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Children’s Home in Kerala State (CHIKS) |
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Write or mail Robin Radley to receive the regular CHIKS Newsletter "Letter from India" and keep in touch with developments at the Children's Homes in Kerala State. Contact:
Chiks is a Charity Commission registered Charity Number 1076469 |
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Through sales of her debut album ‘But Not Now’, Jay Parrack has been supporting CHIKS, a local charity that provides shelter and protection for homeless and orphaned children in India. CHIKS stands for ‘Children’s Homes In Kerala State’, a charity that funds three separate centres in Kerala to care for disadvantaged children. The charity is personal to Jay, as her daughter, Laura spent time living and working in one of the homes during her gap year. The family that run the ‘Little Flower Mercy Home’ work tirelessly around the clock to look after the sixty children in their care and provide them with everything they need. The children are loved and nurtured, and provided with an education so that they can build positive, independent futures for themselves. These homes take in children who would otherwise be scrounging on the streets or struggling to survive in the squalor of bus and train stations. They are often orphans or unwanted children of prostitutes, so the future they would otherwise face is very bleak. One of the biggest costs incurred in running the home is medication, as children taken in from the streets usually need treatment for infections and malnutrition. The homes also care for children who come from poor families whose parents just cannot support them any more. These children would have to live in cramped, unhygienic circumstances at home, often begging for a living rather than attending school. The CHIKS homes allow them to have a childhood; to play and to learn, and their parents are free to visit them or take them home for a weekend whenever they can. Through education provided by centres like these, children can break the vicious cycle of the poverty that they live in and create better lives for themselves and their families. |
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Photographs: Laura Parrack |
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