Hyderabad - India
Hyderabad is the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It has an estimated population of 7 million making it India’s fifth-largest metropolitan area.
Around 13.48% of the population (540,000) lives below poverty line. Hyderabad is characterized by a very significant presence of urban poor with a growing urban poverty profile. Slum settlements have multiplied over decades and the living conditions have not improved. The incidence of poverty among women is higher and female-headed households constitute the poorest of the poor.
There is currently an orphanage crisis in India as intense poverty, famine, drought, natural disasters, AIDS, and malaria sweep the country. Newborn baby girls are regularly being being killed in parts of India because they are not as ‘useful’ as boys.
Originally through an on-going relationship with the Masa family and Ps Rod & Jan Best over the years, the Masa’s decided to start an orphanage for children from rural villages near Hyderabad in 2007. They now care for 17 children in a residential home within the city. This number will continue to grow as more accommodation becomes available.
Ps Masa and his two sons continue to have an amazing church-planting ministry, but they and their wives also pour their time and efforts into caring for a growing number of orphans in a needy part of the world.
Many of the orphans at Faith Children’s Home have been abandoned by their only living parent because of poverty or illness. Some are full orphans who have been found living on the street.
Future plans are the purchase of a bus to transport the children to school.
