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Uma Maheshwari
Age 24
Uma thanks all donors !
Uma has landed an excellent job in a major hospital in Pondicherry even before she graduated at the top of her class.
Uma
is an amazing young woman. Her father died years ago and her mother
is in her sixties. The mother sells vadas, dhal fritters, in the evening
and makes about a dollar a day. Uma lives in a tiny room on a very
noisy polluted street with her mother, brother and sister in law,
and neice. In spite of their poverty the family is cultured. Uma suffers
from rheumatoid arthritis and is in pain a lot of the time. Sometimes
she wishes she would die. Nonetheless she is unfailingly cheerful
and helpful. She is an extremely intelligent girl with a strong spiritual
presence. Along with another man I have been helping her through a
private Christian nursing school but the man is unable to finish his
committment and it has been left to me. She is consistently the head
of her class. She will graduate this year and needs money to live on before she gets a job and starts supporting herself.
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Selvi
Age 38
A Stroke of Luck!
Selvi accepted a marriage propsal from a wealthy foreigner and
no longer requires assistance.
Selvi
has a steady housecleaning job that brings in about thirty five dollars
a month. She is very hard working, conscientious and impeccably honest.
Her husband took to drinking and ran off with another woman leaving
her with two daughters who she has managed to educate. She lives in
a small room near her uncle's house that cost three hundred rupees a
month, about $15. She is a devotee of the Divine Mother and observes
all the proscribed rituals. Her second daughter is ready for marriage
and she is unable to come up with the money for the dowry. The dowry
involves household goods, clothing, and a modest amount of gold jewelry.
It is virtually impossible for a woman to marry without a dowry. Her
first daughter's marriage was financed by a loan. She has been unable
to reduce the principal because of usurous interest which consumes almost
half of her monthly income. She wants to pay off the first loan, about
$400, and get together the money for another dowry. Then she will be relatively
free.
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Kumari
Age 37
A heartfelt thankyou from Kumari !
Because of your generosity Kumari was able, with the help of a 'salary loan' purchase the house in which she was llving just before she was about to be evicted. Now her only pressing need is $500 for a dowry for her eldest daughter.
Kumari is one of the sweetest, kindest, most generous
people you would hope to meet. Her story is typical of Tamil women.
Like Selvi, her husband took to drink and ran off with another woman
leaving her with two daughters to support. In addition she has to
look after aging parents. The father, 84, spends the thirty rupees
he makes a day as a watchman on drink and regularly beats her 77 year
old mother. In addition she takes care of a crippled relative. Luckily
she has what is considered a 'good' job working in the pharmacy of
an ashram that involves being on her feet for ten hours a day six
days a week. She takes home about forty dollars a month. Her immediate
financial goal, like Selvi, is to save enough to get a dowry together
for her 18 year old daughter. It will not happen unless she gets some
help.
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Meenakshi
Age 15
Meenaski was left behind by an irresponsible father.
She lives with her mother in a hovel with a dirt floot and a thatched
roof that is much in need of repair. She is eager to
learn and works hard at her school. Her needs are relatively
modest: money for school fees and clothing and, of course, food. Twenty
or thirty dollars a month would make a big difference in her life.
Meenaski is a spirited young lady but poverty is starting to take
its toll. With a little help she can escape the worst of it.
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