3/18/2008

Mukti Mission

My second project trip is now over. We are back up in Mussoorie now (arrived late last night). So now the office work for these two project trips begins.
The second project trip was in Pune at/for the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission. What a ministry! It began over a century ago. There main mission is to provide home for women and children left behind by society for whatever reasons. During a few times of famine in India, the population of the mission rose into the thousands. They have a special needs school and home, home for the blind, home for widows and elderly women, and many many once orphaned girls. There are over four hundred residents on campus not including staff right now. So really, it is these that is our client.
It is difficult to grasp the scale of this ministry. It is huge. The first couple of days were devoted almost entirely to visiting all of their sites. They have so many different aspects of their ministry, and part of our job was to create an updated master plan for the next twenty years. What a task! I am so glad that we had a volunteer master planner on our team. So it was up to Lewis (architect from San Antonio, who I met when first discovering eMi) and I to design the new English Medium school. (English medium = taught in English). So we designed a 1000 student campus for children from 2.5 years old to 10th grade. Along with this school is designs for Marati Medium primary and secondary schools (Marati is the official language in the state of Maharastra), a computer academy for the community, a special needs school (for 1000 students) for the community, a women's vocational training school (i.e. arts & crafts training so that women can have a trade to get work) for the community ... are you sensing a trend? They have so many community development projects. Did I mention that they also have their own diary farm so that all of their children can have milk (which is very expensive here)? So our work is not complete in the slightest. We will look into beginning a continuing relationship with Mukti Mission for many years to come. They have a vision that reaches far into the future, and what a joy it was to grasp hold to that vision of theirs to serve them and serve God to our fullest. So may the work forever continue - this work of serving God's kingdom on earth. (By the way, Mukti in Hindi is salvation.)

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