The work of Shared Blessings started in Odisha , India in 2006. Through a Child Welfare official from India who was visiting the Family Connections Christian Adoptions office, we learned of destitute children in the remote, high mountain villages of Orissa. They have no electricity or running water and there is a great scarcity of food. A dedicated social worker has been devoting his life to helping the villagers and bringing hope to the children struggling in extreme poverty.
This is the only one of Shared Blessings projects that is not run by an expressly Christian group. The Shared Blessings Board prayed about this fact and discussed it at length before making the decision to add it on. We felt that God led us to this project and was asking us to reach out to these desperate children in the name of Christ. We were open about this with the Indian director of the project and he welcomed our involvement.
In June of 2007, Shaila Rao, manager of the Orissa program, traveled to India to visit her family and while there, made the arduous journey up into the mountains to meet the children being sponsored. She was encouraged to see that the money we sent had already improved the health and living standards of the 16 children in the program at the time of her visit. See the pictures of Shaila’s contact with the tribal people and read her stirring account of what she learned about life in the remote villages.
