One Big Family

In line with our vision:

“A hunger and conflict-free world 
  with the bond of one family among all people.”

we strive to bring a strong sense of family to the children who have come from ruptured family situations.  The children themselves chose the name Apna Ghar for our centres.  Apna Ghar simply means Our Home.

What’s in a Surname?

Many of the children have no surname.  They have been without family from such a young age that they never really knew their surname or their date of birth.  Again, it was the children who got to choose a surname, and they chose Manas, which translated from Hindi means Human.  In India, one’s surname defines one’s caste, so by using a totally new surname which has no caste history, the children are literally rejecting and bypassing the caste system.

Most of the children in the centres now use the surname Manas.

An Anecdote

I first met a group of six children from one of the CoME centres on a car trip from Lucknow to Gorakhpur.  I decided to break the ice by asking each one of them their name.

“Nom?” I asked the first one.  He replied “Prateek Manas”.
“Pleased to meet you, Prateek” I said, shaking his hand.

The next one introduced himself as “Suresh Manas”.
“Oh, you are brothers”, I said, pointing to one then the other.
“Yes”, they nodded.

The third? “Khushboo Manas”.

Wow!  What a coincidence that I’d started with the very three (out of the six) who just happened to be siblings.

The fourth, who looked absolutely nothing like the first three, said:
“We are all brothers and sisters”, and the penny finally dropped for me.

This is their family, and of course, they are all brothers and sisters. They have the same surname to prove it, and they looked so proud of the fact.  This is just one small part of the magic being created at Children of Mother Earth.

We like to keep things simple…

Continue by reading the Children’s Stories or their Positive Outcomes.