Please help baby Varsha

Varsha is one year old. She is pictured below, on her mother's lap. Born in a hut made of hessian and plastic bags, she has had a hard start to life. Despite drinking mothers milk, she is suffering from malnutrition. She also has tuberculosis (TB).

Varsha was spotted by the school doctors when her mother brought her to the evening meal distribution. Fearing that the baby would not live much longer, our school doctor, who is always on the look out for children in need, arranged to get her taken to hospital immediately.

Baby Varsha is now out of hospital and is attending the Sandipani Muni School nursery. We are buying special vitamin enriched formula for her and administering her medicine every day. We need your help to make it possible for us to continue Varsha's treatment, which needs to go on for at least the next 6 months.

If you can make a contribution to the Rs12,000 (US$267) costs for Varsha, including her hospital stay, her treatment for TB, and special milk formula for her to drink, please contact rupa@fflvrindavan.org .

Invest in girls to end poverty

The World Bank says economic growth is boosted when girls receive an education....recent research by the World Bank shows economic growth is boosted by the number of girls who complete their secondary education and go on to earn higher wages.

Plan chief executive Ian Wishart says the report, called Because I am a Girl, shows many countries still have the attitude that girls are not as important as boys.

"The stats show that the extra year of study of school results in 10 to 20 per cent higher income," he said.

"If you start multiplying that through five or six years of high school, it has a dramatic effect.

"And the other thing that happens is a young women who gets a fair job with a decent wage will invest 90 per cent of that in her family and children, compared to just 30 or 40 per cent for men, I'm afraid. "What that results in is her children will almost certainly be well educated and live outside of poverty."

...the message is if you're operating offshore, make sure that you have policies that encourage equal participation of girls and boys, or young women and young men, in your business, and make sure your supply chains do the same," he said.

Full article available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/22/2693490.htm?section=justin, Posted Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:06pm AEST

Another life Saved

This is Megha and her brother Durgesh. Meghaś life was saved when a Food for Life field worker, Dileep Pandey, found her shivering under a blanket on the side of the road.

Dileep offered the father assistance to take her to hospital but her father was drunk and uninterested. Dileep then pleaded with him, saying that he could surrender his children if he wished but only after this final chore of taking them to hospital.

The childrenś father, Bharat, agreed and he and the children followed dileep in a taxi to the hospital. The childrenś father didnt quite manage to complete his final responsibility as he went to sleep in the courtyard of the hospital before reaching the door. A few hours later, he and the children were found sleeping in front of the hospital and Megha finally got admitted.

Megha is recovering well after only a few days in hospital. She had a high fever and it is possible that she has some other internal problems due to living rough with her father on the street for three years since their mother died.

The children have been signed over to Food for Life Vrindavan care and when Megha gets out of hospital, they will be taken care of in the Food for Life childrenś home.

Please help us pay for Meghaś medical expenses. Her treatment at the Methodist hospital, Mathura, is costing around US$350 (Rs16,000). Please contact Rupa@fflvrindavan.org if you can help.