MVF & Prajwala

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy with meetings. We're still shaping projects and looking for partner organizations. With so much going on plus accidentally using all the available bandwidth at the church, I have definitely been a lame blogger. WiFi is supposedly an option if we can find a local person to sign us up. Taylor wasn't kidding about the bureaucracy here... Anyway, I wanted to tell you about two of the organizations that it looks like we'll be working a bit with.

MVF is a local organization that fights child labor. They hold town meetings to educate villagers about keeping their kids in school--as opposed to having them start working. When they convince people to pull their kids out of labor and put them into school, they help place the kids or send them to a bridge course camp run by MVF. The bridge course camps are free to the students and are supposed to help students catch up educationally with their age group. Sounds like an educational miracle. I don't know how it works.

Prajwala is another local organization that rescues children who have been trafficked into brothels. They have rehabilitation facilities where they provide counseling, job training, and other educational options. They also work with the villagers to educate them about sex trafficking. It seems to be something that people are tricked into a lot.

For both of these organizations, they would like our help with writing. They would like brochures, photography, interviews, posters, reports, and who knows what else. I'm especially excited for these writing projects, and I hope we'll be able to help them promote themselves more effectively.

Taylor has visited a few Microfinance Institutions and is still waiting for things to get rolling. A few of them have sounded really promising, but it's sometimes hard to tell. We want results. :)

In addition to lining up these projects, Taylor and I have purchased our first-ever gym passes. They were $4 per month per person. That's a price we're willing to pay. Or are we? The equipment and muscle-man posters would make you laugh. The lack of AC would make you sweat. The stationary bikes are rusty and have pedals falling off. The stair-stepper is impossibly high. The only thing that is worth anything are the weights. So, that's what we've been doing. Sort-of.