India, the land of the Taj Mahal, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa of Calcutta), Tandori Chicken and 1.3 billion people. One out of every 7 people in the world are Indians.
Dorothea Shafer, Regional Field Director of the India Gospel League travelled all the way from northern New York State to speak to the Club about the League and what it is doing in India. Dorothea lived in Salem, which is in southern India for a year and half where she taught English. An interesting comment was that many students are tri-lingual speaking English, Hindi (national language) and their regional dialect.
Dorothea commented about the cultural shock of moving to India with the crowds and heavy traffic. But there was wonderful food such as curry and a pleasant climate. India with its huge population about 29 percent is under the age of 14 years and serious poverty with millions earning less than $ 1.25 a day. While there are large cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Chenna. 70 percent of the people live in the rural areas.
The India Gospel League
While the league addresses the needs of poverty and clean water. There was a broad focus on child care, education, health care and rural development. Some of the rural development programs include micro credit loans for small business, clean water wells, vocational development and literacy training. Rotary International has similar projects.
At the conclusion of the presentation, there was the realization that Rotary International’s six areas of focus and the India Gospel League have a number of similarities. Of the six areas of focus, Rotary International and the India Gospel League share almost all of them …
The faith-based league has its North American headquarters at Hudson, Ohio, USA.
Website link http://www.iglworld.org