Friday, June 12, 2009

Saving the Children of India



When Anita Edgar, a grandmother from Devon, England, vacationed in India one winter, she was horrified at the hundreds of children living in abject poverty and forced to beg in the streets for a miserable living. When Edgar returned to England, she packed her belongings and went back to India, determined to help these street children however she could.

That was thirteen years ago and she's never looked back. The charity she founded now operates four orphanages, three night shelters, and three independent-living cottages for older children in and around Goa, India. It also operates a children's hospital and "Manna on Wheels," a free food-distribution program. Altogether, the charity's residential programs care for more than two thousand of India's street children.

We are pleased and honored to host Ms. Edgar at Mindful Hands (211 King St, Old Town Alexandria, Virginia) on Thursday, June 18, from 12:30 - 1:30pm. Bring a brown-bag lunch and come hear Ms. Edgar's riveting talk on the activities of her charity and the lives of the street children, both before and after their rescue from the slums of India. Like the film, Slumdog Millionaire, her tale is both profoundly heartbreaking and sublimely uplifiting. Please join us.


To learn more about the El-Shaddai Charitable Trust, visit www.childrescue.net.