Blinded in one eye by the so-called “beggar mafia” so she'dbe a better earner, 6-year-old Reena was used to wearing sunglasses.
But when American Paul Wilkes and his wife, Tracy, came tovisit Reena in the Home of Hope orphanage in Kerala, India, she took off hershades and smiled up at them beatifically.
Wilkes, a contemplative Catholic and author of several bookson religious faith, knew then and there that it was time to stop writing aboutfaith and start doing something about it.
He had his work cut out for him.
Across the country, as many as 400,000 Indian children liveon the streets. Some of them have no families. Others are the victims oftraffickers who buy and sell them for sex or slavery. Some ran away from drunkand abusive fathers. Others were cast out or fled because their families hadnothing for them to eat.
They all have one thing in common: They are grave andimminent danger living on the streets, as Reena’s missing eye attests.
The local chapter of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco ” aCatholic order of nuns that has been offering refuge to street children sincethe 19th Century ” took Reena in off the streets and provided refuge at the Homeof Hope orphanage.
“If they are left on the street, by the age of 10 they arealready raped,” said Sister Annakutty, mother superior at the Maria Ausilatriceorphanage in Hyderabad’s Mahendra Hills. “They will be misused by someone. Atthat early stage itself they’ll have one or two babies. ... And those childrenwill go on to the same life.”
Since 2006, Wilkes, who used to regularly contribute to theNew Yorker magazine, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for theorphanages and schools run by the Salesian Sisters in Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Kerala.
At a cost of around $300,000 apiece, his charity “Homes ofHope” has built two orphanages from the ground up in Kochi and Maradiyur (inKarnataka) ” and laid the foundation stone for a third one in Hyderabad.
By supplementing the Salesian Sisters’ dedication with newideas and added funds, they’ve dug wells, bought jeeps, and provided books,computers and other educational materials for 20,000 students ” as well asprovided safe, caring homes for more than 400 orphans and neglected girls.
On a recent afternoon at the Navajeevana Home for StreetGirl Children in Hyderabad, some 50 girls, ranging from 5 to 15 years old,crowded the driveway to greet Wilkes when his jeep arrived from a neighboringschool.
“Good afternoon, Papa!” “Hi, Papa!” “Good afternoon, Uncle!”their piping voices called out. Joy, and a kind of heartbreaking desperation,was plain to see on their faces.
“The children really care for him,” said Sister CrocettaThomas, mother superior at the Navajeevana orphanage. “Since they have noparents, they call him Papa.”
Wilkes has done his best to play father to hundreds.
“We don't run anything,” said Wilkes, walking through theAuxilium school in Hyderabad. “We're the add-on. We're the pure water. We'rethe generator that's going to go right there.”
Tapping funds from local US Rotary clubs, for instance,Homes of Hope has supplied 15 schools and orphanages with solar-powered waterpurification systems ” addressing one of the leading causes of disease inIndia. The charity has provided 18 library-deprived schools with more than250,000 books.
“We don’t open the doors every day,” Wilkes added. “But Ican come and see what’s going on and see what they need.”
When a dentist from Wilkes' native North Carolina announcedthat he was retiring, they packed up the entire office and shipped it to India,where it now operates as a free clinic in Bangalore. When a group of NorthCarolina surfers offered to pitch in, the charity pioneered “surfing safaris”on the Indian Ocean as a confidence builder for orphan girls ” and nuns (how'sthat for a mental image?)
And in the charity's latest venture, Wilkes is working withDr. David Paige, an assistant professor of education at Louisville, Ky.-basedBellarmine University, to design a training program for teachers to helptransform India's rote learning oriented schools to encourage creative andanalytical thinking.
“I consider our little organization very entrepreneurial,”Wilkes said. “It isn't just buying a bag of rice. You really want to push theenvelope.”
Before and after pictures attest to the impact the SalesianSisters and Homes of Hope has had on the children rescued from the streets."Graduates" are constantly calling the mother superior at one of theorphanages to report that their marriages are going well ” perhaps a new babywas born, or their family has moved into a larger home.
The success stories never get old. Take Pinky, who came tothe Homes of Hope after she was cast out by her family. The oldest of threedaughters, she was taught early how well India values women, when her mothersuffocated her fourth daughter shortly after birth and forced Pinky to help herbury the body.
This May, Pinky will graduate with a degree in nursing,ensuring that she'll never face poverty, or question how much she's worth, everagain.
