MEDICAL CLINIC

Quality medical care is out of the budget for a majority of the families living in the areas where Sahayak Hath works. The team, which includes Suman John, a local doctor, and the staff, provides individualized medical care for each patient and seeks to provide the appropriate medications and vitamins. The medical clinic is open 3 days a week from 2-3 p.m. The team treats an average of 35-45 patients each week. Sahayak Hath also hosts four medical camps a month in the local areas. They see anywhere from 150-300 people during the day-long camps.

MEDICAL CLINIC

Quality medical care is out of the budget for a majority of the families living in the areas where Sahayak Hath works. The team, which includes Suman John, a local doctor, and the staff, provides individualized medical care for each patient and seeks to provide the appropriate medications and vitamins. The medical clinic is open 3 days a week from 2-3 p.m. The team treats an average of 35-45 patients each week. Sahayak Hath also hosts four medical camps a month in the local areas. They see anywhere from 150-300 people during the day-long camps.

COUNSELLING

Many of the families in the area make local brews to earn money. This has led to an epidemic of addiction in the community. Sahayak Hath offers counselling for teenage boys, between the ages of 15-20, Monday through Wednesday from 8-10pm. Many of the youth that attend are addicts themselves, not just the children of addicts. The staff begins by analyzing where each youth is and then helps them detox. Then they give them the skills, support, and options needed to break out of the cycle of addiction. For many youth this has been an enlightening process.

MAHIMA SWEET HOME

Being a widow in India carries a lot of stigma, often leading to a very lonely life. All the female staff at Sahayak Hath are widows, so they know this pain personally. With this in mind they started a once-a-week support meeting for widows. The women meet to share chai and snacks, play games, and talk about how they feel and their experiences as widows, and finally pray for each other. This group offers much needed support, care, and encouragement for all the women involved.

COMPUTER CLASSES

One of the first boys that Sahayak Hath helped through school has returned to the ministry after completing a computer-training course. In order to give back and share what he has learned, he teaches a 6-week course from Monday through Friday. The students, ages 10-36, learn the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Paint in five, 1-hour batches. They work in teams of two on the four computers in the study lab.

TAILORING CLASSES

The classes, offered Monday through Friday from 1-4 p.m, train women in the basics of designing and stitching clothing. The one year course gives the women the skills they need to start their own tailoring businesses, giving them the chance to live with less financial stress. After the course is completed they get an official course certificate with which they can go to the local government office and receive a free sewing machine. Today there are women running their own self-supporting tailoring businesses, mainly working from their own homes.

BEAUTY PARLOUR

Sangeeta, one of the Sahayak Hath staff, runs the newly founded training program. After she completed a beauty parlour course, she wanted to use her training to equip other women with marketable job skills. The six-month course will train the ladies in eyebrow threading, waxing, facials, pedicure and manicure, and other beauty basics. At the end of the course they will be able to train others or start their own beauty parlours from their homes. The staff will also provide them with basic business skills in budgeting and information about how to apply for start up loans.

TUTIONS

Monday through Friday in three different batches for 1½ hours each, the staff faithfully offer tuitions, check homework, give extra help, and provide nutritional snacks, along with teaching Bible stories, songs, games and life skills to an average of 165 children from the locality. The staff of Sahayak Hath desire to see the children succeed in their studies, which will open up many new opportunities for them in the future.

Youth With A Mission is a global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups, and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced “WHY-wham”), we unite in a common purpose to know God and to make Him known.

Back when we began in 1960, our main focus was to get youth involved in missions. Today, we still focus on youth, and we also involve people aged 8 to 80. We currently work in more than 1,100 locations in over 180 countries, with a staff of over 18,000.

One of the joys of participating in YWAM is to work with people from many nations. YWAM’s staff (known as “YWAMers”) come from over 130 countries, including places like Indonesia, Nepal, Mozambique, and Colombia.

Visit www.ywampune.org to know more about ministries in YWAM Pune.

Visit www.ywam.org to know more about YWAM international.

Suman John founded Sahayak Hath in 1992, not long after she joined Youth With A Mission. Sahayak Hath means “helping hands” in Hindi, and that is exactly what she wanted to be for the poor and destitute in Pune, Maharashtra, India. After she married E.J. John in 1995, they continued the work together, expanding projects to meet the community development needs of the people living in the slum areas they were serving. In 2008, E.J. passed away very suddenly. Despite feeling the extreme pain of the loss, Suman has persevered in service to the poor and needy. Today, she and ten staff members serve the people in a variety of ways through this ministry of YWAM India in the Bhatnagar area of Pimpri, Pune, India.

Visit www.ywampune.org to know more about ministries in YWAM Pune.