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Smiles of resilienceJuly 2011 Since 2003, Children's Care International has provided assistance to victims of past child labour exploitation, through education and health care, as well as through a micro-credit program for parents of these young people. Here are some of the children from the Vizianagaram project in India, whose each and every smile shows strength and resilience. A nice exchangeDuring the last supervisory trip of Christine Durocher to India in March 2011, the children supported by CCI have been told of all the activities in Canada to support them. Genuinely touched, they send a THANK YOU in their own way to show their gratitude! Here, the young people of Vizianagaram thank the young people of Tourterelle School for their musical recording project whose profits will support their education. Learn more about the draft record of the Tourterelle School (Brossard, QC) >>> Dhana, Devi, Yeramma and Tothama"Aren't they beautiful in their maturity?! They always have their eyes sparkling full of intelligence, and their dazzling smiles, but we can feel they have become women." Christine Durocher, India, March 2011. Meet Devi and Dhana. They are not sisters, but it feels like they are ever since their destinies crossed eight years ago at the first Rainbow Center of CCI. Just like Yeramma and Totham at the age of 11 years, they worked in shrimp factories, sometimes for more than 10 hours a day. They were allowed out of the factory only once a month to see their parents, and had to sleep and eat at the factory. These girls now account for modern India (independent, carrying out their studies, proud of themselves) but were once victims of the phenomenon of debt bondage, where indebted families are obliged to place their children to work to pay off debts and interests. This practice is still very present today. For more details on the project Education and Microcredit, click here >>> Here, Devi and Dhana during their summer holidays from college. They both have an average mark of 94-95% and have been selected for an intensive program next year that will give them entry into the best universities and scholarships. Read the full chronicles of Christine Durocher in India in March 2011 >>> After school, the playground"How old are they? It's difficult to know here. There are no birth certificates in Indian villages. The parents only use rough calculations, and we had to invent an age to them for the papers necessary to register them to school." Christine Durocher, India, March 2011.
Here, the girls supported by CCI are in their school uniform, along with one of their friends. "My pellalou, my children from around the world. The boys are sweet and tender and hold hands when they walk. Perhaps adolescence is a Western invention." Christine Durocher, India, March 2011.
The playground! Young people supported by CCI have fun after school. AppiyyammaAppiyyamma will get married. This is one of our former students to whom we provided training in sewing and a sewing machine. We went to visit her in her village. "You'll see," said our social worker. "We will hear her sewing machine. When I come to the village, it is always at work. " And we indeed found her in her books, sitting at her sewing machine, surrounded by her nieces and nephews who were playing around her. Here Appiyyamma, to whom we gave training in sewing and a sewing machine. Today she is known in the village for the quality of her work. She earns between 3000 and 4000 rupees ($ 90) per month, a huge sum. She will get married in a few months. She will leave with her sewing machine, of course. She is 18 and will marry. She is very young, still young to be a mother and carry the weight of a family. But she is an adult, and her family waited two and a half years to marry her after she left the Rainbow Center. For us it is a victory. To view the project images, click here
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