Hopefully by tomorrow morning, Michelle and I will be on our way to Allahabad, India! We'll be spending the next 10 weeks there, primarily working with the Society of Underprivileged People (SOUP), an organization that rehabilitates children who have been trafficked.
Our main goal while we are in Allahabad is to be of as much help to SOUP as possible, whether its working daily with the children, helping with grant writing, helping with writing the newsletter, documenting the stories of the children, helping to create a mentorship program, or helping to further develop programs already in existence.
Our next goal is to learn as much as possible about the many issues surrounding child trafficking. In particular, what kind of access do formerly trafficked children have to education? What special needs does a child who has faced something as terrible as child trafficking have? What obstacles does a person face when starting a program to rehabilitate formerly trafficked children?
We hope to be updating this blog weekly with updates on our work with SOUP and what we learn each day from the children who stay there and the directors who run the organization. This is our first trip to India and we are excited for the experience!
18 MAY 2009