Page last updated 11/26/2004
Register Your Non-Profit with WeCareToo
Enter your search words or phrases and press Search.
View by Location: View Alphabetically:
Potters Wheel Fellowship
ABOUT POTTERS WHEET FELLOWSHIP (PWF):
It is in the heart of God to raise orphans and destitute children and we, the founder members of PWF are privileged to be involved in this humble task.
We know that it is a task we could never accomplish without the helping hands of friends like you. We indeed pray that you will be encouraged to partner with us to give these children the future they deserve.
PWF provides spiritual guidance and counseling through holiday camps and seminars organized to teach them the word of God, life skills and values based on Biblical principles.
Today, orphans remain a burden on extended families although most of these are living from hand to mouth.
In a situation like that, these families who can hardly take care of their own children and naturally find it almost impossible to take in an extra child.
As more family members succumb to poverty, the problem becomes even more complex. In fact, this scenario has been played out over and over again, so that today we have another unique orphan problem: households headed and managed by children themselves because all grownup relatives have perished .
PROJECT IDEA /OBJECTIVES:
The mission of PWF is to bring up orphaned and needy children by finding ways and means of meeting their spiritual, physical and social needs and reaching out to all the children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The end result is to raise reliable, responsible, resourceful and productive citizens through providing and facilitating the education, instruction, training and equipping with skills of the children in a Christian set up. The objective will be achieved by using various means and ways of reaching out to these children including:
- Teaching, counseling and upbringing of children to make them responsible and productive citizens of India.
- Providing and facilitating the education and training of these children in order to equip them with life skills.
- Establishing foster homes for those children who are homeless.
- Providing / facilitating health care for the orphans.
- Establishing projects and activities that generate income for the BENEFITS FROM THE SPONSORSHIP FOR THE CHILD
- Sponsorship for School fees and other educational requirements.
- Medical care.
- Clothing
- Subsistence allowance
CHILD LABOR:
Andhra Pradesh has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of children laborers in the whole of India with 1.95 million (1981) and in 1991 it is estimated to be over 3.5 million.
The figure doesn’t include bonded child labor, child labor in villages and remote tribal areas and children employed in the unorganized sector located in unregistered work places like domestic child labor, migrating construction work force and children doing labor in homes and handing over the finished products to small industrial establishment for petty compensation, disproportionate to the labor involved.
The concern for children and the problem of child labor continues to be an area of great concern and article of faith & commitment for successive governments. In terms of absolute number it is very large. According to the 1971 Census, the estimated figure of working children was 10.7 million, which increased to 13.6 million as per the 1981 Census but declined to 11.28 million as per 1991 Census.
The State with the highest child labour population in the country is Andhra Pradesh, which as per 1991 Census had 1.66 million working children. Other State where child labour population is more then one million are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. More than 90% child labour is engaged in rural areas, agriculture and allied employments like cultivation, agricultural labour, livestock, forestry and fisheries. See www.labour.nic.in/cwl/welcome.html for more information.
Among the tribal people polygamy (One man having many wives) is being practiced. Here people are used to drinking homemade liquors, which is highly dangerous. As a result, many deaths occurred and many children became orphans. Due to promiscuity, many children do not know who their parents are and are left without any education.
BONDED CHILDREN:
It is estimated that there are ten million bonded child laborers or slaves in India. In Andhra Pradesh, the bonded children must be over a million by most conservative estimate.
CHILD SEX WORKERS:
Child sex workers, mostly girl children (for instance, Child Devadasis and Jogins) represent the most abominable manifestation of exploitation of the child and therefore demand action at once.
Where does this problem begin? The child is prostituted with the collusion of his or her family.
GIRL CHILD DISCRIMINATION:
- Three times as many girl children die as boys due to malnutrition or murder.
- The literacy rate in India is 39% for women and 64% for men illustrating the unequal educational opportunities.
- Girls are still given less all occasions of food and health care than their male counterparts.
- Female infanticide.
- The killing of female fetus.
As per the 1981 Census the percentage of married children in the age group of 0-14 in rural areas was 5.4% for boys and 15.59% for girls.
NUTRITION AND HEALTH CARE:
11,000 children die every day due to preventable diseases and it is estimated that 1.5 million children die every year because of diarrhea alone. The contributing factors to these unnecessary deaths include over populations, lack of health care resources in rural tribes, and a lack of education in nutrition and health.
OTHER FACTORS:
These orphans are involved in anti-social activities with anti Government forces. They also became powerful weapons in the hands of landlords. These orphans also became addicted to liquors, and, in due time, they became harmful to society.
GENDER COMPOSITION IN CHILD LABOR:
Analyzing the gender composition of child workers in the state reveals interesting data. 58% of all child workers are boys and 42% are girls. 7.29% of the total female child populations in Andhra Pradesh are workers; while comparable all India average is 2.95% only. In Andhra Pradesh, as is true of all India scenario; more girls are engaged as agricultural labor than boys.
Andhra Pradesh ranks 7th state in terms of people living below poverty line with 195.7 lakhs of people (33.7%) that is slightly less than one third of the total population. More than 70% of them belong to the unskilled agricultural labor class
Our hearts' desire is that by the year 2005, PWF would have had solicited sponsorship for 100 orphans and would have managed to send many through vocational Schools and colleges.
ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPANTS IN THIS PROJECT:
This project will be a joint venture between PWF and the supporting organization. The two parties, through negotiation and discussion, will agree upon areas of participation in this project. PWF will be responsible for recruiting of orphans / initiation of the project and disbursement of the support and the upkeep of the orphans. The supporting Organization / Body will bring in a helping hand by financially supporting the work of PWF. The supporting Organization will determine which support to give. PWF will give accountability of all the finances given for individual projects. Each group will take decisions in the line of their responsibility.
PROJECT TARGETS:
- To provide education to as many orphans and destitute through a sponsorship program.
- To provide shelter for the homeless and food for the needy.
- To promote health care for those who cannot afford it.
- To bring healing through counseling to the many traumatized children as a result of child labor, drought and poverty.
- To establish an Organization (PWF) that is self -reliant and self-sustaining.
- Lack of transport means to reach some really needy children.
- Lack of other means of communication/contact centers in out of reach areas.
- Funds for carrying out various activities and facilitating volunteers.
This project will be carried out within the project parameters between the two organizations but will generally have the following components in the set up - for a good outcome, the two Organizations must keep in close communication with openness and transparency in all areas of operation and cooperation.
- Memorandum of Co-operation -
There shall be a memorandum of understanding between PWF and the supporting Organization where the responsibilities of each group is spelt out.
- Responsibilities -
Potters Wheel Fellowship will keep the sponsoring Organization continuously informed on the project progress and present the annual reports. The supporting Organization will analyze the project proposal of PWF and make decisions as to which one to support.
- Accountability -
PWF will give accountability to the supporting Organization for any financial assistance remitted for child support.
- A Primary/elementary School child needs an average of US $25 per Month for his/her education.
- A Secondary /High School child will need on average US $60 or more per Month for his education depending on the School.
Write to:
#18-8-224/5/182, RN Colony,
Hyderabad 500059
Andhra Pradesh
India
Phone: 91 40 55181959
Cell : 91 9849172511
Email : potterswhl@hotmail.com
GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
Visit the Potters Wheel Fellowship web site.
