A family going through a rough patch

Sushant (far left) and his family inside their home

Sushant is one of our 8th graders at Sandipani Muni school. He is a tall, confident and good humoured 17 year old boy who is popular with his classmates. When he is at school with his friends, you would never guess that he is under extreme stress.

Every night for the past few weeks, he has been pulling his father's rickshaw from 6-9pm (as well as his regular part time job from 3-5pm) . He has been doing this to help feed his family and pay their rent because his father has been too sick to work for the last 4 months.

Sushant's teachers wondered why he was not getting his homework done and this led to us finding out about his family's condition.

Sushant's mother, Bhavani, is also ill. She has TB and the family needs US$167 (Rs 7000) to continue her treatment. Bhavani works in an ashram, cooking, and only earns US$24 (Rs1000) per month.

The family pays US$18 (Rs750) per month rent. They have no running water or bathroom facilities, and are struggling not to be kicked out of even this poor room as they are two months behind on rent. (It is FFLV policy not to give monetary hand outs, so we propose to give them rations till they get back on their feet.)

Sushant has been doing everything he can to help his parents get well. He is a devoted son and a good student. We want to help him get his parents back, healthy, so once again, we are calling on the kind readers of this blog to help out.



The help needed for this family includes:

Bhavani Dasi's TB treatment, US$167 (Rs7000)

Medicine previously purchased for Shukumar das, US$21 (Rs850)

Medical checks to diagnose Shukumar's condition, US$71 (Rs3000)

Rations for the family for the next 6 months - until Shukumar can recover enough to pull his cycle rickshaw or find another job. ($36 per month or 216) (Rs 1500/Rs9000)

We are not sure if more money will be needed to treat Shukumar's condition but, at the moment, the family does not have enough to eat, nor do they have the money for the check ups to find out what is troubling him, so, first things first....they need help to the value of US$475 (Rs 19,850) URGENTLY.

Donations can be made through www.fflvrindavan.org. Please write "Sushant" in the space provided for "purpose" on the Pay Pal registration page.

We appreciate your ongoing support.