Vicky no longer begs on the streets for his meals

Thank you for coming together to ensure that Vicky gets wholesome nutritious meals everyday for an entire year.

Since 2008, when his father died of liver failure, 8-year old Vicky used to go out to the streets everyday to beg for food.  His young mother has no education and no marketable skills that would allow her to get a good paying job, and with no way of supporting Vicky and his younger brother, sent her children out to beg to bring in money so that they wouldn’t go to sleep hungry every night.  Last year, after a domestic dispute with her deceased husband’s mother, Vicky’s mother decided that a better future was possible for her children. She scooped them up from her mother in law’s place and headed to the city of Pune, 4 hours away, where some relatives of hers had told her about the possibility of educational sponsorship through an organization called the Ashraya Initiative for Children (AIC).

Arriving in Pune with nothing but the clothes on their backs, Vicky, his 5-year old brother and mother had no choice but to sleep on the sidewalk for several months. The day after arriving in Pune, however, the three went to the AIC Education Outreach Centre to see about enrolling the boys in school. As they had arrived in the middle of the school year, AIC was unable to enroll the boys in school right away, but Vicky’s mother tearfully begged for them to at least be able to come by the Centre every day for the healthy, nutritious meals served to all children in the Education Program. AIC staff agreed, and from that day forward, the brothers began stopping by the centre for breakfast, lunch and a snack. Vicky and his younger brother also began lingering at the Centre in between meals and started sitting in the kindergarten classroom, slowly beginning to participate in more activities and showing interest in learning as the days went on.

By the end of the school year, a mere four months after Vicky started coming to the Centre for the promise of daily meals, he had absorbed enough to be promoted with the rest of the children in the class – particularly impressive as it was an English-medium class and Vicky had no prior knowledge of English and had never been to school! In Vicky’s case, it was truly the daily meals that made the difference for his daily attendance and gradual participation in  an academic environment. Now in his second year at school, Vicky still relies heavily on the daily meals that he receives. His mother continues to beg for a living, but Vicky and his brother no longer join her, as they are too busy attending school and, thanks to the daily meals that you have provided him, do not have to worry about going hungry any more.