Please Read This Story From Daniel

I stopped this man near a market place and talked to him. He has 5 children, none of which go to school. He says that he earns about $1 a day and feeds his children with that. He comes from an area of Java where poor parents often sell their daughters into marriage at an early age to keep from having to feed them.

He goes many different places in the city in search of plastics, paper or metals and he usually takes his wife and children with him to help.

I asked him if he ever goes through our area and he said he does, so I invited him to visit us. He has one teenager but the rest are not yet 10 years of age.

I asked him about sending his children to school and letting me pay the bill and he said there were 10 families near him in the garbage dump in his same condition. We could spend our whole budget on the children in this one area and there are more than 20 children living in these conditions.

When my youngest daughter was 11, I met a girl that had recently come from West Java. She was also 11. She worked for my mom. I asked her not to work but to go to school. She had been asked by her family to marry so she would not be a burden to the family. She refused. When my sister-in-law heard me encouraging her to attend school, she decided to help. After lots of encouragement, the girl decided to attend school with our support and financial aid. Now she has become a dental assistant passing her exams just this year. Her brother is still a carpenter with no education.

We can make a difference! Please help us. 50 cents a day will make a big difference in the lives of these children and their families.