The Situation in India

India has a population of over one billion, a third of whom are living in extreme poverty. Hunger is a reality for millions of men, women and children every day of their lives. More than half of children aged under 5 are malnourished and many die of curable illness just for the want of adequate medical care.

Among the poor of India are thousands of homeless and destitute children.

In a city of a million people, such as Vijayawada, where Kidz Assist has its programs, there is in excess of 20,000 street children.  Many of these children end up on the streets through no fault of their own. Typically they are escaping terrible circumstances such as alcoholism, severe physical and sexual abuse and abandonment.

Many more children remain in the family villages but live with intolerable circumstances of extreme hunger and malnourishment, no shelter, very little clothing and no support structure. And definitely no one to tell them they are loved. The suicide rate among Indian children is very high and usually the cause is the utter desperation of the situations they are in.

India has over 220 million children but only about half of these children are attending schools. It has been estimated that there are as many as 70-80 million child labourers. These are children who, because of poverty, are forced to work in agricultural fields and factories.

Even if a child is able to attend school, many are often unable to complete their education due to the financial pressures their families face in caring for them and their siblings. This is very sad because education is the only way out of poverty for the children of India. 

If these needy children do not receive care and aid, they will become child labourers, street children, or beggars. Kidz Assist is developing Programs to relieve as many children from hardship as possible. Only through funding for programs is it possible to improve the lives of these children.