Buds of Christ

Education support for children through Positive Women Network 21 children of Buds of Christ were supported through Positive Women Network, Chennai. The children selected for support belonged to poor socio-economic conditions and from families of widow –headed households and under the care of grand-parents. The support of Rs.2000 /- was given to each child’s family. This support encourages many families to encourage their children to continue their education, especially supporting girl children. In the case of keerthana studying 3 rd standard, she and her sister both are living with life long illness and are living with their mother who is separated from her husband. Her mother earns her income through collie work and finds it hard to manage the cost of treatment and food. This support further encourages the mother to keep her children in school. The support has also encouraged orphan children supported by grandparents to continue in school. In many families

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8 th , we at Buds of Christ took this as an opportunity to assess the status of young girls from families affected by HIV and AIDS. It has been observed that most of the mothers who are currently living with HIV were stopped education at an early age and married as early as 14 years of age. Almost all the women have contracted infections through marriage and many have been widowed at very early shouldering the burden of being bread winners and bringing up their children. In such conditions, the girls from these families are also stopped from studies and married early in easing the burden thus repeating the same situation of the mothers. Buds of Christ in partnership with Positive Women Network, Chennai organised a program to help women realize the need to prevent girl child marriages and educate girl children.  The workshop started with an activity where women were made to realise the vulnerabilities and the stru