I've seen Facebook shares, tweets and instagram mentions cascading out across the world, and donations coming in again as small as $5 from complete strangers. I'm humbled and grateful for your support, but more importantly it's children like this girl who are grateful for your care, for standing up to speak up on her behalf. I'm dedicating day 29 to her. What does she see? There is pain in her eyes and she's seen things no child should have seen at her age. With your help, this is the kind of child we're working to rescue from child labor.
A side note: Today on our Facebook page someone asked a typical question, understandably, "What about the poor right in our own back yards? Shouldn't we help them first before tackling these bigger issues?" And I thought, many of you dropping in on this blog only recently might have the same question on your mind. I would like to invite you to go back to my day 14 post which discusses the difference between poverty and extreme poverty in the developing world.
I think that many who ask this question just innocently do not comprehend the type of squalor that these children are living in, and how they're forced to live and work in hazardous conditions. It's not that homeless people in the developed world don't need our help--obviously, they do--it's just that the scale and depth of the poverty crisis in the developing world is so much more intense. And with such an intensity, I propose it's going to take that much more of an intense effort to attack it as a global community.
We cannot just ignore the cries of these children because we live in another country that has its own problems. As if our loyalty to one country vs. another has any weight in the argument of how you respond--it just does not really hold up to logic very well when we're dealing with human suffering, in my opinion. There's simply too much of an imbalance in the world economy to expect that anything's going to get done in the developing world on its own.
On to the good news! Just today, we received $1,675 in several smaller to medium sized donations! It's a picture of everyone coming together to do their small part to make a difference! Those of you who've been following along from the beginning will remember one of the mantras I came up with on this challenge: "Together wecan make a difference, if we overcome indifference!" That's what's happening through this movement!
So we're now up to a total of $9,080 raised! That's enough to bring in 18 children off of our wait list, out of child labor, and into The Children's Hope Center in Hyderabad, India! This is amazing and so emboldening to me that we've seen this level of response.
Let's keep going! You can make a difference! Chip in what you can, even if you feel it won't make a difference--trust me, it will make an impact! Just $920 to go by midnight of day 30 (tomorrow) before we must reach my second goal of 10 more scholarships--a total of 20 children we can bring out of the trash heaps, clean them up, get them ready for school, and watch the look in their eyes transformed from desperation to that of hope! Like these kids who are already enrolled at the center:
On to the recap of what I was able to come up with for $1 of food today. Rations are holding steady and I continue to find variety from the small list of ingredients I have on hand.
Breakfast. I need a little variety on the oatmeal front, so I tried carrots with the raisins again, which is nice, but for the first time that I can recall, I tried mixing in scrambled eggs, and it worked! Really a nice texture and it paired well! All for about 30 cents, very satisfying start to the day. ▼
Lunch. A slightly new variation on the tostada recipe--re-fried beans, brown rice, potato and chopped cabbage. I'm really surprised at how well these work and the variety of taste they can provide. ▼
Dinner. Inspired by a recent visit to Seoul, South Korea, I tried the sunny-side up egg on top of my fried noodle rice dish! The yolk breaks and becomes like a sauce in the fried rice, and this was absolutely delicious and satisfying. Hard to believe it only cost about 33 cents to make this! ▼
Barefoot update. Not much to report, we've got it so easy here in the States. I don't really have to walk anywhere hazardous except for a few rough spots, and some hot pavement. So that's why I have not written much about it. But my feet are definitely feeling sore some days on longer walks and looking pretty beat up. Here I'm standing near a symbolic finish line!
Take Action!
1) Please consider giving toward scholarships for children of the Indian slums. We surpassed our initial goal of $5,000 to cover 10 scholarships, but I want to keep going to see if we can reach 20! Every little bit helps! We're almost there!
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!
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