Poverty; On the Other Side of the Showers

Drip-drop. A rain shower patters the roof.

Drip-drop. Raindrops leak through holes in the tattered roof, falling on the inhabitants: a middle-aged couple, their children and grandchildren.

Drip-drop. Raindrops soak the family’s clothes, bedding and dry rations.

Drip-drop. The family flees to sleep under a leak-free roof.

Drip. Shame. Drop. Discouragement.

Rain keeps falling through the roof—the roof the family can never afford to adequately repair. And the waters rise.

Drowning in Hopeless Poverty

This is Saju and Aasia’s story—at least part of it. Like many others in their community, they struggled to feed their family by working the land. In a rural area with no industry, people work in agriculture, but roughly half don’t own land. They labor eight hours a day in other people’s fields to earn approximately $1.50 USD.

Exhausted and hopeless, many men numb themselves with alcohol and gambling, wasting their meager earnings and leaving their wives and children malnourished. Illiterate themselves, they never imagine sending their children for higher education.

The cycle of poverty continues.

Saju and Aasia were among those blessed to own land, but financial hardship pushed them to mortgage their land to moneylenders. They began working as daily wage laborers in others’ fields, sometimes camping out in a nearby state to find better wages.

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Learn more about how generosity can change lives. Gifts like pigs, bicycles and sewing machines break the cycle of poverty and show Christ’s love to impoverished families in Asia. One gift can have a far-reaching impact, touching families and rippling out to transform entire communities.