PUUR Home donates to Speak 4 Silent Voices

A Little Help Goes a Long Way

It is pretty much universally accepted wisdom that an education is the most effective way to break out of the cycle of poverty. With that goal in mind Speak4SilentVoices currently supports 32 children living on the streets of Kolkatta. Working with minimal overhead and mostly volunteer staff this small organization helps these kids out with simple but essential things to make sure they can enroll and stay in school: paying school fees, helping them get a pair of shoes or a coat to shield against the monsoon rains, a dentist visit to relieve a tooth ache, getting vaccinated, receiving a school lunch, and in some cases finding a roof to sleep under. Many of these things we in America take for granted but for the street children and their families such expenses all too often are real luxuries, too prohibitive to maintain causing them to leave school early if they ever had the chance to start school in the first place. Now these bright and committed kids often have become the first in their family to learn to read and write. Being able to remain and finish school opens up the prospect of opportunities of which these children and their families, until now, could only dream.

Here’s the inspiring story of Aftab as told by Kristina Madlic, the director and founder of Speak4SilentVoices:

This wonderful kid who has spent most of his life sleeping on the sidewalk helping his handicapped father (Aftab’s dad, a riksha puller was permanently injured by a car.) is finally no longer homeless. I met Aftab when he was 8 years old and selling bubble gum on the streets because his father who cannot work due to being disabled would not allow his son to beg for money. Aftab refused boarding school due to wanting to help his father, but he very much wanted to study. So I enrolled him in a day school and created a meal plan for him and his father. Now 4 years later, Aftab can read, write, is fluent in English and is a star football (soccer) player. He did this all while being homeless and sleeping each night on the sidewalk outside of a shopping mall. As of June Aftab and his father are officially housed!!! I found some sponsors to help pay for a room near his school where he and his father now live. This is huge in his life (and in my heart). (…) Thank you to all of his amazing sponsors. Without you he would still be living on the streets struggling to survive by selling bubble gum.

Aftab, in a recent picture, showing off some clothes which were so kindly donated by kids and their families in the US.

PUUR Home dedicates 1% of the sales of our natural all purpose cleaner to support the work of Speak4SilentVoices. During the month of June we donate an extra $3 per purchase with use of the coupon SP4SV at our Amazon store.