I love to tithe. I consider it a happy version of paying taxes (sending money to beneficial, life-flowering causes). A portion of sales from the Prasad for Women series is donated to projects, people, and organizations that make my heart sing. Right now, this includes:

ONE PEN
I met a young girl in India named Devi. She lived a short distance away from where my husband and I stayed outside Tiruvannamalai, at the base of Arunachala Mountain. Her family is extremely poor. Devi is the girl in the picture with the green dress, on my lap. She is holding some Peepers, a finger puppet invented by my brother-in-law, puppeteer Hobey Ford. She touched my heart. We touched each other’s hearts. She didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Tamil, but we got along just fine.

I came to understand through my stay there, that children are expected to buy their own pens, pencils, paper, and school uniforms. That explained why children often came up to Joe or I and said, “One pen?” I thought for a while that this was a Hindi word (“onepen”) and I was confused by the request. But one day an English speaking child told me they were asking for one pen for school. Such a small, easy thing for me. How many pens do I run through in a year? For many of the children I met in this very poor part of India, the cost of things like pens were clearly unaffordable when the price of a bag of rice was already an issue.

I found the Hindu culture to be astonishingly beautiful and devotional. The people we met everyday were amongst the most spiritually rich I have ever been blessed to meet. Indian women also have their own unique set of challenges within the culture. For girls like Devi, that includes pens, pencils, and rice. The tiniest amount of our money goes an enormously long way. So, with tithing from the Prasad for Women sales, money is sent to a very special man named Venkatesh, who lives in Tiru.  He identifies which girls in which families need this extra support. If they have brothers, they are included. And if that family also needs a bag of rice, then money for that is provided along with the school supplies. In southern India, education is one of the primary opportunities for girls to begin to navigate the complexity of their lives, within their own culture, in their own way. One pen can be one small but real way to help one Fifth World girl walking upright.

In March 2007, I received this message from another friend named Ramana, a teacher who made it possible for my husband and I (and many many others) to travel to India and experience the great blessing of Arunachala Mountain and many wonderful people.  He introduced us to Venkatesh and both of them are angels in our lives and in the lives of others.  I am grateful, too, to Antoinette, Ramana's wife, who recently took the One Pen donations to India with her (because sending money in any other way is too complicated and uncertain).  I want to share part of his message to me, along with three pictures of some of the children who recently benefited from this tithe -- from our tithe, you and I, who helped make this possible.

Dear Debra,

Venkatesh wanted me to extend his heartfelt thanks for the blessings you gave the school children. Antoinette personally gave a gift to the family in the first picture, and it was one of the highlights of her trip. The family welcomed her as their own, and showed her so much love and warmth.

 

The other pictures are  of a village school (they are all soooo poor, as you can see from the classroom). We gave pencils, pens and notebooks to the whole school, and with the money I also contributed from the sale of the shawls, etc, so many more schools such as these can be reached. The money is also going to select families who need uniforms as well (making it possible for them to even go to school). I guess that you know that Venkatesh is contributing his own time to seek out, investigate and distribute everything (a much bigger job than I realized). He told me that his own whole education was sponsored by a German woman when he was a small boy, and that he feels this is his way of giving back (passing it forward?).

Love to you and Joe.

 

Yours truly,

Ramana and Venkatesh

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LITTLE PEARLS
This non-profit company creates 30-second “spots” for television that are essentially “tiny films that open hearts and minds”. Commercials sell things; Pearls inspire. You can see them on television, on the web, or experience them on DVD, video or CD. This women-run organization believes in media that matters and in changing the world, Pearl by Pearl. Please visit LittlePearls.org and have a gander. And please consider a further donation.