As she read the two volume autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, she was reminded of how fortunate she was. She was a black, educated woman who was able to go to the university of her choice and become what she had always dreamed of. She and her parents left the West Indies for a better life in America.
Her world was so different from Olaudah’s. He had been kidnapped from his home in the West Indies and taken to Virginia where he was bought by a sea captain, Michael Henry Pascal, with whom he traveled widely. Olaudah received some education before he bought his freedom in 1766. He became an abolitionist, speaking out against the cruelty of British slave owners in Jamaica.
Slavery is something she was never going to experience, but she knew what it was like to be treated differently because of the colour of her skin. She learned that being educated, living in a stylish condo and driving an expensive car didn’t matter to those who didn’t see past her colour. She still had to deal with being watched or ignored or followed when in certain stores or co-workers looking away as she passed them.
Yes, she had her own issues to deal with but they paled in comparison to Olaudah who suffered cruelty and indignity at the hands of those who wanted to keep him and the other slaves in emotional and intellectual shackles. She was grateful to Olaudah for writing about the horrors of slavery. It made her more determined to work harder and achieve more. It was what drove her to pursue her Masters. Like Olaudah, there were times when she questioned her faith but she has since learned that it is during those tough, challenging times that God has proven that she has the mettle to overcome them.
Yes, she had come a long way with God’s help but there was still a long way to go. Little by little she was going to break free from the racist mentalities that would like to keep blacks shackled to the painful past of slavery.
“After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God?'” – Olaudah Equiano
Imagine you are a child and your daily routine is to get up early every morning to go and pick through trash with your mother. You and your family are “untouchables” in your society which means you are treated as outcasts, undesirables. You don’t have many options when it comes to jobs so in order to survive, you have to pick through garbage to find plastic bottles to sell. This was Asha’s reality.
Her world was tough, bleak. She spent her days trudging through streets and alleyways strewn with garbage, hungry because she left home without having any breakfast. The stench of the heaps of trash and filth assailed her nostrils as she searched for plastic items that could be sold. She sorted, graded and sold whatever she could find.
When it was time for Asha to go to school she dreaded it because she feared the rejection of her teachers and classmates. None of the children wanted to sit next to her or play with her. She alone with no friends. Asha knew why the others didn’t want to be around her. It was because she picked trash for a living. She had no choice. She was trapped in the cycle of poverty and the door to better future was barred to her. Asha wanted to learn but she was afraid to go to school.
For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope – Jeremiah 29:11
When Asha’s father heard about a Gospel for Asia supported Bridge of Hope center, he encouraged her to go. He knew that Bridge of Hope offered help to people in need, especially to those whom society considered to be the lowest of people and he knew that the Bridge of Hope Center would care for her and provide her with the things he couldn’t.
Asha showed up at the Bridge of Hope carrying a plastic bag full of school books, dressed in tattered and smelly clothes, her face dirty and unwashed. Unlike the reception she normally received at school, Asha was welcomed by the staff. They loved and cared for her. They took the time to help her to keep neat and clean. She was given a backpack to replace her makeshift book bag and then school supplies and other useful gifts.
Within a year, Asha’s life was completely transformed. She was fast learner and developed strongly in her studies. She no longer went hungry as every school day she enjoyed a meal at the center. Thanks to the staff, Asha has learned how to keep herself clean and she participates in all the activities at the center. Her Dad couldn’t be happier, “My daughter is getting her daily needs met through the Bridge of Hope center. Now she is having good food, and she is healthy now. We are very happy to see her growth. She feared to go to school, but now she is never absent from school.”
Asha no longer has to pick up trash or feel alone and rejected by teachers and other students. Instead she thrives under the love and attention she receives at the Bridge of Hope center and is excelling at school. The door that society had barred her from because of her background, God cleared through Bridge of Hope. Hope for a better future was now in her grasp. No more trading plastic bottles. No more rummaging through garbage to maintain the family because her father was paralyzed and couldn’t provide for them.
You can help other children like Asha to have a better life, a bright future by supporting the Bridge of Hope centre. Bridge of Hope is reaching out to the hopeless and rejected “through education, daily meals, character-building activities, lessons on good hygiene, and by setting positive examples of love and good morals. There is a bridge for these children that gives them a chance to rise above the cycle of hopelessness they have always known.”
I first heard of the Bridge of Hope program when I became a blogger for the Gospel of Asia Ministry. I have read stories of children whose lives seemed hopeless until they were enrolled in this program where they were given a chance for a better future. They were provided with daily meals, regular medical check-ups and a quality education so that one day they would be able to get good jobs and provide for themselves and their families. And most importantly, they learned about Jesus.
One day an illiterate man went to the Bridge of Hope centre with a strange request. Would the staff there send the “medical doctor named Jesus” to help his sick wife? how did this man know that Jesus could heal the sick? He learned this from a little boy named Nibun, a first-grader. Nibun listened as his teachers talked about Jesus healing the sick, delivering people from evil spirits and feeding the hungry. It was Nibun’s father who came with the strange request. It was Nibun’s mother who was sick.
The family was poor. They lived in a mud hut and couldn’t afford to go to a hospital. Most of the doctors were miles away. It was too long of a trek on a dirt path through the woods, especially for a sick person. Nibun’s mother was very ill. His father tried to do everything he could. He cried out to his gods to help her but she got worse until she became critical. It was then that Nibun told his father about Jesus, but the man thought that there was a doctor with that name working at the Bridge of Hope centre.
The staff at the centre responded to the father’s desperate request and went with him to his home. They talked to the family about Jesus and His love, sacrifice and power to heal. Then, they laid hands on the woman and prayed to God to heal her. And He did. The news soon spread throughout the small village and several people came to know the Lord that week and the following week more families placed their faith in Jesus. Families are attending a local church where they are growing in God’s grace and increasing their knowledge of Jesus.
Many lives were changed because of a little boy who learned about Jesus at the Bridge of Hope centre and believed that He could heal his mother. This program not only brings hope to children like Nibun but it transforms communities. It brings the light of God’s love and the hope found only in Jesus Christ to many people.
[T]he more I traveled and met with girls and learned from experts about this issue, the more I realized that the barrier to girls’ education isn’t just resources. It’s also about attitudes and beliefs – the belief that girls simply aren’t worthy of an education; that women should have no role outside the home; that their bodies aren’t their own, their minds don’t really matter, and their voices simply shouldn’t be heard – First Lady Michelle Obama
Last night, I watched the CNN Documentary: We Will Rise with First Lady Michelle Obama and was inspired and moved when I heard the stories of the girls in Liberia and Morocco who were to meet her. It made me think of how some of our children take education for granted. These girls long to be in a classroom, learning but sadly, they are denied this because of child marriage, pregnancy and poverty. If a family has a boy and a girl, the boy will go to school while the girl stays at home. And there’s belief that girls belong at home not in schools. Those who are fortunate to get an education have to walk a long way to school in areas that are not safe.
One girl lived with her uncle and aunt because her mother wanted her to have an education. She worked hard, keeping the home, taking care of her cousins before going to school. At night, from 9-11pm she studied her books using a flashlight to see in the dark room while everyone else was asleep. Her education helped to save her uncle’s life.
When the Ebola broke out in Liberia, she recognized that her uncle had the symptoms of the disease. At first he dismissed what she was saying because she was a girl but she insisted and he was quarantined and then nursed back to health. She had learned the symptoms in her Biology class. Her favorite subject is Science. Perhaps, one day she will become a scientist. Another girl dreamed of being a journalist while another wanted to be an engineer, a discipline that was predominantly male. You can watch her story here.
In Morocco, girls were missing school for five days. Meryl Streep discovered why. Here’s the clip.
Girls need to know that they are valued and that they deserve to have an education. Educating a girl will change not only her life but the lives of many. Take action today and sign the petition for more girls to receive education. Help their dreams to become reality. Education is key to success, quality life and opens the door to so many opportunities. No one should be denied a basic right such as education. Take the pledge and give a girl the opportunity to have an education. TOGETHER, WE CAN LET GIRLS LEARN!
We’re in this together. Because these girls are our girls. They are us. They each have the spark of something extraordinary inside of them just like our daughters – and our sons – and their fate is very much our responsibility – First Lady Michelle Obama
More than 50 million people in India suffer from a mental illness. In 2011, India recorded the highest rate of major depression in the world at 36 per cent. According to doctors, roughly 10 per cent of India’s population suffers from depression – MGMH
Women with mental illness are treated as less than human. They are dumped, abandoned and abused. If there are any signs of mental illness, a woman is put in a mental hospital with no chance of getting out. Men can go back home while women are there for life. In the following video, we meet a woman whose husband had her institutionalized although she had no history of mental illness. Here’s a story of a mentally ill woman whose husband built a case against her so that he could get custody of their children after divorcing her.
It is not surprising that women suffer from depression at higher rates than men. They have to deal with gender inequality, violence, lack of paid employment, lack of education, excessive spousal alcohol use and poverty. Mothers are blamed for the birth of a female child and many face pressure to have male children. Women are diagnosed with schizophrenia later in life, oftentimes, following the birth of their children. The children are often removed from the ill mother’s care and this results in further distress for her. Indian women have higher rates of suicide than women in most developed countries and a higher rate of suicide compared to men in India. Depression is one of the most common reasons for suicide among Indian women.
Mental health in India carries with it a stigma, especially if the person suffering from mental illness is a woman. According to MGMH (Movement for Global Mental Health), in rural India, it is common to see people taking their children to temples and faith-healers instead of hospitals and doctors, especially in cases of mental health. Mental health was something that was talked about in hushed tones. Thankfully, it is no longer being swept under the rug. People are coming forward. Deepika Padukone stunned her fans last year when she admitted that she suffered from anxiety and depression.
At the time the news broke, she was one of the most sought after actresses in Bollywood. It took tremendous courage for her to disclose her illness, especially since people diagnosed with mental illness face discrimination. Deepika has since launched the Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness about mental health issues and as a result many celebrities were inspired to come out in the open and address the need to talk about mental health. Varun Dhawan admitted that he was depressed during the making of Badlapur and Honey Singh revealed that he has been undergoing therapy for bipolar disorder.
Sadly, those living with mental illness are victims of a cruel fate. They are often locked away and stripped of their basic human rights in state-run institutions that are under-staffed. In an article, titled Mentally Ill Suffer a Horrible Fate in India posted on the site for Deutsche Welle (DW), most state run mental hospitals are in deplorable conditions. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reported that out of the 43 government mental hospitals in India, less than half a dozen are in a “livable” condition”.
There are doctors in charge of these hospitals who have no business being there. “These doctors don’t understand the intricacies of a psychiatric illnesses and the comprehensive care the patients require,” said a psychiatrist working in a state-run mental hospital in Uttar Pradesh.
And in the midst of the crisis of hospitals not providing the conditions and care the patients need, are quack healers who are profiting from this. According to a study by Dr. Shiv Gautam, former superintendent of Jaipur Mental Hospital, 68 per cent of the mentally ill are taken to faith healers before a psychiatrist. “The reason, besides superstition, is that most general medicine doctors fail to diagnose psychiatric illness,” Gautam said. “A mentally ill patient displays symptoms which superstitious people believe are paranormal,” he added. “Such patients are tortured, chained and used for extracting money from their families.” Hema, who was suffering from Schizophrenia was believed to have an evil spirit. Her family took her to Datar Sharif Dargah where she spent a year locked up. It wasn’t until her condition deteriorated that she was brought to Dr. Gautam. In 15 days, she began to improve and a month later she was normal.
In other cases, the mentally ill are subjected to one of these horrific ordeals: whipping, caning, inhaling burnt chili smoke, having their eyes smeared with chili paste or having their eyes branded with red, hot coins. There are laws banning this practice, however, many dargahs and temples keep the patients chained. Some of them spend the rest of their lives like this. In 2001, 26 patients perished in a fire at a dargah in a coastal village because they couldn’t escape the blaze since they were chained. What a horrific and senseless tragedy.
Families of mentally ill people opt for dumping them. This means that they are dumped into an asylum where the conditions are not fit for a human. When an illegal asylum was raided, they found thirty-five men and six boys living in inhuman conditions. The stench from their unwashed bodies and the excrement drove neighbors to alert the health department. Naked and chained inmates were discovered, dumped there by their families after they paid the asylum owner. Some of these poor souls were found crawling in their excrement, some even consuming it. On their bodies were marks of torture. Some had surgical scars on their backs, leading to allegations that the asylum had links to kidney theft. 78 patients had entered the asylum but only 41 were found during the raid.
Other patients are dumped in jungles or forests ranges. Their families pay lorry drivers to drop them. Women and children are among these victims and in some cases, the females are raped by the drivers before being dumped. Social activist Murugan S. who has rescued countless mentally ill people from the streets, cautions us not to judge the families by calling them cruel. Instead we are to examine what forced them to take such extreme measures. He believes that system needs to change.
Part of the solution is raising awareness. The suffering of the mentally ill has been brought to our attention. It is out in the open. The next thing that needs to be done is to show the superstitious and fearful society that mental illness is nothing to run away from or to be ashamed of. The person suffering from mental illness needs love, support and most importantly, proper care so that he or she can live a normal life.
The government needs to put something place to ensure that patients are placed in reputable, sanitary facilities that will provide the care that they need and to ban the operation of illegal asylums and the practice of dumping. Quack healers should be banned from profiting from other people’s suffering. Husbands should not be allowed to institutionalize their wives if there is no record that they have mental illness.
No one wants to be mentally ill but it is a reality for many people and what they need is to know that they have a platform where they can talk about what is happening with them. Here in Canada, we have Bell Let’s Talk, a wide-reaching, multi-year program designed to break the silence around mental illness and support mental health all across the country. It has done so much to fight the stigma of mental illness and encourage people to get involved in educating themselves and others.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that something will be put in place in India so that attitudes toward mental illness would change and those suffering from it will have a platform where they would not be judged, dumped, abandoned or discriminated but supported and be treated with dignity and open minds. In the meantime, let’s keep talking and raising awareness.
Talking is the best way to start breaking down the barriers associated with mental illness – Bell, Let’s Talk
Role model is not the title they like to give me… (but) I think I can inspire a lot of young women to be themselves and that is half the battle.” She added: “The minute you learn to love yourself, you would not want to be anyone else.
On Friday, April 1, singer Rihanna was honored at the BET Black Girls Rock 2016 show. As the camera panned on her, you could see the emotion on her face. To the sound of thunderous clapping and cheers she made her way to the stage. http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1” target=”_blank”>Watch her acceptance speech.
I learned a couple of things about Rihanna. She created the Believe Foundation in 2006. The foundation helps and protects children with terminal and disadvantaged disease worldwide. In 2012 she founded the Clara Lionel Foundation in honor of her grandparents Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. The foundation grants fund efforts promoting health, education, arts and culture globally. Read more about her charitable work here.
And she recently made history as the first black woman to front a Dior campaign.
Notes to Women congratulate Rihanna on her much deserved Rock Star award. She truly rocks because she is teaching young black girls to have a positive self-image, something that many girls struggle with. Wouldn’t it be great if one day several of those girls who were watching her as she gave her speech receive their own Black Girls Rock award? Nothing is impossible. As Rihanna said, God put each of us here for a purpose. When the time is right, He will reveal it to us.
