Where is a House More Than a Home?
Education and secure housing are two very important parts of getting and keeping a job. If you don’t have the education or skills required for a job, you’re not likely to get hired — unless you know someone influential, but of course, that’s a different story. However, secure housing can be more complex. Without it, where do you wash yourself and keep yourself presentable for interviews or even just to keep your job? Where do you keep the clothes you need for work clean and safe? How can you keep your earnings and other necessary purchases safe?
This is the reality for the people who call the slums of Kolkata (India) home. Even if they learn a new skill or educate themselves to be able to obtain a job that might bring them out of the slums, they probably wouldn’t be able to keep it.
In February 2018, FAIR launched the Hope Rising mini-appeal which sought to address this need for the young women being blessed by the Kolkata Hope Rising in the Slums (KHRIS) ministry in India. KHRIS provides education and skills-training for promising young women living in the slums of Kolkata so that they can ultimately leave the slums. The funds raised through Hope Rising were destined to help acquire housing which would help the graduates kick-start their careers and ultimately lift them out of the slums. Not only does the provision of housing empower graduates to get and keep a job, it helps them save towards acquiring housing of their own. Renting an apartment often requires a deposit equivalent to a full year’s rent.
Fellowship International missionary Jack Chen recently shared that the first home has been secured for one graduate and her three sisters! The girls are ecstatic and very grateful for what the Lord has done for them through KHRIS. They celebrated (of course) by holding a housewarming party.