Anticipation

The anticipation of my Indian summer is killing me.  I am so excited for this adventure and just wish I could go right now.  I saw this video today on Rising Star's Facebook page and had to share it.  This is amazing, and look at how beautiful that campus is.  I can't wait!

Getting Ready

I'm currently preparing for my upcoming summer in India, and decided to create this blog to help me communicate with family and friends while I'm there.

I'm going to India for three months as a long term volunteer for Rising Star Outreach.  RSO is an incredible and inspirational organization that works with leprosy colonies in India.  I can't even begin to describe the tremendous good done by this organization, so I'm going to try to summarize.  

Rising Star Outreach is a testament to the strength and beauty that can arise from true tragedy.  It was founded in 2002 by an LDS woman named Becky Douglas.  Becky's daughter, Amber, lost her battle with bipolar disorder and took her own life while away at college.  As Becky was sorting through Amber's things, she was surprised to discover Amber had been making monthly donations to an orphanage in India. Becky decided to go to India to gain a better understanding of the orphanage.  What struck her about the trip, however, was the startlingly horrific conditions of many of the beggars she encountered on the streets.  She was astounded by their gaping wounds and missing limbs, and found herself haunted by the realization that the cause of their afflictions was a disease she thought no longer existed in the modern world--leprosy. 

When Becky returned to America, she decided she had to do something to help the people she had seen in India.  She called together four of her friends and, around her kitchen table, created Rising Star Outreach.  It started as a small orphanage with 27 children in a house in the small southeast-Indian city of Chennai.  With the help of Padma Venkataraman, the daughter of a former president of India, Rising Star Outreach has become a great contributor in the fight against leprosy.  It now boasts hostels for over 200 children that live on campus, a volunteer house, a fully functioning school, a mobile medical unit, and a micro-lending program to help the colonies become self-sufficient. 

This organization is truly astounding.  They have been able to accomplish so many amazing things and expand exponentially in less than 10 years. If you would like to know more about the organization you can visit their website here, read an article in LDS Living here, or watch an incredible and emotional documentary about the foundation here.

So, this summer, I will be living on the Rising Star campus in India.  It is about 2.5 hours outside of Chennai in southeast India near a village called Thottanaval.  I am an elementary education major, and I will be working mostly in the school doing many different things.  I am told I will also have the opportunity to participate in many other projects in the colonies and surrounding area as well.  I am both excited and nervous about this adventure and am preparing myself to rise up to the challenges and opportunities I will encounter.

I will try to live by the words of Becky Douglas, "Once you have seen, you own the responsibility to do."