The House of Hope

The House of Hope is a small scale project run by a few people in Kolkata.  A lady, along with some helpers, opens her house to the street children and provides them with a safe environment where they can receive food, shelter, education and health care as well as the most important gift which is love!  Most of the children she cares for still live on the streets though she has been able to offer seven children a place in her home full-time, before they lived with her, they too lived on the street.

As well as looking after children full time and opening her house to become a day centre, she also supports the local young mothers of the area.  Often these young mothers are aged somewhere between thirteen and seventeen.  It is an Indian run project which is great because it means it is built on personal relationships and there are no language or cultural barriers to get in the way.  The House of Hope is an amazing project and it makes a huge difference to so many people who would be otherwise unsupported and lacking the care they so desperately need.

I know about this project because one of my good friends spent some time there during a three month trip to India earlier this year.  Since she has returned to the UK, she has spread the word about the amazing work which is happening over there and has strived to continue helping them from the UK.  We decided to join the support by holding a small craft and coffee afternoon at Spring Mount last weekend.  It was a great success in that just over £600 was raised to help the cause and people were interested to hear about the project.  As it happens, £600 is just the amount of money the House of Hope needs for a special Christmas project she was hoping to run!  Isn't that amazing?  God is so good!  I believe He was in every part of the event, from the prompt to run the event in the first place, through to the total raised by the end of it.   It was incredible that so much money was raised because although quite a few people did come along, it certainly wasn't mobbed...so how He got £600+ out of it was amazing!

The event wasn't planned very far in advance which meant that it was a bit hectic to get the goods made in time!   I stopped my usual studio work and moved on to the crafts instead and it worked out ok.  Also my mum very kindly made some crochet decorations and sent them down - they were very popular!  I made a range of different things, mainly Christmas themed though there were some exceptions.  Feel free to have a look through the gallery below to see some of what was on sale.  Although some of the decorations have sold out, there are various bits and pieces left over and these will be on sale in Orkney next weekend (Sunday the 21st) at Stromness Baptist Church after the Sunday service.  There will also be some other goods on sale and again, all funds raised will go to help The House of Hope.