🍁Fall Update from Helping Point's Communities🍂

We hope you and your family have had a lovely Thanksgiving and are enjoying the colours of Fall. We have a general update on all the Helping Point Projects and a story from a St. Simon's student, Anju Gomango.

ST SIMON’S SCHOOL – NEW POST COVID START

All classes, totalling 311 students, have now returned to the school. This includes the younger students, some of whom had a 2 year break in their education, because the Indian government had mandated a phased return to school with the youngest year groups returning last.

The school is grappling with the challenge of plugging the gap in the children’s education, caused by the pandemic. Many of the children, who were at home for long periods during the pandemic, had no internet access and have illiterate parents, unable to help them with school work. Although contact was kept by mobile phone where possible and some home visits took place, the children lost out on many months of learning. To read further on to what extent students' learning has been impacted by the pandemic in India, please refer to this report by UNESCO.

To compensate, extra classes have been laid on with lessons now beginning at 8.30am rather than 9.30 and ending at 4.30pm rather than 3.30. The main focus is extra mathematics and science teaching. The teachers are conscious, however, not to overload pupils and breaks are built in. The extra lessons have been really well received by both students and teachers; with pupils all keep to engage in the extra lessons.

Children at St Simons are highly motivated to learn. In the past year 100% of the high school age pupils graduated successfully, with 80 to 90% doing extremely well (receiving the equivalent of A+/A/B grades). Every year a number of pupils sit a government exam to gain entry into an elite government “Model School”. Typically around 5 St Simons pupils are successful every year and will leave the school aged 10 to go to the Model School.

St Simons is the only English medium school in the area and it continues to be one of the highest achieving schools in the Gajapati district. As a result it does attract some students whose families can afford to pay school fees. These fees are modest (circa $160/year) but those payments make a useful contribution to the funding of the school.

FOOD CHALLENGES AND FOOD DISTRIBUTION

Helping Point’s projects, together with individuals and families, are grappling with inflation and in particular food price inflation. Food price inflation in India is currently somewhere in the region of 20-30% but some vital products including potatoes have risen even more steeply. Around 2 years ago, potatoes cost circa 15 rupees per kilo but now they cost 30 per kilo. There are a number of factors in play but the main one is the huge increase in the cost of fuel - causing higher costs for farmers, which are then passed on to consumers.

During the pandemic, Helping Point distributed thousands of food packages and meals. However, even post pandemic, many members of Helping Point’s community are continuing to face severe hardship, including unemployment and rising prices. Therefore we have been able to extend our programme of supplying needy families. The food bags pictured contain rice, dal, cooking oil, wheat flour, sugar, salt and vegetables. Around 900 families were given the food bags by Helping Point during the period June to August 2022.

THE JHOLA CHILDREN’S HOME

Children from the home attend the free local school and are given some supplementary help with homework and reading by the warden after classes. Five of the children graduated from the local government high school this year and are now at college or living with family.

DAY CARE CENTRES

We are happy to report that, after two years of closures and limited operations due to the pandemic, the day care centres are fully operational. Daycare centres look after the children of needy village families before and after school, typically while their parents work long hours in the fields. The children are given extra tuition to supplement what they receive at the local school and are taught Bible stories and Christian songs.

The daycare centre staff need to take care around the Christian element of the teaching, and students and parents are asked to give permission for the children to attend those parts of the lessons. Anyone who does not wish to be present can leave. However, we are currently seeing a good take up rate, with most students staying for the Christian elements of the lessons, and thereby having an opportunity to hear the good news.

In recent years Helping Point has rolled out the provision of meals at 6 of the 10 daycare centres. This has had an extremely positive impact on children’s health and their learning. Many of the children who attend do not receive regular or nutritious meals at home. The meals programme is a big draw to the programme.

Helping Point staff explain to parents, many of whom work in the fields or have manual jobs themselves, how precious education is and how it can give their children a better future. The staff motivate the parents to help their children with their learning and their educational goals. This coaching happens regularly on one to one conversations and the staff also organize group discussion sessions with parents. Staff also make parents aware of the risk of sex trafficking of children, although thankfully there doesn’t seem to be a prevalence of sex grooming gangs operating in the local areas.

HELPING POINT CHURCHES

The 6 churches pioneered by Helping Point continue to grow spiritually and also in numbers. The believers are very active, with regular Sunday worship and evening prayer meetings. All of the churches have seen new members join recently. There have been around 5 – 10 new joiners per church, with the Liviri and Lopenta churches seeing the biggest growth.

There are a number of reasons for the growth in numbers. Some people came to the churches after first becoming aware of them through receiving aid packages, which the churches distributed during the pandemic. Others have come as a result of local pastors praying for them and then seeing an answer to those prayers. During the Sunday services, congregation members share stories of how God has responded to their prayers. There are stories of physical healings but also God intervening in difficult situations of conflict, for example one situation where difficult relations with neighbours greatly improved.

OUTREACH RESUMED, WITH ENCOURAGING RESULTS

Now that covid restrictions have ended, the church pastors are engaging actively in outreach again. They go in a small vehicle to neighbouring villages, move around in the street and approach people, asking if they want to find out about Jesus, the gospel and the work of their churches.

Given the high levels of persecution and intolerance against Christianity in India, the pastors are careful in their approaches. If anyone declines the opportunity to engage in conversation or is hostile, the pastors respect that and move on. However the pastors have good knowledge of the local communities and have good judgement and instincts about whether to initiate or continue with discussions. Happily, some people have been welcoming and wanted to learn more. We are thankful that as a result of various fruitful outreach conversations, people have recently joined the Helping Point churches and come to faith.

ANJU'S STORY

My name is Anju Gomango, and I am the daughter of Aliya Gomango and Sangita Gomango from the village of Dantada near Gumma in the Gajapati District. I have an older brother and younger sister. I come from a poor family; where my father is a farm labourer. When I was studying in the 4th class in Odia Medium Government School, which was situated a long distance from our village, my parents heard about St. Simon’s English Medium School in Gumma, which is run by Helping Point. At first my elder brother joined.

He had not been receiving a good education in the government school. But once he joined St Simons, he was very happy. I then asked my father if I could join, since my brother was studying really well there and had all the support and facilities needed to succeed. He made great improvements and scored a good mark in his 10th class examination. Now he is studying in college. Having seen the progress my brother made, my parents agreed to enrol me too!

It has now been 6 years since I have been studying here and I am in the 10th grade. When I was at home I wasn’t able to read properly. I was also not aware of prayer or how to worship God or to read the Bible. But when I came here, as well as learning to read and write I learned a lot about the word of God and prayer. Our warden teaches us from the Bible, how to recite memory verses and many devotional songs. At present in our village I am teaching the songs and memory verses and leading the meetings happening in our village church which I learned through the morning and evening devotions in St Simons School.

At St Simon’s I receive many good things such as good education , good buildings and accommodation and they provide us with delicious food including eggs, chicken and different types of vegetable curries and dals. By the Grace of God, the St Simon’s school teachers are giving us a very good education . My favourite subjects are science and mathematics although all the teachers teach their subjects with passion. My aim is to become a nurse. I want to serve others and to share the word of God. My parents want that for me too. My parents and I are grateful and thankful to St Simons School and to Helping Point. I am so glad to be a part of it. Thank you!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please pray for all the students, teachers and support staff at St. Simon's School.
Please pray for all the children and wardens at Jhola Children's Home.
Please pray for the children and parents of those attend Day Care Centres.
Please pray for the churches and for the protection of the churches and Christians in India.
Please donate if you can, to enable Helping Point to continue God's work in India.

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