By Cheryle Harry, India child sponsor
In January 2016, my son Riley and I travelled to India to visit our sponsored child Princy.
Since my first visit to India 22 years ago when I did a five week trip, the general feel is that the country is getting richer.
Riley found it an interesting place. He commented about road travel – 'it's every man for himself'. He really liked the forts and palaces and always obtained an audio guide, unlike me. The food was always fantastic. We basically kept to the northern part of India; Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Kanpur and did go a little south to Mumbai.
The lead up to visiting Kanpur was good and I was so glad that Riley was able to come with me to visit Princy and her family.
World Vision staff briefed us about the community and the projects they had been involved in, which was ideal as Riley's knowledge of their work was limited. Some of the work included providing bicycles to children so they can regularly go to school and for those most vulnerable children, being assisted with their school fees. They had also helped to provide children with skill training based on their interests. The type of livelihood activities and skill training the children were assisted with included juice making, rickshaw driving, vegetable cart driving and repair shop work.
World Vision presented us with beautiful bouquets of flowers. Unfortunately, we could not take them with us on the train. We did however take a few photographs as a lovely reminder.
Princy's community gave us a really warm welcome. We were met firstly by the women from a Self Help Group and Children’s Club members in the Remedial Education Centre where there was a small gathering. This centre was where children who were unable to complete their education could come and continue their studies. The Children’s Club presented cultural programs. The kids were great, entertaining us with songs and poetry. It’s an important place for children to learn about their rights and to bring about change in their community.