Jeff Jones, Sr. Director for Volunteer Management and Missions Support and Susan Williams, Director for Missions Support have joined me on Buckner’s first exploratory trip to India. We have traveled to Delhi to meet with Thom Wolf, President of University Institute based in Delhi. While we already provide intercountry adoptions from India through Dillon International, we hope to find ways to serve vulnerable children, orphans and families through social services here as well.
We have been immersed in India, a place that Mira Kamdar, author of Planet India, calls the most important country for the future of the planet.
Here are a few things that I have learned about India since I arrived:
India’s population, numbering 1.2 billion, is home to 800 million people that lives on less than $2 per day.
46% of all children in the world that suffer from malnutrition live in India.
The population that lives in the continent of Africa represents ½ of the population of India.
70% of the population of the city of Bombay lives in slums; 13% of Delhi live in slums.
70% of the Christian church in India are from the Dalit, those without a caste.
15% of India’s population are in the Pure/Forward Castes; 50% are in Impure Backward Castes; and 20% are Dalit, those without a caste/out-caste; about 15% pop out of the caste system, usually through education or conversion.
We are meeting with friends and key contacts that will help us navigate opportunities for ministry here in India. Pray that the Lord will show us how we might make life better for vulnerable children, orphans, and families.
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