Ministry uses Facebook to campaign for slum children

An evangelical ministry has launched a campaign to support and build schools for slum children in India.

The Worldwide Christian Schools (WWCS) through its 'Slumschool Project' aims to raise at least one million dollars to support three model schools in the country by December 2009.

The fundraising and awareness campaign is apparently using Facebook - the online social networking website - to weave a "network of one million supporters".

According to Gypsy Meadows with WWCS, the campaign has got a good response and about 260 members have joined the facebook fan page. Through online the ministry has raised $1,000 apart from the additional $33,000 offline.

The Oscar-winning blockbuster 'Slumdog Millionaire', says Meadows, depicts the plights of slum children in India. They "live in deep poverty and lack stable housing," she says.

"They don't have a place that they're legally able to live, so they may come back the next day and find that their house is gone," Mission Network News quoted her saying. "The government may bulldoze their whole community, because the neighbors who have rented or own property have complained. So it's a life that has no security. And for children, obviously that creates a lot of problems."

The project, through indigenous leadership, aims to support three Christian schools that provides quality education to the slum children. It will provide schools with permanent buildings, computers, student uniforms, desks and textbooks.

Meadows says these schools are showing the "love of Jesus" and by taking care of the children's needs are transforming them to be "productive (and) successful citizens".

She laments that India has 26 million children who are orphans. Many of the school partners, she points, were orphans themselves "who were introduced to Christ in a Christian school" and now "live out their lives in gratitude" serving the children.

She says Christians should pray for the "children of India, especially those 26 million orphans, that there would be safety for them, and that God would put His angels around them."

The WWCS ministry was launched by three businessmen from Grand Rapids, Michigan after a trip to India in which they witnessed the poor schooling conditions in rural areas.

The ministry provides "school development programs dedicated to the glory of God and to the service of the local community without regard for race or creed."