Children’s Relief International

Told by a Rock Quarry widow:

It was almost 20 years ago that I first came to the Rock Quarry. It was a long trip from a remote village. I came with my husband and two young children. We are all Dalits (untouchables) and our lives have been shaped and sized by that fact of fate.

Before we came to the Rock Quarry my husband Sanjeev and I ran a tiny tea shop in our village. We made only a $1 or so per day. We weren’t in business all that long when some members of the upper caste of our village complained that we didn’t have separate glasses for them. How could we? We didn’t hardly have enough money for the six cups we owned. They said they would not drink out of cups, even if they were washed, that had been used by untouchables. There was nothing we could do. From that day our business started to fail.

My children were allowed to attend school by law, but when they tried, there was opposition from the teachers and the students. They had to sit in the back of the room away from the rest. Kids would say, ‘Why don’t you go back to your brooms and street sweeping?’ My children preferred working in the quarry breaking rocks with me rather than being pushed, snubbed and ridiculed at school. This is the way life is here.

When my husband Sanjeev unexpectedly died from an unknown disease we tried to give him a traditional cremation. But we didn’t have the money for the necessary firewood and oil. They wouldn’t let us bury him in the village cemetery because there were upper caste people in it. You could say that the caste system here in India persists even beyond the grave.

I and my children are doing better now since we received a microloan from Children’s Relief International. It’s amazing the difference it has made. I’ve been able to buy some new clothes and we eat a meal twice a day now. It’s been years since I’ve seen a smile on my children’s face. Now I see them smiling every day. What a difference a little food can make. I know that these loans came from Christians and I now say that Jesus Christ is Lord.