Scholarship Funding Desperately Needed

18th June, 2010

Dear friends of SISP,

Last week, Sheeja and her mother came to our Centre. She had just finished her secondary studies. Theirs is an extremely poor family and Sheeja's father is a terrible man. She begged her mother not to let him in anymore. After many years of coming and going, domestic violence, abuse and misery, he disappeared again. We hope it's for good this time.

Sheeja now lives alone with her mother and her twin sister. They often have no food. Her mum sometimes has a small job here and there, for which she gets only 10 Euros per month. They have a small house but the bank wants to reposess it because they cannot pay the debts which the father has accumulated. SISP is trying to find a sponsor for 350 Euro to pay the bank debt.

This week we arranged for Sheeja to start a two-year course as a clinical laboratory assistant. We have given her a scholarship for two years (500 Euro). After a few years she will be able to find a good job and a good salary, and she'll be able to provide for her mother and sister. Sheeja was sooooo glad, she came to thank us and all the time she wept from joy and wanted, as is customary here, to touch my feet to ask my blessing. It is also a sign of respect and gratitude. After all this time, I still find this very embarrassing, but rejecting it is very insulting. Mrs. Kumari and I even got tears in our eyes because she was so happy, she never thought she would get the chance to study. It was a very moving moment and I thought “this what we do it for - to give opportunities to the weak, so they can emerge from their subhuman poverty."