Orphans Faith Home
History of the Orphans Faith Home
Like so many impoverished Hindu children born into the Dalit (Untouchable) caste, Parishudha Babu Gadelli faced a bleak future. As he still vividly recalls, "My parents left me in the street because of no food to feed me. Missionaries from Finland [who] had come to our country, to our village, found me crying for food. They took me to their orphanage and raised me for 16 years with food, clothes, education and with the Word of God."
Babu, as he is known, accepted Jesus as a teenager, and in the 10th grade decided to dedicate his life to serving God. After graduation from the Hindustan Bible Institute in Chennai (then Madras) in 1971, Pastor Babu was married to a young Christian woman named Vijayasree. They moved from Chennai to the state of Andhra Pradesh. In 1972, they began taking local orphaned children into their own home as they could.
Soon they realized that what they wanted to do was to start a small orphanage so that they could provide the same kind of care to orphans that Babu himself had received. Construction on the Orphans Faith Home (OFH) began in 1981. Located behind the couple's modest home, this first orphanage was a simple, two-room structure. As the children grew, Pastor Babu also saw the need to provide them with the education not available to underprivileged children in India. In 1982, the couple started a small elementary school where they themselves taught local village children on chalkboard slates. An American couple and their church decided to support the Orphans Faith Home by establishing a child sponsorship program. This sponsorship program eventually grew into what would become India Partners! (Read about India Partners' history.)
Programs
The sponsorship program helped OFH to grow in size. As it grew, it also increased the number of ways it served its community. Today, in addition to raising and educating over 200 orphans and other needy children, the Orphans Faith Home
- supports local school teachers, widows and pastors
- has built and operates four Christian schools in the area
- has built and staffs a local medical clinic
- provides seamstress apprenticeships and other vocational training
- has built and operates inland fisheries
- provides clean drinking water in poor neighborhoods
- rural village development
- trains and supports pastors, and builds churches in surrounding villages
- sponsors special events, such as the annual Christmas for Street Children
- provides disaster relief to outlying villages in the event of a cyclone
OFH operates these programs with the help of India Partners' financial and prayer support. We invite you to join those whose support sustains OFH's programs, described here.
Sponsorships
You can sponsor a child, school teacher, widow and/or pastor. To become a sponsor now, or for more information, click here.
Schools
The Stephen School, started by Babu and Vijayasree in 1982, has grown to serve 300 students. Since 1982, through the support of India Partners, OFH has built and staffed the 150-student Karanumaya ("Mercy") School, the 100-student Hample Elementary School (named in honor of India Partners' Executive Director Brent Hample and family), and the 150-student Galilee High School. These Christian schools serve all needy children, regardless of their faith or caste.
Medical Clinic
The Dhya ("Grace") Health Center, located on the OFH campus, meets the basic health needs of local residents as well as the orphanage's children. The clinic is staffed by an OFH doctor.
Vocational Training
OFH's Ashajothi ("Joy") Sewing Center gives underprivileged women the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. Dozens of women have graduated and found gainful employment as a result of this outreach to local women.
Fisheries
Based on the work of a graduate business student who had also been an early OFH child sponsor (see OFH history, above), OFH built a self-sustaining fishery in 1990. The first harvest was netted in 1996. To this day, the Krupa ("Grace") Fishery and other fisheries built since then provide OFH children with a quality source of protein, as well as jobs and income to the OFH community.
Drinking Water
Poor neighborhoods have limited access to safe, clean drinking water. OFH operates a water tanker which travels through local poor neighborhoods, providing this most basic of necessities to thousands of people.
Rural Village Development
OFH has built a community center in a remote, isolated village located on a large river island. The center is being used as an elementary school, a vocational training center and a church for the 1,200 local residents.
Pastor and Church Support
OFH trains pastors and erects church buildings in small villages in the area. The church buildings are typically used midweek for vocational training. Adjoining the church building is a self-sufficiency project: garden, fish pond, or commercial shop, which enables the village pastor to earn a living.
Special Events
Each December, the Orphans Faith Home invites neighborhood children to a festive Christmas party. Children flock to OFH by the hundreds. At the party, the children receive snacks, small gifts, and the opportunity to hear a story about the birth of Jesus.
Disaster Relief
Cyclones periodically flood low-lying areas around the Orphans Faith Home (which is located less than ten miles from the sea). The tsunami of 2004 ravished the area, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless. Whatever the catastrophe, OFH provides disaster relief with the help of your generous support.
