Hopegivers Project Rescues Orphaned Thousands from India's Streets
by Allie Martin
October 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Georgia-based ministry is helping to rescue orphans from the streets of India and teach them about Christ. Through its "Operation Ten Thousand," Hopegivers International has so far managed to rescue more than 8,000 children and place them in Christian orphanages throughout the nation.
Dr. Samuel Thomas is president of Hopegivers International. He says there are more than 18 million orphaned children throughout India, although not all are orphans in the traditional sense. Some of these children, he explains, are on the street not because they have lost both parents, but because they have been abandoned for cultural reasons.
"One of the reasons is because, for example, say the father died," Thomas notes. "If the wife, who's now a widow, is to survive in the community, she cannot work as a servant in somebody's house because, since she is a widow, she is looked upon as a lady who is cursed and would bring curse to anybody she'll be working for."
Under these circumstances, Thomas notes, the widow's best hope for survival would be to remarry. However, he explains, "In order for her to get remarried, the first requirement from the new husband is [for the woman] to literally forsake and abandon the children. And that is why we have that many children on the streets of India."
Operation Ten Thousand, an initiative to get 10,000 children placed in Christian orphanages throughout India, is in its final stages. Thomas is confident the outreach will touch many lives in that country and will ultimately affect the entire country, reaching many hearts for Jesus Christ.
"To reach the nation of India, or to reach any nation that doesn't have the gospel messages so clearly spoken like the United States of America, the best way to do it is to bring hope from the inside out," he says.
The vision, the Hopegivers International spokesman explains, is to "take the children who are orphaned and abandoned in their own country, [and then] raise them -- see, I believe in native missions. Instead of me taking a message to Afghanistan, or instead of me taking a message to Malawi, it is better that we raise the children of their country, their culture, and send them out as leaders to reach their own people."
Hopegivers International has ministered in India for 45 years. The Columbus, Georgia-based Christian ministry currently operates more than 90 "Hope Homes" throughout India, which care for the needs of some 8,900 needy children.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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