count! 

You can help a child like him to really hope in his dreams! This shot was taken just a few days ago at our Children's Hope Center in Hyderabad, India. He's a newly enrolled student with new school supplies and everything he needs to succeed in school. At our center he'll receive nutritious meals, after-school care and tutoring along with computer classes! Together with your help we're getting him out of a life of trash heap scavenging and into school, where he will have the very real hope of breaking out of the cycle of extreme poverty.

Here are the three meals I was able to prepare today, using just $1 worth of food...

Breakfast. Breakfast taco with potatoes, carrots, a scrambled egg and pasta sauce. ▼

Lunch. Chilled pasta salad with brown rice, pinto beans and carrots. Added a splash of vinegar and a dash of seasonings for flavor, a refreshing lunch for about 30 cents. ▼

Dinner. A new breakthrough dish! A very broken-down version of this recipe, it's what I'm calling Savory Oatmeal Potato Risotto! Delicious. Seriously, this only cost about 30 to 35 cents to make. I cooked it in a pinto bean broth I made from scratch. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!

Day 13: Out of the trash heap

I'm dedicating day 13 of the challenge to this boy I met in the Secunderabad landfill scavenger's colony of the metro Hyderabad area of India. It's a metropolitan area that ranks among the 40 most populous cities in the world, and one of the fastest growing of those 40. The alarming urbanization rate has spawned over 1,400 slum settlements across the city. Here he and his parents sift through raw garbage at the edge of the landfill looking for plastics, vinyl, metals, shoe soles, and anything else they can find that might be of some value to the recyclers.

However, there's great hope for him and the other children of this colony. Why? Because just down the road, just a 10 minute walk over to the next colony, is our Children's Hope Center, where kids his age are getting an education, clean water, hygiene supplies and access to wholesome nutrition they would otherwise never have had. And because readers like yourself have chipped in whatever you can afford toward scholarships for these kids to enroll in the program! Many are giving $5, $10, $25 or whatever they can spare, and it's all starting to add up!

Please follow this link to donate any amount, no matter how small, toward my goal for 20 scholarships. We're just $110 away from changing the life of a 4th child!

These kids and their families make about 4 cents per kilo of redeemable materials they can gather. All told, it's very true that they are earning about $1 per day, per family member. This is just enough to scrape by. My challenge is by no means any kind of challenge compared to theirs.

On a happier note, here's the result, at our Children's Hope Center in Hyderabad, just minutes from where I shot the above photo... girls rescued from a life of child labor, now receiving nutritious meals and a great education!

Here's what I was able to prepare using just $1 worth of food today, in my attempt to relate to the extreme challenges that the world's poorest face daily...

Breakfast. Breakfast taco with hard boiled egg, re-fried beans & rice, chopped carrots on a corn tortilla. It was enough to get me to lunch, for about 30 cents! ▼

Lunch. Potato Salad. Thanks to the suggestion of a reader, I was inspired to make my own home-made "mayonaise" from an egg yolk, vinegar, salt and a bit of canola oil. Fried the egg white to add some protein to the boiled potatoes, chopped half a leaf of cabbage to add texture. Chilled for a few minutes in the freezer and although it left me hungry, it was really tasty! ▼

Dinner. A slight variation on the usual tostada. Re-fried the beans with the rice together, steamed the cabbage and topped with two tablespoons of the pasta sauce. Not a bad dinner for about 30-35 cents! Imagine what you could do with 60 cents! ▼

As always, thank you for your encouragement and for taking the time to read this far. I did not see any donations come in today toward the goal, but that's ok--it's the weekend and I know it will pick back up soon!

Take Action!

1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the slums. Our goal is to cover a scholarship for 20 kids to get an education this next year. Every little bit helps!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to Peace Gospel. If you're in the UK, use this link.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!