India
We support education and healthcare for marginalized children living in slums.
Amistad supports children’s education and health. Over the years, we’ve supported several schools and programs for children, starting in the 1990s when we began helping Little Stars School in Varanasi, India, and Sweet Home Orphanage in Narsapur, South India.
In 2003 we began to focus most of our India support toward health and education for the children of beggars, lepers, sex workers and other socially outcast communities. In 2005 we helped to open the Soma Home for school-age daughters of sex workers in the red-light district of Kolkata under the direction of New Light, a community-based non-profit for the care and education of the children of sex workers. In the early 2000’s we began our on-going support of Buddha’s Smile School (BSS).
Buddha’s Smile School
Buddha’s Smile School is a tuition-free elementary school for 220 Dalit (untouchable caste) children in Varanasi, U.P., India. They welcome students who would otherwise be unable to attend school. Most are from beggar or garbage-collecting families who live in humble rag and plastic shanties.
In 2016 Amistad built a daycare center for the toddler siblings of students who had been missing classes in order to care for them while their mothers worked. Now, the older children can bring their young siblings to the care center while they attend Buddha’s Smile School.
The BSS children, often victims of feral dog bites, burns, and violence, are provided medical care.
