Happy Homes

Dear Friends,
This will be a lengthy post but I feel it is important to share this with you! Through Sunshine Kids Intl. St. Catherine's has been able to develope this amazing program called Happy Homes.

The Happy Home program targets the parents or guardians of the children, who come from street or other vulnerable backgrounds for child's admission. So far, the Trust that was set up, was supporting the complete rehabilitation program with full education and vocational training only for the orphans or abandoned children without any families. The stree children, who have a family, had to leave the orphanage to join the other orphanges or boarding schools after completing the primary education (standard four) from the St. Catherine of Siena School run by the Trust. While children were getting admission in other schools or orphanages and continued their eduaciton, the parental issues become a road block. In the Happy Home project, these parental road blocks are sorted out while the chidlren studied under the care of the orphanage and school. The parents who have benefited the counseling have come out of the social stigma, mental trauma, and financial insecurites. They are now socially accepted, psychologically ready and set to take life ahead and economically stabilized.

The goal of the Happy Home program isto develope a commitment in the street parent to move to a slum house, within six years. During this time, the street parent does not spend any money on the child by way of paying boarding fees, medical expsenses, education, food, shelter, and counseling. These costs are covered through the program. The Happy Home Program provides the street parents with the opportunity to focus on their own growth during this time. The parents are given couseling and job traing to help them gain a foot up! At the end of the six year term, the goal is that parents will have moved into a rented slum house from the street and be reunified with their children. The children will return to their families in a safe and healthy environment.

During the six years of growth, there are many steps that are put into place to help the children become healthy and successful, as well as staying connected to their families. Each week there is a "Open Day." On the "open day", the parents are able to come and observe their childrens academic performance and meet with their teachers. This is not only to encourage the parents to stay involved in their children's lives, but to show the children that they have someone supporting them.

Happy Homes program is still in it's beginning stages. Our hope is to grow and increase the success of every family involved. While it has only been 2 years of the Happy Homes Program, we have seen amazing success in both the children and their families. Here are some of their stories!
~~~ One of the mothers who came to visit her child at St. Catherine's, was very apprehensive in interacting with the other families. The staff thought perhaps she had a mental retardation. After three months of counseling, there was an amazing change in her! She became confident and began taking initiative in her life and her childs. She now regularly comes to see her child, and enjoys interacting with the other families.
~~~One of the other mothers found her self very uncomfortable visiting St. Catherine's. She was the victim of her husband's abuse. He had burned her face, leaving her with noticiable disfigurment. When she first came to St. Catherine's, she was very depressed and embaressed about her burns. But after months she was able to come and interact with other families. In our Happy Feet Program (the dance therapy classes), she danced in the front row.

Amazing things are happening and will continue to happen through the Happy Homes Program.

Director Visiting St. Catherine's

Dear Friends,

Mary Gothi, our director at SKI, is headed to India tonight!! She will be visiting St. Catherine's over the week, meeting with the staff and children. The children will be putting on a special performance for her, to showcase what they have been learning from the Happy Feet Program that they created with SKI funds! She will also be working with the Happy Homes Program, which is solely funded by SKI sponsorship.

We will keep the blog updated on her adventures throughout her trip!

With love,

SKI

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

At Sunshine Kids Intl. we had a wonderful Christmas, and so did the kids! We will upload pictures of the kids very soon.

As we look to the new year, what are some things you are going to leave behind and what are you going to do differently?

Consider sponsoring a child in the New Year! Maybe making a change in the life of a child is just the change you need!!!!!

HOPE

It has been estimated that there are over 132 million orphans in the world. This doesn't include those countless children who may have a living parent or relative, but are still homeless, living on the streets with not enough food to eat or a safe place to sleep at night.
Over 1 million children are kidnapped every year and sold into sexual slavery. In India alone there are over 120,000 children who sleep on the streets, victims of physical, verbal and sexual abuse.

If you found yourself in a similar situation, what would you wish for more than anything....

HOPE.

visit www.sunshinekidsintl.com and see how hope is being brought to a handful of India's street children. Child by child, step by step, children's lives are being changed! Be part of the change.

Thanksgiving

Today I am thankful for my family, that I have a family. That I am wanted, loved, cared for, and known...

I have come to realize more and more that the greatest
disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted,
unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be
just nobody (to no one).
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

Today I am thankful for St. Catherine's. For offering a home to children who have no place to rest, for offering education and a chance of new life, and for offering healing through therapy.

Today I am thankful, and hopeful. Because HOPE helps us survive.

For the Love of India

We all love something, someone or somewhere. But what is love? Love as defined by Josh McDowell is to "cherish and nourish, or to protect and provide."

Sunshine Kids International fell in love with the children of India. After seeing the children living on the streets, in boxes, we knew that something had to be done. We connected with an orphanage called St. Catherine's Home for Destitute Children. With a rich history, rooted in love for street children, St.Catherine's captured our hearts.

Because we believe love is protecting and providing, our love could not just stop in our hearts. We knew that something had to be done for these kids. S.K.I. was created to connect caring people with the children of St.Catherine's.

To show your love for the children of the world, India, St.Catherine's, consider following our journey to serve these wonderful kids. We are on a journey to find a way to provide education, counseling, dance, music and art therapy. Our hope is that in offering them these services we will be creating lifelong change in these children, their families and communities and will break the cycle of poverty and abuse.

Join us on this incredible journey of changing lives, and experience the change that their stories will bring to your life.