Chch link with Indian slum

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 4

Chch link with Indian slum

Christchurch has been linked to an Indian slum settlement in a new type of World Vision sponsorship. Christchurch residents and companies are being asked to sponsor children and community projects in Arumbakkam, a village about 6km from Madras. The South Island manager of World Vision, Mrs Glenda McGill, said the 250 children who needed sponsorships in Arumbakkam would only be assigned to people living in

Christchurch. World Vision was adding a new dimension to its child sponsorship scheme by having New Zealand communities sponsor communities in Third World countries. Anyone in Christchurch wanting to sponsor a child would automatically be assigned one from Arumbakkam, unless they specifally asked for a child from another country or area in which they had a special interest, said Mrs McGill.

Existing child sponsorships would remain until the children were selfsufficient. The new system would allow sponsors to gather together to find out how their children, and the community in which they lived were progressing. This could not be done easily when sponsors in a community such as Christchurch supported children throughout the world. Because all new sponsors in Christchurch would be acting for children in the same area, any visit to a sponsored child would be of interest to many other people in Christchurch, said Mrs McGill.

The community sponsorship scheme is, so far, only being done in New Zealand. Several other towns and cities have already been assigned communities in other parts of the world. Arumbakkam was one of five slums on the outskirts of Madras and had a population of about 2000, said Mrs McGill.

Although the caste system had been officially abolished in India, most

of Arumbakkam’s residents belonged to the lower harijan caste and found it hard to get away from its effects. They were often persecuted and were allocated menial tasks. About 20 per cent of the adults were illiterate. The water supply was polluted and the women had to walk Ikm each day to collect water trucked to the area from Madras. Many of the children were malnourished and suffered from tuberculosis, asthma, and skin diseases, said mrs McGill. World Vision was asked to help the people by the Evanglical Church of India. Mrs McGill will speak to schools, businesses, and community groups in July as part of a sponsorship drive. Child sponsorships would cost $2O a month. Project partnerships, which were available to companies and did not involve personal contact, cost $lB a month. Project partnerships would provide funds for community schemes such as a water supply and education for adult?.'