Jyoti's Story
Jyoti lives in a small slum on government property right on the side of a train track. When they trains go by, the whole slum shakes and the mothers live in fear that their children will be playing on the wrong tracks at the wrong time. She is also one of the women who hand stiches the adorable little blankets for our Baby Jesus Ornaments. The women in this village are largely uneducated and spend their days taking care of their homes and children and waiting to see what money their husbands will bring home at the end of the day. But most of their husbands work doing manual labor and have spent their daily wages on alcohol or gambling before it ever reaches their wives and children. Jyoti is just one of the women who is, for the first time, using her own two hands and her own skills and abilities to help support her family. For the first time, these women are dreaming of being able to feed their kids without wondering where the next meal will come from and being able to afford school fees and new clothes so that their kids can go to school. Jyoti and the other women who are a part of her Asha Project community group are starting to believe that they do have value and purpose all because someone showed them a little love and taught them how to make simple little blankets to be used to wrap around baby Jesus and hung on someone’s Christmas tree on the other side of the world.
