By Daphne Jackson
Thousands of miles from the Bitterroot Valley, a children’s home in Bihar, India feeds, educates and houses more than 450 children. In October, Florence resident Nancy Brown will make her third visit to this home with an Oregon-based organization called Open Arms India.
Brown said she first became aware of Open Arms India 16 years ago, during the adoption process for her sixth child, a daughter from India.
“Years ago, when my daughter Sona came home… this woman Sharin Moznette, she was working for the adoption agency that matched Sona with our family, so she was instrumental in matching my daughter with our family, and then I found out that she was involved in this ministry,” she said. “So about three years ago, we started considering going on a trip with her, because when they started looking for this property in Northern India, in the state of Bihar, they wanted it located where there was fresh air.”
Brown said Open Arms India, and a local partner with whom the organization had started a high school, began plans for the children’s home four years ago, building on a two-acre parcel of land surrounded by rice fields.
She said the campus was designed to accommodate about 150 children, but the actual number of inhabitants increased rapidly; she said 250 children were living in the home when she and Sona first visited two years ago, and this number has increased by about 100 children per year since then. Brown said the majority of the 450 children living there now are orphans, although some may have a parent, and be victims of vulnerable situations.
“There have been occasions where the police have alerted the director of the orphanage to the trafficking of girls,” Brown said. “Mothers, poor widowed mothers who were selling their daughters, so the police would intercept, and bring the girls out to the children’s home, and there, they would have the opportunity to go to school for the first time, and get meals. So, they might not be full orphans, but (the police) are reluctant to have them placed back with their moms.”
Part of the rapid expansion has happened as villages in Bihar, which may have up to five or six orphans, hear about the home, which is one of very few in the area, Brown said.
She said the funding for food, clothing and other resources comes from monthly sponsorships for the children. Although only 250 of the children are sponsored now, Brown said that pool of funds provides the supplies for the whole group.
“The school is well-run,” she said. “These kids are fed an amazing amount of food a day. Most of them have never had this much food, most of them have never had any education, they have not seen toys. The potential for education there amongst those kids is just tremendous, and the teachers are very, very willing and eager, but they have very little resources other than their own creativity and what education they have had themselves.”
According to Brown, the conditions at the home are still primitive, with children sitting on the floor in the classrooms, and teachers’ resources limited to a chalkboard, a piece of chalk and their own knowledge. She said this year, Open Arms India is sending a group of 15 people, who will bring three “rustic laptops” each equipped with an English program, an encyclopedia, an English-Hindi dictionary and Khan Academy math and science programs.
While the entire team will be there for two weeks, Brown said she and her youngest daughter, Jessica, will stay for about a month. This will be Jessica’s second trip, and the Browns’ longest visit so far. Brown said she will help the staff start to become familiar with the new computers during this time.
“I will begin to try to implement the English Language Learner’s program, and at the same time, try to encourage hygiene,” she said. “I’m trying to bring teachers’ resources… I’m also trying to bring toys, because they have nothing to play with other than what they find.”
Brown said they are excited to be able to help, and would like to offer an opportunity for the Bitterroot Valley community to get involved through a fundraiser with some local artists’ work at Lutzenhiser Jewelry, and an information booth in the community room of North Valley Library, on October 7 as part of Stevensville’s First Friday.
“It’s a personal connection,” she said. “I will meet the children that are sponsored by local people. We can’t bring a special gift to a sponsored child, because that’s just not fair; anything we bring has to be equitable to everybody, but I can connect with them. I can bring a letter to them, I can take a picture, I can tell them how they are, that kind of thing.”
The fundraiser will have three goals: to raise money for a dining hall, to increase the number of monthly sponsorships and to bring a small gift, consisting of hygienic supplies and a small toy, for each of the children.
“There’s the classrooms, and the kitchen area, and a group gathering room, and a storage room and a little medical room that they keep locked up, and then above that are the sets of dormitories, but there’s no dining area, so these kids eat outside at tables every meal, whether it’s rain or shine,” Brown said. “So far, it is up to the first floor. They’re getting ready to put the ceiling on. And that would be good, because then the kids can at least be out of the weather.”
She said when it gets too hot to be outside, and during the monsoon season, the children will sometimes eat holding their plates in the classrooms.
Jessica, who was adopted from the Philippines as a child, said she feels a personal connection to these children and their experiences.
“I did wish that someone was coming to visit, and wanted to get to know me when I was at that point,” she said. “This trip is not just a one-time mission trip, and then afterward you’re done, like you won’t see them again or you disconnect with them. I like that we’re going again and continuing the relationship that was built.”
More information is available at openarmsindia.org, or directly from Brown at (406) 241-8360.