• Every year we do a night that will bless widows in India.

India’s amazing culture of tradition and age old customs are her strengths and give her the a special uniqueness among the countries. However that strength can sometimes be her weakness also as she unthinkingly follows traditions that bring grief to her people.
And one of those traditions is the treatment of widows. Delhi psychologist Vasantha Patri, who has written about the plight of widows, described them as “physically alive but socially dead”.

India is society where a woman is traditionally considered to be complete when she marries. And if her husband dies – then its her fault. And thus the consequences to the end of her days. They have restrictions placed upon them they we here in Australia find it hard to understand.
So once a year, around October we have a fund raising night that will bless some of these precious women.

This year we ate the delicious Gujarati “chats” of India. A Chaat is a savoury snack that is served as a type of hors d’oeuvre at roadside stalls and food carts across India. The word Chaat is derived from Hindi words meaning “Tasting a delicacy” “to lick” and “to devour with relish, eat noisily” We tried some Indian dancing – with various degrees of success and laughter and with that one happy night kicked off a fund raiser that will impact well over 1000 widows.

Every donation of $10 enables us to give a gift of plants and water container and ongoing mentoring to create organic kitchen gardens with healthy vegetables to eat. The Indian committee (social worker and village women leaders) in this indigenous organization of churches have: