Jay and Jena Vee Smith: Delivering Hygiene Kits to Young Women's Shelter-India

One of the responsibilities of our Country Welfare Missionaries is to coordinate humanitarian projects that they have initiated to help the poor and needy in their country. One of the favorite activities that provides an opportunity for church members to serve their fellowmen is to prepare hygiene kits and deliver them to those who could use them. These kits include such items as soap, combs, shampoo, tooth brushes and toothpaste, deodorant, lotion and other such items. The Bangalore District Young Adults assembled 800 of these kits recently. The items were placed into a zippered plastic bag with the name of the Church and a place for the recipent to place their name in a plastic holder.

On our 2nd day in India, we went to the 2nd Ward Building to load hygiene kits for a young woman’s shelter in Magadee, a village outside of Bangalore. The girls were sitting on the floor in a circle to greet us. They then served us lunch Indian style. We washed our right hands as a woman brought a pitcher and a wash basin. We had a plate and they brought us the food. We had a ball of purplish food called Ragiball. It was made of a grain, ragi, and was in texture something like Hawaiian poi. We were instructed by Krishnar to pinch off a piece of it, roll it in a ball, and swallow it whole. No chewing. I didn’t think it had any taste, but it seems to be a popular food. We also had a cabbage type salad, a rice and corn mixture vegetable, and some chicken pieces in a curry sauce. We ended with a sweet dessert. No utensils. Everything was eaten with our right hand. The girls then changed positions and sat in rows on each side of the hall. We were greeted by those in charge with translation from Brother Krishnar. They said their prayers in unison for us and then sang and danced some numbers. The Fairbanks and us both spoke briefly and thanked them for their bright smiles. I taught them about the word “wow” as I told them how much they impressed us.

After more dancing, both couples even got up and did a dance for them. The music wasn’t like a waltz, but we tried doing a fast waltz step. They got a kick out of it. We had noise on the tin roof during our talks that turned out to be wild monkeys. I saw one through the open window as it clambered down. We then opened the boxes and presented the girls with a personal hygiene kit.They came up one by one. We shook their hands as they came by. We took lots of pictures including a group picture under the banner. After the group picture, the girls brought up notebooks and paper for us to autograph our names for them. We each included a little message of hope. Brother Krishnar taught them some hygiene lessons before the kits were handed out. We were profusely thanked for this gift. We left with many fond memories of young women who had very little of worldly goods, but still radiated the spirit of love. Several asked us to pray for them.

We picked up our translator, Brother Krishnar, and we all got into the van for a two and a half hour trip to the shelter. We enjoyed the various parts of Bangalore as we headed for the country side. We were amazed at how rapidly we were in a very rural setting.

We were each given beautiful flower leis after we were settled in our chairs.

We arrived at the shelter and were greeted by 40 young women, aged 6-18, who had been rescued from the streets to stay in this shelter. They went to a nearby school and stayed at night in the two room building that we entered. They had a large banner on the wall with pictures of Elder and Sister FairBanks and Brother Krishnar with a welcome to Elder and Sister Jay Smith. We sat in front under the banner and the girls unloaded the van with the boxes of hygiene kits and sanitary napkins