Goals
The India Village Poverty Relief Fund supports sustainable social justice projects tailored to improving the lives of impoverished villagers in India. Our goal is to enable the marginalized to have control over their lives.
Photo courtsey Mr. Rick Westhead
Our objectives are:
To provide education and employment training for impoverished villagers in need.
To provide sewing machines and tools to enable villagers to raise their standard of living.
To relieve poverty in India by providing food and other basic supplies to persons in need.
To improve the quality of drinking water by constructing wells & water treatment and
irrigation & sewage treatment systems.
To provide health care services to villagers in need.
History
The work of the India Village Poverty Relief Fund evolved out of a long-lasting affiliation with villagers in the state of Punjab, India. During the 1960's Crystle Mazurek spent four years as a child in the area while her parents worked as lay missionaries. In 2001, she returned and was deeply moved by the plight of the villagers.
Photo courtsey Mr. Rick Westhead
Crystle returned to Canada and formed the India Village Poverty Relief Fund to fund projects such as purchasing buffalo, building a latrine, aiding widows and poor families, buying sewing machines, bicycles and a small truck, investing in a local store and providing health and dental care. She returns regularly to check up on the work and follow its progress.
In 2004, Crystle lived in a remote rural village to learn first-hand what the needs of the villagers are. The fund, now ten years old, finances projects that enable impoverished villagers to earn an income in order to support their families and thereby improve their standard of living.
Statistics
Currently sponsoring over 350 students ranging from Junior Kindergarten up to College and University.
Work closely with thirty-eight different schools.
Five sewing centers has expanded to five in remote rural areas where 25 young women per center are trained over a six-month period.
Photo courtsey Mr. Rick Westhead
Six midwives have recently graduated from the School of Nursing in Jalandhar and have returned to their villages to work with the local women.
Purchased a cow and 80 chickens for the orphanage. The cow has since had a calf and is pregnant with another.
Current annual budget is $35,000
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Latest Photos from India March 2012
