Cricket in support of women’s cause in India

ST LOUIS: O’ Felan Cricket Club in St Louis MO conducted a charity tournament on the weekend of August 17 to celebrate India’s 66th Independence Day.

Eight teams participated in this event and the contributions exceeded $2700. All proceeds from the event will go to an orphanage in India. With the remarkable success of the event, OFCL plans to conduct a charity tournament every year and support a great cause in India.

US wide Financials sponsored the prize money and the awards for the event. This with several other individual contributions helped raise this money in a short time.

Following are the details of the orphanage that OFCL will be supporting with the proceedings collected this year.
Sishu Griha is an orphanage where new born abandoned babies (all girls) are brought in, nurtured for a year and then sent to other orphanages or given for adoption. In the Adivasi and other tribal communities, girl babies are murdered using crude techniques or are abandoned on the roadside, in trash cans or even in graveyards as soon as they are born. Their crime? Being born girls.

The Government has begun to monitor this activity by forming a team of Anganwadi women. These women are designated to monitor the number of women expecting babies, monitor their due dates and check if the babies are safe and healthy after birth. Also, due to the counseling and opening up of Sishu Griha centers, the girl babies are now being left in cradles that are placed outside the orphanages. Most abandoned babies are very undernourished and sick.

Sishu Griha centers have been opened all across the state of Andhra Pradesh, but the most affected areas are the ones that have a heavy tribal population.

While these centers are run by the government, they receive so meager a grant that there is not enough food or a place to sleep or clothes for these babies. With help from several generous and kind hearted people, things are improving

Statistics for the Centers OFCL supports:
Number of Cradles: Devarkonda Center: 10 cradles Nalgonda Center: 15 cradles and 60 orphan kids
If more kids are brought in, these babies are turned away due to regulations from the government. OFCL is working with the government to increase the limitation, since the babies being turned away are in danger.
Grant from the Government is inadequate and support from NGOs and individuals has become a necessity.

Ashwin Patel